Page 9 of Some Sort of Happy (Happy Crazy Love 1)
She didn’t answer but I left her a message explaining who I was and volunteering my time for the festival and related activities. I told her I was free anytime and eager to get started, and I gave her my cell phone number.
After that, I changed from my work clothes into jeans and a tank and grabbed my bucket of cleaning supplies from the pantry. I’d give the place a good dusting and scrubbing, and then later I’d invite my mom over for a glass of wine and give her some more decorating ideas. I’ll show her the Pinterest board I made, run some paint colors by her for the bathrooms, and offer to do the painting myself—if I’m not too busy with my new job.
I smiled as I filled the bucket. Through the open window I could hear an old Hank Williams tune, which meant my father was probably working in the nearby pole barn with his radio on. It lifted my mood further, and I hummed along to You Win Again as I dusted, the melody taking me back to grade school summers, when Jilly, Nat, and I would all pile in the front seat of his truck and go for ice cream after dinner, my mother howling from the driveway about seat belts. Those summers always went by so fast—you blinked and it was September again. I’d blinked and a decade had gone by! I couldn’t believe it had been ten years since I’d graduated from high school. Where had they gone? And what about the next ten years…would they fly by just as fast?
For a moment, I tried to imagine myself ten years from now, age thirty-seven. Where was I? What was I doing? Did I have a career of some kind? A husband and family? I had no clue, which was kind of distressing, so I shoved that thought out of my mind and focused on my housework.
About fifteen minutes later, my cell phone rang. I set down my dust rag and looked at the screen.
Yes! It was Joan Klein.
“Hello?”
“Hello, is this Skylar Nixon?”
“Yes, it is,” I sing-songed.
“Hello, this is Joan Klein from pageant corporate.
“Hello,” I gushed like she was my long-lost best friend. “How are you?”
“I’m fine, thank you. I’m glad you called, Skylar. We’d like to meet with you.”
“Fantastic!” I bounced around a little. “I can meet any time.”
“Could you come down to the office this afternoon?”
“Of course, no pr
oblem.”
“Around three?”
“I’ll be there.”
“Thank you. We have some paperwork for you to sign. Oh, and if you could just bring your crown with you, we’d really appreciate that.”
“Certainly I can. I know just where it is.” Wow, they wanted a photo already! I’d put my work clothes back on—I hoped I hadn’t gotten my new skirt too sandy.
“See you then.”
“See you then!”
I ended the call and hugged my phone to my chest, thanking my lucky stars that something had gone right today. Deciding to forego the floor mopping for now, I left the guest house and walked over to my parents’ house to fetch my crown.
No one was there, but the door was unlocked as usual, so I let myself in and hurried over to the mantle above the fireplace. There was my crown, right next to a photo of me at the coronation. I picked up the frame and studied the picture—I looked so happy. So hopeful. So confident that every dream I had would come true if I just wished hard enough, worked hard enough, wanted it hard enough.
My smile faded as I set the frame down and looked at the other items displayed on the parental Mantle of Pride. There was Jillian in her cap and gown, graduating from medical school. There was Natalie cutting the ribbon the day she opened the coffee shop. Moving back a few steps, I tried to look at everything as a stranger might. What did these things say about us? For a moment, I imagined my mom showing our photos to a new friend.
This is Jillian, the smart one. She’s a doctor now, isn’t that something?
This is Natalie. She’s our little entrepreneur!
And this is Skylar. Isn’t she pretty?
Frowning, I grabbed the crown off the mantle and left the house before my mother got home and asked me why I needed it.
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