I cleared my throat and looked toward Bailey. “What do you say, kiddo? Should we head over to my place? I was thinking I could make mac and cheese and then we could watch some movies. How does that sound?”
The grin on Bailey’s face was wide as she smiled up at me. “That sounds awesome!”
I gave Bo a hug and nodded goodbye to Kacey before leaving the house with Bailey. Once back at my house, I immediately got to work on making macaroni and cheese. As I cooked, Bailey walked around my house, taking in all of my pictures.
After a few minutes, she walked up to me holding a picture of my sister and me standing on the beach, from the trip we took the same summer Kacey dumped me. She tilted her head and pointed to Kylie. “Who is this?”
“That’s my sister.”
Bailey looked at the picture really closely as if she were studying it, then she looked back at me with confusion written all over her face. “Does my mom know your sister?”
I laid down the spoon that I had been using to stir the macaroni and cheese and turned so I could focus on Bailey, unsure where she was going with this. “Yes. It’s been a long time since she’s seen any of them, but your mom used to know my whole family. Why do you ask, sweetie?”
“I think my mom has a picture of your sister.”
“Excuse me?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from shaking.
“My mom has a picture that looks just like your sister. She doesn’t know that I know about it. I think it’s a secret. She keeps it in the nightstand right beside her bed. Even at the new house, it’s still there. In the picture, she’s leaning against a tree. It’s kind of funny.” Bailey laughed as she talked about it, and it reminded me of another laugh that sounded just like hers. My mind immediately went to the night I heard that laughter because of that exact picture.
“Wait a second. What is this?” Kacey asked as she pulled one of my senior pictures out of my wristlet.
I had made the mistake of asking her to grab some cash out of there so we could pay the delivery guy once he got to my dorm room with our pizza, completely forgetting that I still had that picture in there.
Kacey snickered as she stared at it. “What are you doing? Holding up this tree?”
I glared at her as I snatched the picture out of her hands. “You know, for someone so cool, you make really lame jokes. That’s something my dad would say.”
“I never claimed to be cool.” Kacey lifted one eyebrow, then leaned in to kiss me. Since we were already lying on my bed, she easily slipped on top of me to deepen the kiss.
My body hummed at the feeling and I thought about all of the things we had yet to do together. All of the things I was dying to do. It had been a month since our first kiss, and while we made out a lot, it had yet to go beyond that. As Kacey ran her hand down my arm, I thought maybe this would be the moment that changed. When her fingers reached my hand, instead of grabbing onto it, she grabbed onto the picture I was still holding. All too quickly, she jumped off of me.
“Aha!” she said proudly. “This is mine now.”
“Not fair,” I pouted. “Why would you want that anyway? I look like a dork. My mom made me take that one and then insisted on buying it. I think I was supposed to give that copy to my grandma, and that’s why it’s in there.”
“Well, send your grandma my deepest apologies, because she’s not getting this.” She looked down at the picture, her smile growing even wider. “And to answer your question—I want this because you look so cute. Also, I don’t have any pictures of you, and all of the women who work in the admissions office have been begging to see a picture of my girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend?” Butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Even though we acted like a couple, we had never explicitly stated that’s what we were. I had almost brought it up countless times, but worried about how Kacey would feel about it.
Kacey ran one hand over my cheek. “Yeah. I mean, that’s what you are, right?” Kacey’s face became serious. “I don’t act this way with just anyone, you know. It’s hard for me to open up.”
It made sense. Kacey was cool with my friends and they all loved her, but I saw a different side to her when we were alone. I leaned into her hand and sighed. “Yes, Kacey. That’s exactly what I am.”
“Miss Kari?” Bailey’s voice pulled me from my daydream.
“Sorry, kiddo. I just let my mind wander for a second there. That picture your mom has is actually of me. I gave it to her a long time ago when we were friends.” Why did she still have that picture and why was it right by her bed? It didn’t make sense.
“You look a lot like your sister. My mom looks like her sister too. That’s why I look so much like her even though she’s not actually my biological mom.”
My eyes snapped back to Bailey, who was now simply scratching Duke behind his ear, as if she hadn’t just dropped a major bomb. “What did you say?”
“Ariana is the one who made me and carried me in her belly, but once I came into the world, she wasn’t able to take care of me the way she needed to. So, she gave my mom the best gift ever—me.” She laughed. “At least that’s what my mom says. She says there’s no greater gift in the world than being my mom. I don’t know if I agree because the bike I got for Christmas last year was pretty cool.”
I had to put my hand onto the counter to steady myself. If the thought of Kacey cheating on me had been a surprise, this new bit of information was an absolute shock. So, she hadn’t cheated on me? Why hadn’t she just told me that? More importantly, I still had no idea why she dumped me on the day Bailey was born.
“Miss Kari, I think the mac and cheese is done.”
I looked down at the pot where the macaroni had started to get a little brown around the edges. I smiled down at Bailey, trying to move the new information I had just learned to the back of my mind. “What do you say we eat this on the couch while we watch a movie?”
Bailey’s eyes lit up. “Really? My mom always makes us eat at the table. This is so exciting.”
Less than an hour into the movie, Bailey had already finished two bowls of macaroni and cheese and was lying across the couch with her head on my lap. I could tell by her shallow breaths that she had fallen asleep and I took this opportunity to lay my head back against the couch cushion and shut my eyes.
I woke up to the sound of knocking at my door. I slowly opened my eyes and blinked a few times to take in my surroundings. It took a minute to get my bearings and make my way to the door. I wasn’t surprised to find Kacey waiting on the other side. What I was surprised by was how my body reacted to the sight of her in khaki pants and a polo shirt with the words Bellman Interface written across the left side of the chest. I could see the very bottom of her tattoo sneaking out from underneath her sleeve and it made my mouth go dry. I shook these thoughts from my head and cursed myself for having them. “Sorry. We fell asleep watching a movie, so I’m a little out of it right now.”
“No worries. Is Bailey still asleep?”