“Awww, romantic in a cowboy, heavy testosterone kind of way.” Cassidy paused. “There’s also a dress in a plastic bag. Crud,” she quietly added several moments later. “Judging from the look on your face, it’s a land mine, not a layer.”
Yes, to the land mine, but now that Eve knew it was there, she figured she had to face it. She set the binoculars aside, ripped the tape off the box, and the moment she opened it, she saw the dress on top. It was rose pink, strapless, and even though Eve couldn’t actually see it because of the way it was folded, it had a corset back. And she’d intended to use those ties to make sure it gloved her figure—which was more flat than curvy in those days.
Cassidy stared at it when Eve held it up in front of her. No way would it fit now. “Was it for the prom?”
Eve shook her head, but it was a good guess because Cassidy knew that she’d moved from Wrangler’s Creek before the senior prom, so she hadn’t gone to it. “It was for the Sadie Hawkins dance. And yes, we still had them back then.”
“You mean a dance where the girl asked the guy to go with her?”
“That’s the one. I asked Lawson, of course.” In fact, she’d asked him that December, two months prior to the dance. Not that either of them would have gone with anyone else—not at that point in their relationship, anyway.
“I spent every penny of my babysitting savings on this,” Eve added. She ran her thumb over the beading in the bodice. “And for weeks, I dreamed about Lawson dancing with me in that dress.”
“Dancing?” Cassidy questioned. “Lawson had a dancing layer?”
“No. He’d never danced with me before, but it was one of my fantasies. That night, that dress, Lawson, and me telling him that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.”
“How sweet. Or not,” Cassidy amended when she looked at her again. The “or not” was probably because Eve’s expression wasn’t that of a gushing sweet teenager who’d been in love.
“I’d never said anything like that,” Eve explained. “Lawson had a problem with the c-word. Not that c-word,” she quickly added. “Commitment. He made sure he worked it into conversations at least once a week that he was never getting married. Or having kids,” Eve added.
Cassidy stared at her. “Shit.”
She didn’t even scold her for cursing because Eve was silently saying the same thing. “Lawson didn’t have a happy childhood, and he thought he’d end up being as lousy of a parent as his own dad.” Eve looked at the dress again. “But that night I was going for it. Heck, I remember thinking that once he knew I wanted to be with him forever, he might tell me he loved me and ask me to marry him.”
Cassidy stared at her. “You were both seventeen and hadn’t even finished high school yet.”
Eve shrugged. “Obviously, I was thinking like a seventeen-year-old.”
But that had changed a few weeks later with Brett’s death, and then she’d left town. There’d been no Sadie Hawkins dance for her. No prom. No graduation. Instead, Eve had gotten her GED and never looked back.
Not until now, anyway.
Since looking back was putting her in a blue mood, Eve stuffed the dress back in the box and nearly told Cassidy to donate it to the town’s resale charity shop. But for now, out of sight, out of mind would work, and she would put the boxes in the attic.
“I’m sorry.” Cassidy gave her arm a pat. Aiden reached out as if he might try to pat her, too, but then he rubbed his eyes and whined a little. “It’s time for his nap,” Cassidy said, glancing at her watch.
Eve was about to volunteer to put him to bed so she could get in some snuggling time with her little guy, but her phone rang before she could reach out for him. When she saw the name on the screen, she knew she needed to answer right away.
“Tessie,” she answered, her breath already racing.
Cassidy smiled, made a toodle-do wave and headed upstairs with the baby, no doubt so that Eve would have some privacy. She might need it, too. The last time Tessie had called her, it hadn’t gone well.
“Thanks for the care package,” Tessie greeted her. Except it wasn’t much of a greeting. Her voice was stiff as if talking to a stranger. But maybe Tessie did feel as if she didn’t really know her own mother. After all, Eve had lied to her for years.
“You’re welcome. I thought you might want some of your favorite snacks for your room now that the new semester’s started.” In fact, Eve had another box ready to go. “How are your classes? Are they hard? And how are you?” Eve clamped her teeth over her bottom lip to stop herself from adding even more questions.
“Everything’s fine.”
It wasn’t, and it crushed Eve’s heart to feel this distance from her daughter. “I was hoping I could bring Aiden to see you.”
“No.” Eve would have felt a little better if Tessie had hesitated at least a second or two. “I’m not ready for that yet.” Now she hesitated. “But keep sending me pictures of him. He’s my brother no matter what happened between us.”
Yes, he was, and Eve supposed she was going to have to be satisfied with that. For now. But it couldn’t stay that way. “Tessie, we eventually need to talk. There are some things I have to tell you.”
“Right. Okay. Right,” she repeated. Now Tessie sounded flustered and annoyed. “Maybe during fall break.”
Since Eve had memorized the school calendar, she knew that was still over a month away, but she latched on to it as a glimmer of hope. And dread. Because she was going to have to tell Tessie about Lawson. That wouldn’t necessarily cause the rift to deepen between Tessie and her, but once Tessie knew, Eve would tell Lawson. A rift might be the least of his reactions.
“Your birthday is before fall break,” Eve reminded her. “There must be something on your wish list that I can send to you.”
“Not really. Just keep a running total of tuition and my expenses so I know how much to pay you back.”
That caused Eve to sigh. She didn’t want her daughter paying her back for college, but Tessie had insisted on it. Plus, it really wasn’t that much since Tessie had a great scholarship that covered a good chunk of it.
“I wanted you to know that I had my stuff shipped from the house in LA to a storage unit here in Austin,” Tessie added a moment later. “I won’t be going back there, so if you want to sell the place, that’s fine with me.”
Eve had been so busy with the baby that she hadn’t thought much about selling the LA house. But she certainly thought about it now. Even though it’d never felt like home, it was where she’d raised Tessie. It was also where Tessie and she had had their falling-out. She had no immediate plans to move back there, either, but she’d considered keeping it just in case.
“Does that mean you’ll be staying in Austin?” Eve asked.
“Probably. I can finish my undergrad here and then go to A&M for Veterinary Medicine.”
So, Tessie was sticking to her plan. Well, her revised plan, anyway. Before the rift between them, Tessie had been considering other schools, but her major had always stayed the same. She’d wanted to be a veterinarian since first grade, when Eve had taken her for riding lessons.