Too Hot to Handle (Jackson Hole 2)

“No? How about the trips to Disneyland your family took with mine? Or the weekends at our lake cabin? And what about all those summers you came to ‘visit’? All those weeks you spent at our house? You think those were about bonding?”

“Yes! Our moms wanted us to—”

“Oh, please. Those visits were a way of getting you out of your shitty neighborhood for a while because your mom couldn’t afford to send you to summer camp like a normal kid!”

Merry was so shocked she just stood there blinking and trying to close her jaw. Now she understood all the years of bitchiness. All the meanness and cruelty. Merry had never been anything but a pitiful, poor relation hanging around and ruining Crystal’s fun. Following her like a clingy little bird. “Take Merry with you,” her aunt had called out a hundred times. A thousand. Merry had been three years younger and a million times less cool.

“Merry,” Grace said from her side, “let’s get out of this bitch’s sight before I break my streak and end up in jail again.”

“Again!” Crystal sneered.

“Yes, again, you stupid cow. So don’t think I don’t know how to make you sorry for being the shittiest person I’ve ever met. And I’ll do it in front of all your new friends. God, can you imagine how long they’d tell that tale? It would go down in history, you ever-loving bitch.”

“Get out,” Crystal growled. “And take your slacker girlfriend with you.”

Merry looked at the last of her wine. She looked back at Crystal and her gorgeous silk dress. She wanted to do it. She really did. But she took the high road and set the glass on a table…just in case the low road suddenly looked too good to resist.

“You’re cruel,” she said softly.

“Whatever,” Crystal snapped.

“I mean it. You’re mean and awful. I was just a little girl. I’m sorry if I ruined your summers and one of the four family vacations you took every year.”

“Oh, here we go. I’m sorry my mom was so much more successful than yours!”

“That’s not what you need to be sorry for,” Merry growled. “It was scary for me, you know. Spending weeks in a big house with people who didn’t accept me. It was lonely, watching you and your friends play without me while you whispered and laughed and shot me angry looks. And the thing is… You were just a kid, too. I can forgive you for that. You were dumb and I was interfering with your life and your plans. But you’re a fucking adult now, Crystal, or so you remind me every time I see you. You’re all grown up and you’re still no better than that nasty selfish little girl you were.”

Crystal snarled, her lips thinning into a cruel twist. “You were nothing but a—”

“Fuck off,” Merry said quietly. “I’d rather have no family at all than have you.”

Amazingly Crystal shut her mouth. Merry turned and walked away. She tried to act cool and removed, but she was still reeling. “What the hell was that?” she whispered to Grace.

“You told her off!” Grace crowed. “You owned her!”

“But… Why would she say things like that?”

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing she said was true.”

“But it was true, Grace. How did I not see it? I was a charity case! I still am a charity case.”

“You are not.”

“Are you kidding me?” She avoided the wide wall of glass doors that led into the beautiful three-story mountain lodge with all its expensive wood and stone architectural details and skirted around to the side.

“Merry—”

“I’m pitiful, Grace. Look at me!” Her heel sunk into the grass and she leaned to the side, waving her arms in wide circles, trying desperately to grasp at balance. “Oh, God, look at me! I’m living in your apartment, on a couch, sleeping with a guy who was gracious enough to charity fuck me while he was screwing me over and still hanging out with my rich cousin who wished she didn’t have to invite me along. You just bought me the first dress and heels I’ve worn in years, I’m about to lose the only respectable position I’ve ever had and my own mom doesn’t want me anymore!”

Grace had been poised to pounce, her mouth parted to speak, hands already midgesture, but she paused at that. Tucking her chin in, she shook her head. “What?”

“I’ve always known I wasn’t like other people. I couldn’t find that thing. That one thing. Whatever else happened in your life, Grace, you always had your gift with makeup. You knew you were good at something. Really good at it. I’m not good at anything. Hell, I’m not even geeky enough to be good at being a sci-fi geek. But I always thought my mom was proud of me.”

“She is proud of you!”

“She bought a new condo and made clear I wasn’t welcome there. I wasn’t even staying with her anymore! She just said, ‘I won’t have room for you to stay with me, Merry.’ What the hell?” Merry swiped a tear off her cheek and kicked off her shoes to make her escape. But halfway past the house, she was stopped by a high stone terrace. “Goddamn it, how do you get out of this stupid place?”

“Merry!” Grace grabbed her shoulders and turned her around. “Merry, your mom isn’t tired of you or ashamed of you or whatever you think is going on.”