Page 81 of Shine For Me

Her hand slaps down on the table, surprising me with her atypical display of anger. “I havenevertried to keep you from seeing your dad.”

The unspoken end of that sentence hangs in the air over our heads. He was the only one who kept us from one of our parents.

I slump back in my chair, running a hand over my face. “I don’t even know what we’re fighting about.”

My mom leans forward and peels my fingers away, exposing my face to her penetrating stare. “It’s okay to fight sometimes, Juniper-girl. If that’s what you need to do to tell the truth. You’re allowed to yell at me. I can take it.”

But she shouldn’t have to. I have no right to yell at this woman, to do anything to make her feel bad. She’s the one who found out about her husband’s many affairs from a photographer waiting outside our house for her to take me and Grey to school. She’s the one who saw evidence of those affairs plastered over every magazine cover for weeks. The one who was pressured by my grandfather to look the other way and make nice for the sake of both of their careers. And when she refused, when she insisted on a divorce, she’s the one who had to endure a months’ long custody battle in which my father’s legal team tried to convince a judge she was unfit due to rumors of drug use—one guess as to who started those rumors.

And then, at the end of all those months of lawyers and ugliness, when the judge finally asked me and Grey what we wanted, my mother had to watch her two youngest children choose the man who had ruined her life.

“I need to go,” I say, standing so abruptly my chair clatters to the patio behind me. “The others are probably ready by now,” I babble as I hurry to right the chair. “We have a reservation and—”

My mom’s hand curls around my forearm. “I just want you to tell me two things.”

I wait, sure that if I speak I’ll start to yell again—or maybe cry.

“Does Fox treat you well?”

“Yes. Better than anyone ever has.”

She nods, her penetrating gaze still locked on me. “And does he see you? Does he reallyseeyou, June?”

It might seem like a strange question, but I get what she’s asking me. “I…I think he does.”

She nods, looking satisfied, and releases my arm. “Then he just might deserve you.”