Audrey’s eyes fill with tears. “What are you saying? I can’t go? Everyone at school will laugh at me if I have to say no now. Everyone else is dating. Why do you guys still treat me like I’m a baby?”
“Hold on a second.” My voice is shaking. “That’s not what we’re saying.”
“Yes, it is,” Rachel says firmly and John gives her an annoyed look, probably wondering why Casey is taking such a vested interest in his children all of a sudden.
I look at the tears streaming down Audrey’s face and my heart breaks for her. I know I have one chance to make this right. “Listen, everyone calm down. John, I’m truly sorry. I was wrong to make this decision without you.”
He seems shocked by my apology. “Thank you for saying that.” The frown on his face softens.
“But here’s the thing,” I continue. “When we made that decision Audrey was only . . .” I pause, unsure.
“Eleven.” Audrey fills in the blank for me.
“Right, she was eleven. We had no idea the mature, responsible woman she would be at sixteen.” I smile at her and she wipes another tear away and smiles back, a look of pride washing over her face. “So who says we can’t reevaluate? She’s right, all the other girls her age are dating.”
“Not all of them,” Rachel chimes in.
“All of them,” I push back. I look over at John, surprised to see him intently listening. “What if we set some strict ground rules and give her a chance? If she breaks our trust, then we can take away the privilege.” And I save my strongest argument for last. “After all, John, you and I started dating in high school.”
Rachel refuses to make eye contact with me. “Yes, and look at you guys now,” she says so quietly I can barely hear her. But I know I’ve got her thinking.
“Please, Dad!” Audrey pleads. “Any ground rules you want.”
John stares me down before answering. “Okay,” he says and Audrey and I cheer. Rachel’s face is impassive. “But with major ground rules.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Audrey jumps up from the table and hugs him tightly. I catch Sophie rolling her eyes.
“Thank you,” I mouth to him when he looks over at me. Then lean in toward Rachel, lost in thought. “Sorry.”
She whispers back through a clinched smile, “I’m going to kick your ass later. You know that, right?”
“I do,” I say, hoping she’ll go easy on me. But, no matter how angry she is at me, the look on Audrey’s face tells me it was worth it.
CHAPTER 16
* * *
rachel
Audrey dating. Audrey in the backseat of the star quarterback’s car. Audrey losing her virginity. Audrey dropping out of high school because she’s pregnant.
As I lie in Casey’s silky sheets, my mind is racing, one horrible thought replacing the last with an even worse one.
My eyes are heavy and I have to blink a few times to read the clock on Casey’s bedside table. It’s 5:30 a.m. In just an hour, I need to be sitting in hair and makeup at the studio. I’ve hardly slept all night thinking about last night’s dinner topic; my sixteen-year-old daughter’s dating life, which went from nonexistent to active in the span of five minutes.
I’m in no mood to face the makeup artist after the snide comments I overheard her make yesterday to her assistant about the dark circles under my eyes. I’d frozen behind the audio room door as I’d listened to her bitch about how she’d better win an Emmy this year after all the work she has to do to make me look pretty—especially now that we shoot the show in high definition. I haven’t slept much since Casey and I switched and it’s taken a serious toll on my, or should I say Casey’s, face. After I’d heard her remarks, I’d wanted to punch her in the face as I stared at her in the dressing room mirror, the hot lights betraying every blotch, pimple, and line on my face. I’d felt an ache in my chest for Casey and wondered if she was always treated more like an object than a human being.
Looking around Casey’s bedroom, I’m almost shocked at how impersonal it is. How, if I saw a picture of it, and didn’t know any better, I could easily mistake it for a hotel room. A five-star hotel room, but a hotel room all the same. The walls are painted a shade of light gray. The furniture is expensive but not lived in. Not comfortable. It’s the kind you buy and arrange exactly as you see it in a catalog. The kind you buy when you don’t have to think about what the kids are going to do to it.