Page 35 of Payoff Pitch
“I’m working on not cursing in front of Harper. I’m substituting all curse words, even when Harper isn’t around. I have to retrain my brain. My sister has a filthy mouth, and it rubs off on me.”
She’s so adorable.
I smile. “Good thinking. I might try that myself.”
I pour us two cups of whiskey. She appreciatively takes a cup from me. We each take a sip before I ask, “You mentioned before my stone-throwing old-man injury that Kam is dependent on you. Why is that?”
“I’m not a shrink, but if I had to guess, I’d say it’s because we weren’t mothered properly. Like it or not, I’ve become her mother. We’re very different. Kam is a true wild child. She’s always needed me to be theadult,” she air-quotes adult, “in our relationship.”
“That’s a lot of pressure on you.”
She shrugs. “I guess. It’s all I know. We bicker at times, but I love my sister more than anyone in the world. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her, and I know she feels the same for me.”
I take another long sip. “If you don’t mind my asking, what made your mother so terrible?”
She twists her lips for a moment before admitting, “A lot of things, but mostly because she’s an alcoholic.”
I place my hand on hers. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Why would you? I don’t let it keep me down anymore. She wasn’t always that way, at least when we were little. She channeled her addictive personality differently. Back then she was obsessed, I meanobsessed, with us becoming models and actresses. She modeled when she was a teen and supposedly passed on several modeling opportunities so that she could stay with my father. They had us very young and it ended her career. Back then there weren’t many models who were moms. I think she decided to live vicariously through us. You’ve heard the term momager, right?”
I chuckle as I nod. “Of course.”
“That’s her. She made Kris Kardashian look laid back. She pushed and pushed. Kam and I would be in tears, begging to just be normal kids. We hated it so much. We didn’t want long days on sets being manipulated into every pose imaginable. We wanted to play with our friends and go to school like normal kids. Imagine two very obvious tomboys having to spend their days in hair and makeup, pretending to peddle products we knew nothing about. We were homeschooled until junior high so that we’d have time to model. We pleaded with her to let us go to regular school, but she never listened to a word we said. Kam started acting out. She’s stubborn as hell and was heading toward a bad place. Finally, when we were twelve and my sister had been busted shoplifting for the hundredth time, our fatherstepped in and pushed for us to go to a regular school. He’s a good man with a good heart, but he has no backbone and rarely stands up to our mother. Even if he was a little late, that was the one time he did. We’re thankful for that, but in the absence of momaging us, she turned to the bottle even harder than she had before. It was always there, but it hit a new level once she lost her purpose.”
“That’s a shame. It’s commendable how the two of you persevered.”
“It was really bad. She’d show up to school events trashed. She’d swerve into parking lots picking us up from places. Kam was arrested at thirteen for driving without a license. It was that or allow our barely conscious mother to drive us.” She lets out a small laugh. “Kam ended up driving all the time. That’s just the only time she got busted. She’d never let me do it, only her. She didn’t want me to get into trouble.”
“Wow. That’s hard to believe. I assume your parents are divorced now?”
She shakes her head. “Nope. I’ll never understand it, but no, they’re not. I think he feels guilty. They were high school sweethearts, and she followed him to college where he was a star basketball player. He was about to sign a contract to play overseas after graduation when she became pregnant with us. Kam and I have no doubt that she purposefully became pregnant to keep him around. It’s something she would do. She’s very manipulative. We honestly assumed he’d divorce her when we left for college, but he stayed. Kam and I have reacted differently to it. I want the exact opposite relationship of my parents, but I do want a relationship. Kam doesn’t ever want to get married.”
“Never?”
“That’s what she says. She hops around from bed to bed, both men and women, but she hasn’t had a serious relationship since high school, over ten years ago.”
“Are you into both men and women too?”
She smiles and shakes her head. “People ask me that all the time because of Kam. Nope. Just men for me. And I’m not comfortable being as…casual as she is. She’s relationship phobic. I think seeing our parents’ shitty marriage made her afraid of something real.”
“That’s my fear with Harper. That our divorce will damage her future relationships. She won’t know what a healthy relationship looks like.”
Bailey tilts her head. “I completely disagree. She sees a healthy relationship every single day.”
“But we’re not—”
“Healthy doesn’t have to mean married parents. Families come in all shapes and sizes. You and Fallon both prioritize Harper’s needs. You very obviously care for and respect each other. Look at how you reacted when Fallon had to miss tonight. You defended her to Harper. My parents are married, and my mother would have blasted my father’s parenting skills if we encountered this situation. She would have shamed him into staying. Married doesn’t mean healthy. Maybe you two aren’t in love with each other anymore, but you love each other on some level. Harper picks up on that. Trust me. As a kid who saw nothing but games and manipulation growing up, your way is much better, and Harper will be more than fine. She’s an amazing kid. I’ve worked with a lot of children and have seen it all. She’s a wonderful, happy little girl.”
I sip my whiskey as I let her words sink in. Maybe she’s right. “You’re wise beyond your years, Bailey Hart.”
She lets out a laugh. “I’ve had to be the female adult in my house since I turned three.”
My brows furrow. “That’s not fair to you. I’m sure you need someone to take care of you sometimes.”
She gives me a bit of a mischievous smile. “Don’t worry. Kam takes care of me in her unique way.” She lets out asmall giggle. “I had a messy breakup before we left Chicago. The man wasn’t who I thought he was.”
“In what way?”