for them, and that little bomb was one of them. It was weird,” Ellery had said, clutching the balcony of their beach house, the sea breeze tangling her hair as the waves crashed onto the beach. “Should I ask her?”
“Will she tell you the truth?”
“I don’t know. Probably not.” Ellery had turned to Josh, so glad that he was there for her. His solid shoulders and warm embrace ready to shelter her. She moved into those arms and closed her eyes at the pleasure of his closeness. “She has changed. Highlights, better wardrobe, and she holds herself differently. Maybe everything went to her head a bit. Her life has been small until recently, and you’re right, sometimes people do what you don’t expect. Maybe she wanted more than what she had.”
Josh kissed her head. “Maybe she did.”
But now sitting at that table across from her father—a man who had lied and made Ellery doubt so much of her mother—she wondered if she’d believed the untruth because she was discontent with her own life.
Ever since her stumble out of the gate, she’d been pasting on a smile, pretending everything in her life was gravy when in fact she hated the life she lived. She’d convinced herself there was nothing wrong with taking a year off, being a supportive girlfriend, and making lemonade and all that bullshit. So maybe it wasn’t her mother who wanted more.
It was Ellery.
“Elle?” her father said, jarring her from her disturbing thoughts.
“Oh, sorry. All I’m saying is maybe you didn’t want to be threatened by Mom’s success, but you were,” Ellery said, watching the syrup drip from her mother’s abandoned pancakes. They looked really good. Ellery picked up a clean fork and stabbed a bite. “Thing is, Dad, I understand because the crazy success surprised me, too. And you’re right—everything changed. Still, the more I think about it, the more I realize we were unfair to Mom. Something wonderful happened to her, and instead of celebrating it with her—I mean truly celebrating it, not just the clink of the champagne glass—we resented how it inconvenienced us.”
“That’s not true. Once you’re in a marriage, you’ll understand what I mean. You have to balance things. Before her career, your mom and I were fine. And then we weren’t.”
Easy for her father to say. He’d owned the balance of power in that relationship. Her mother had owned the power of Spray ’n Wash. And really, Ellery had no business analyzing anyone’s relationship. Last night she’d kissed another man after finding gay porn on her fiancé’s computer. If anyone was “unbalanced,” it was the gal picking apart her mother’s now-cold pancakes. “Daddy, I’m not saying how you felt wasn’t valid. I’m just saying I may have been a jerk over the past year or so. You and Mom getting a divorce wasn’t something I ever expected, and I didn’t handle it well. I pretended to, but I didn’t.”
She set the fork down.
Rex looked at her. “So how long were you standing there? I mean, you overheard your mother talking about some things.”
Ellery nodded. “I heard her essentially talk about what a spoiled little bitch I am.”
“You aren’t.” Her father always defended her, something that comforted. But it was also a bit like wearing shoes that pinched her feet. She had to own her flaws, not have them smoothed over by her father. Or anyone else.
“Eh, I can be.” Ellery shrugged, holding on to the truth with one hand while she pinched her nose with the other. Being honest with herself wasn’t pleasant. “I also heard you say something about her paying my rent.”
He swallowed. “Look, baby, I’m having some cash-flow problems. The divorce and some other stuff have made it harder to pay the bills lately, but I don’t want you to worry.”
Ellery felt something panicky gnaw at her. She’d relied on her father too much. It wasn’t like she didn’t know this, but it had been easier letting him pay for her life than taking ownership of her own poor decisions. Of course, she wasn’t sure if she could afford her share of the bills and pay off the credit cards. She had three now, one her father didn’t know about and that she had been paying on her own. “It’s fine. I need to start paying my own bills. I mean, it will be challenging, but I have two jobs and have to do better at managing my money.”
Her father lifted his eyebrows. “Really?”
Ellery shrugged, pushing aside the fear