As soon as Harper pulled into the driveway, Nathalie burst out the front door, running toward them. That was a good sign. Sometimes when they came she would just sit in her room, crying quietly the entire time.
“My girls are here!” Nathalie clapped her hands together, barely containing herself as they got out of the car. “I told them you were coming today!”
Nathalie threw her arms around Harper, squeezing her so tightly it hurt. When Gemma came around the car, Nathalie pulled her into the embrace, holding them uncomfortably close.
“I’m so glad my girls are here,” Nathalie murmured. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you.”
“We’re glad to see you, too,” Gemma said, once she’d pulled herself free from Nathalie’s hug. “But we were here just last week.”
“Were you really?” Nathalie narrowed her eyes and looked over the girls, as if she didn’t quite believe them.
“Yes, we visit you every Saturday,” Harper reminded her.
Nathalie’s brow furrowed in confusion, and Harper held her breath, wondering if she’d done the right thing by correcting her mom. When she was confused or frustrated, Nathalie’s temper had a tendency to get the best of her.
“You look really nice today,” Gemma said, rushing to change the subject.
“Do I?” Nathalie looked down at her Justin Bieber T-shirt and smiled. “I do love Justin.”
While Harper had taken more after their father, Gemma had gotten her looks from Nathalie. She was slender and beautiful, looking more like a model than a mother. She kept her brown hair long, covering the scars etched on her scalp from the accident. A few locks had been put in narrow braids, and a strand in her bangs had been strung with hot pink beads.
“You both look so good!” Nathalie admired her daughters and touched Gemma’s bare arm. “You’re so tan! How do you get so tan?”
“I spend a lot of time in the water,” Gemma said.
“Right, right, right.” Nathalie closed her eyes and rubbed her temple. “You’re a swimmer.”
“I am.” Gemma smiled and nodded, proud of her mother for remembering something she’d told her a thousand times before.
“Well, come in!” Nathalie erased the pained expression from her face and gestured toward the house. “I told them you were coming today, so they let me make cookies! We should eat them while they’re still warm.”
She looped her arm around Gemma’s shoulders, walking with her into the house. The staff greeted them, and by now they knew more about Gemma’s and Harper’s lives than Nathalie did.
Not that Nathalie didn’t try to learn about her daughters. She just couldn’t remember.
Nathalie claimed she’d made the cookies, but the Chips Ahoy! wrapper sat right next to the plate that she’d dumped them on. She did that a lot, for reasons Harper didn’t completely understand. Nathalie would lie about little things, making claims that Harper and Gemma knew weren’t true.
At first they’d called her on it. Harper would calmly explain why they knew it wasn’t true, but Nathalie would get irate when caught in a lie. She’d once thrown a glass at Gemma. It missed her but had shattered against the wall and cut Gemma’s ankle.
So now they simply smiled and ate the cookies when Nathalie talked about how she’d made them. She grabbed the plate of cookies and led the girls back to her bedroom.
“It’s so much better in here,” Nathalie said, shutting the door behind them. “Without people watching over us.”
Nathalie sat back on her narrow twin bed, and Gemma sat next to her. Harper stayed standing, never feeling quite comfortable in her mother’s room.
Posters covered the wall—mostly of Justin Bieber, Nathalie’s current favorite—but there was also a poster for the last Harry Potter movie and one of a puppy cuddling with a duck. Stuffed animals littered the bed, and the clothes overflowing the hamper had more color and glitter than the average adult wardrobe.
“Do you guys want to listen to music?” Nathalie asked. Before either of them could answer, she jumped off the bed and went over to her stereo. “I just got some new CDs. What do you like to listen to? I have everything.”
“Whatever you want is fine,” Gemma said. “We came here to visit you.”
“You guys can pick something.” Nathalie smiled, but there was something sad about it. “They won’t let me listen to it too loud, but we can still listen to it softly.”
“Justin Bieber?” Harper suggested, not because she wanted to hear it, but because she knew it was something Nathalie would have.
“He’s the best, isn’t he?” Nathalie actually squealed when she hit play and music came out of the speakers.
She hopped on the bed next to Gemma, making the cookies bounce off the plate. Gemma picked them up, arranging them the same way her mother had had them, but Nathalie didn’t even notice.
“So, Mom, how are things going?” Harper asked.
“Same old.” Nathalie shrugged. “I wish I lived with you guys.”
“I know,” Harper said. “But you know it’s best for you here.”