Page 125 of The High Tide Club
She ran her fingers through her hair and groaned. This could not be happening. The call had come in while she was bathing Henry. It was too late to call Pete and try to beg off.
Instead, she texted Farrah.
Hey. Can you keep Henry for me tomorrow morning? Gotta run up to Savannah. Also need sitter for Saturday night. Heavy date. I’ll pay double your usual rate.
Farrah’s reply came back in less than a minute.
So sorry! Can’t tomorrow. It’s graduation. I’m a maybe for Saturday night. Can I tell you tomorrow?
No!she wanted to shout.Commit already.But she couldn’t really blame Farrah. This was a big weekend for a graduating senior. Who wanted to be saddled with babysitting? And maybe it was for the best. Maybe this was the universe telling her she needed to stay home and take care of her kid and concentrate on building some kind of a career.
Or maybe it was the universe telling her to call her mother.
Good thing Marie was a bit of a night owl, Brooke thought.
“Hi!” Marie said. “Shouldn’t you be in bed by now?”
“I was, and then I had a missed call. From Pete.”
“Oooh. Tell.”
“He’s got a layover at the Savannah airport tomorrow on his way to a conference in Miami, and he wants me to meet him for lunch and to catch up.”
“You’re going, right?”
“Not sure. He gets in at ten. But Henry gets out of day care at noon tomorrow because of teacher conferences. And Farrah’s graduation is tomorrow, so she can’t pick him up and keep him. I hate to ask, especially after you had him all day today…”
“Bring him to me,” Marie said quickly. “How was he tonight? I didn’t want to jinx anything, but he was a little crabby. And he hardly ate anything.”
“He seemed fine,” Brooke assured her. “We were both wiped out after the long drive home. In fact, he fell asleep in the bathtub after dinner.”
“How are you feeling about seeing Pete tomorrow? Are you excited? Nervous?”
“I haven’t had time to process it yet. A little of both. Oh, shit!” Brooke wailed. “I have to figure out what to wear. I haven’t even done laundry since I got home from Talisa.”
“I looked in your closet when I was putting away clothes last time I was there,” Marie said. “You have half a dozen pairs of white jeans. Put on a cute top that shows some cleavage. Wear those sexy black sandals I gave you foryour birthday. Pull your hair back with those tortoise clips, and wear some dangly earrings.”
“Mom! Pete gets in at ten. I’ll look like a hooker on the stroll for a john if I show up at the airport in cleavage and spike heels at that hour of the morning.”
“You wish. And don’t forget to wear makeup, for heaven’s sake. You do still know how to apply makeup, right?”
“Very funny. I wear makeup all the time.”
“Like when?”
“Like if I have a court date or something.”
“You’re going to tell Pete about Henry tomorrow, aren’t you?”
“I haven’t decided,” Brooke said. “I thought I’d see how it goes.”
“No matter how it goes, you have to tell him,” Marie insisted. “Henry is his son. He has a right to know, and you have a responsibility to your son to allow him to have a father in his life. Even if you decide that your relationship with Pete is over, you need to do this, Brooke.”
“We’ll see,” Brooke said. “I gotta hang up now. See you in the morning.”
“Makeup. Heels. Cleavage. Earrings,” Marie said. “And courage.”
***
