Page 115 of Oh, Puck!
"And tonight?"
"Tonight she doesn't see any of this." I gesture at the lights, the carousel, the whole glittering thing I created. "Tonight's just for us."
Darcy watches me for a second too long, like she's already seeing something I haven't yet.
"Josie." She lowers her voice. "Are you actually ready for tomorrow?"
"Am I ready?"
I turn the question over in my head before I answer it out loud.
Am I ready to stand in front of everyone I've hidden from for eight years? Am I ready to let my mother watch me belong somewhere she always swore I never would? Am I ready to stop shrinking myself down to fit inside a box that was never built for someone like me… someone who cried over sports instead of prom dresses, or who knew more about power plays than lip gloss.
"Yeah." I straighten my shoulders and watch Declan move across the pier. "I think I actually am. I've been ready for eight years, Darce. And tomorrow, during that game… when I'm sitting beside my mother and showing her what I can do, I get to be that girl on the frozen pond with her dad, you know? Tomorrow I finally get to set that little girl free."
Darcy's eyebrows lift, and for a second her whole face cracks with emotion. "Dammit, Josie. Don't say things like that right before I have to go be professional at a sponsor table."
"Sorry."
"Don't be sorry. You've got this." She squeezes my arm, then disappears into the crowd toward Colin.
I watch her go, my chest still tight from my own confession as I watch Declan cutting through the crowd. He drifts past me on his way to the sponsor tent right as my phone buzzes.
I pull it out as the party keeps glittering around me.
MOM:Landed. The flight was long and the airport is chaos. I'm tired, so I'll see you at your game tomorrow. This hotel better be as nice as you promised.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. The band keeps playing and somewhere behind my eyelids a kid on the carousel screams with pure joy. My stomach has officially dropped through the boardwalk, all the way down to the bottom of the Pacific.
She's here. In Beachside.
My mother is breathing the same air as my secret life, and tomorrow she walks into my arena.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
It's real now, it's all suddenly, violently real.
I look up, and Declan's now watching me from the sponsor tent. He's keeping a close eye on me tonight, I know he is. And whatever look is on my face right now has just made him excuse himself mid-sentence.
He tilts his head toward the dark end of the pier, gesturing for me to follow him away from the crowd. With a quick look to Rose who's still preparing the live stream, I take a chance and quickly move before I'm summoned to open the party with my speech.
The music softens past the carousel, where the boardwalk gives way to old weathered planks. The party glows behind me and when I finally reach where Declan has hidden out of view, I take a moment to take some deep breaths.
"Hey." Declan's hands find my arms. "What happened? You okay?"
I hold up the phone and he reads Mom's text.
"Thought so. You went white as a ghost just now."
"She's really here, Declan," I whisper, still unable to believe it. "Tomorrow I'm going to tell hereverything. The job, the move, the years of lying just to keep the peace." I shake my head and puff my cheeks. "I keep rehearsing it, but every version ends with her saying something that hurts me all over again. I… Ithink I've made a mistake, Declan. I shouldn't have invited her here. I should have just left—"
"Hey. Hey." He pulls me into his chest, squeezing hard, pressing my face against that stupid expensive suit.His hand strokes down my back as he holds me tight. "Look at what's behind us right now. Look at what you did. And this is just the beginning, sweetheart."
I take a shaky breath.
"She's going to walk into a sold-out arena tomorrow—sold out,Josie—and she's going to see what her daughter has done to an entire town. And if she can't see how amazing you are?" His lips press to my hair. "Then fuck her. She never deserved the front-row seat anyway."
He pulls back to hold my face in both hands, thumbs tracing my cheekbones as his warm breath touches my lips.
