Vicious Carousel (Suncoast Society #25)(33)

“I love you, too, Mom.”





Betsy talked—cried—to her mom for so long that Tilly had to go get the phone charger from Betsy’s bedroom and find an extension cord so she could plug it in and not make her move from where she was on the couch. During that time, her father had arrived home from work and she tearfully got to talk to him, too. It was after six thirty when she finally got off the phone with them minutes before Kenny arrived home to find Betsy and Tilly on the couch, crying in each other’s arms.

“Oh, my god! What’s wrong?” He ran over, with such a look of horrified terror on his face that it started both of them giggling, then laughing.

“He never called my parents,” Betsy finally managed. “The son of a bitch never even talked to them. They had no idea who he was until Tilly told my mom what happened.”

He pulled up, looking confused, which made them both laugh even harder.

He closed his eyes, as if thinking for a moment. “Oookaaay, I’m going to play the stupid guy card here and guess you’re laughing at me for freaking out just now, right?”

They giggled, nodding.

“Aaannd you were crying when I came in because you were…happy?”

“Relieved,” the women said in unison, which started even more giggling between them.

Betsy couldn’t remember the last time she giggled.

Giggled!

And she’d never seen Tilly cry before, so she knew that had to be a massively earth-shaking thing she’d think about later on when she could actually process coherent thoughts again.

Tilly took a few deep breaths, stood, and hugged Kenny. Then she wiped at her face and took one more deep breath as she pointed a finger at him.

“You tell anyone you saw me crying, you’re singing soprano the hard way. Got it?”

He nodded, which made Betsy giggle yet again.

Tilly patted him on the shoulder and headed back down the hall. A moment later, they heard the bathroom door shut.

Kenny sank to the couch next to her. “You look…wow. Did she take you to get your hair done?”

“Yeah.” She fought queasy nerves. “Do you like it?”

“I…the question is, do you like it?”

She nodded.

“Honestly? You look, well, obviously, besides…” He sort of pointed at her face with one hand and zigzagged his index finger around. “Your hair looks amazing! You look a lot more…peaceful now. Which is a weird comment to go with a hair compliment, I know, but you do.”

“Thank you,” she said, remembering Tilly’s lecture.

“And the outfit is great, too.”

“More Tilly.” She laid the phone on the coffee table and turned to him. “Thank you for everything you and Nolan have done for me. Thank you for the phone, and thank you for your kindness and hospitality. I really, really appreciate it.”





Kenny sensed something drastically different about this woman sitting before him, and not even her hair or her clothes.

“You’re very welcome,” he said. “What’s going on?”

“She took me to talk to Ted,” Betsy said. “And I’m going back on Thursday to talk to him. And we obviously did hair and shopping. And she made me type up my resume, and text Shayla to ask to send it to her. And then she talked to my mom. Then I got to talk to my mom and my dad.”

He didn’t interrupt her, sensing she was working her way up to something big.

“I want you to be honest with me while I’m here,” she said. “If I get to be a pain or a burden, please be honest with me. Tilly has driven the point home that I’m not alone. I know there are other people who will help me out. But I want to rebuild my friendships and make new ones, and if me staying here at any time tests or strains my friendship with you and Nolan, I would rather move out than lose this friendship. I know we don’t know each other very well yet, but I’d like to. And I don’t want to do something stupid and risk any friendships. I want you to call me out if you think I’m wrong about something. I want you to hold me accountable.”

It took him a moment once she finished talking to finally come up with a response. The quiet, earnest frankness of her words had blown him away.

“Thanks. We will. I don’t want to jeopardize our friendship, either.”

Now she looked exhausted, worn, as if she’d been strong too long and she’d hit a wall. “I’m sorry I’m not helping cook dinner tonight.”

“It’s okay. Nolan’s stopping by Publix and grabbing a chicken dinner from the deli. No cooking.”

Tilly returned from the bathroom, her face now washed and free of makeup. But her eyes still looked a little puffy, her nose red.

“Okay. Well, this was a productive day.” She gathered up her laptop and then hugged Betsy. “I’ll be back in the morning, same time. I believe June will be here on Wednesday, but I’ll confirm that with her for sure, and probably Loren on Thursday.”

Tilly smacked herself in the forehead. “Yoga clothes. June said you can come to her classes for free right now. I should have bought you some yoga clothes.”

“I got her a couple of pairs of yoga pants,” Kenny said.

“Perfect!”

Before Kenny could get Tilly to expand upon that, she was saying good-bye and blowing out the door, laptop case over her shoulder.