Page 35 of Recipe for Rivals
Gigi shook her head, making a disgusted noise. “You’ll run yourself ragged.” Taking me by the shoulders, my short little aunt forced me to look down into her eyes. “Let me help you, Nova. Your mama would if she was here, but she isn’t. She’s trusting me to do what I can.”
When she said it like that, it made me want to sink into her arms and let her hold me. But I was a grown woman with too much to do today, so instead I nodded. I couldn’t open my mouth or the burgeoning, threatening emotion would take control.
Sagging, I nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”
“Have the kids ready to go, and I’ll be by to pick them up in an hour.”
“Practice isn’t until seven,” I reminded her. It was just after three, and I was about to head out to walk them home from school now.
Gigi’s eyes twinkled in that way aunts had, knowing they were slipping Hershey’s Kisses to the children while the parents remained unaware. “I know. Have them ready.”
The door swung closed behind me as I walked into the crisp sunlight. I missed my mother right now more than I had for the duration of this whole ordeal. She’d always been a stalwart support, to the point of offering to cancel the mission trip to remain behind and take care of me. But I wasn’t going to stand in the way of something my parents had worked for and sacrificed for and looked forward to for so many years.
I pulled out my phone and sent a text to the group chat with my mom and dad.
Nova
Love and miss you.
I found my kids on the far side of the lawn at what we’d dubbed our “pickup tree”—very original—and started walking back to the apartment.
“How are things going with Penny and Kendall?” I asked carefully. It was hard being the new girl and trying to find her place on the playground.
“We’re all BFFs now,” Alice said simply.
Well, that didn’t sound like a good idea. Penny was clearly a volatile component here. “I’m glad you’re getting along.”
“Sarah wants to invite all of us to her birthday party, so we’re going to go together. Can we, Mom?”
“When is the party?”
She wrinkled her nose. “July, I think.”
Months away. There was time for all of them to find newBFFs. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. “We’ll chat about it when the invitation comes in, okay?”
My phone buzzed with a text from Dusty, which was a first. He only had my number in the group chat for the flag football team.
Dusty
Heads up, you put that in the wrong chat. Unless you meant for it to go out to all the parents on the team
I swore, swiping out of the message and into our group chat. There it was, my blasted text to my parents. I pressed and held it, but the chat was a mix between iPhones and Androids so it wouldn’t let me unsend. I typed out a quick message.
Nova
Sorry, all! Wrong chat
“Mom, why is your face so red?” Ben asked, peering up at me.
I reached over and ruffled his hair. “Just told your whole team how much I love and miss them.”
His mouth dropped open. “Mom!”
Wow. Was he old enough to be embarrassed now? This was kind of a first, and it cracked a hairline fracture in my heart. “I didn’t mean to,” I said, defending myself. “I thought I was texting my parents.”
Alice wrinkled her little, round nose. “How can you mix those people up?”
“With extreme skill.” Honestly, I didn’t know how I’d done it either. It seemed like sometimes my brain was so full, keeping up with the important things, that trivial details fell by the wayside, like checking the top of the chat to make sure my finger had hit the proper thread. “I corrected it though, so don’t worry. They know it was an accident.”