The Summer of Sunshine and Margot(61)

“We’re here to observe,” she said, speaking into Bianca’s ear. “Just watch them. You’ll see the ones who are excited and the ones who hate their moms. The purpose of this is for you to experience a visceral reaction to the dynamics, then think about what you could do to defuse that situation if you were involved. What would you say? Where would you go to take a second to breathe? I’m hoping you’ll ride the roller coaster of emotions but also stay above them.”

“What are you feeling?” Bianca asked.

Margot looked around at the girls in curlers, the mothers applying mascara and thought of the pressure to be all her great-grandmother wanted her to be.

“It can be tough and I could never have done this.”

“But you tried.”

“Over and over again.”

Bianca nodded, then turned back to the girls.

“What do you think you’re doing?” one mother yelled, grabbing her daughter by the arm. “You were eating candy. You’re already so fat, you barely fit in your dress. Do you know how much this is costing us? I had to take time off work to come here with you and you’re eating candy?”

“I’m hungry.”

“I don’t care if you’re starving to death. Fat girls don’t win.”

Margot fought down anger. She desperately wanted to march up to that woman and tell her to just stop it. Bianca put out a restraining arm.

“Breathe,” she said quietly.

“I always hated that part of things.”

“Who wouldn’t? We just have to trust in karma.”

“Or maybe call Social Services,” Margot grumbled.

There were other girls who were excited about the competition. Girls who were laughing and hugging their moms.

“There’s the pageant coordinator,” Margot said. “I’m going to say hello to her and thank her for letting us come observe. Want to meet her?”

“No thanks. I’ll walk around instead. Come find me when you’re done.”

Margot wondered if that was the best plan, then figured Bianca wasn’t going to get into any trouble in a place like this. Or so she hoped.

She wove her way through the contestants and found Paula Turner.

“Margot! How lovely to see you.” Paula, a beautiful woman in her forties, hugged her. “You’re stunning as always.”

Margot smiled. “As are you. I see tablets have replaced clipboards.”

“Time marches on. Are you enjoying our future queens?”

“I am. There’s a lot of talent here.”

A sharp scream cut through the babble of conversation. Paula winced. “And the usual drama. Can I convince you to consider judging?”

“Not right now. It would be more of a commitment than I want to take on.”

“I knew you were going to say that, but if you change your mind, you know how to find me.”

Margot excused herself and went looking for Bianca. She saw her client rushing out a side door.

“What on earth?”

Margot hurried after her and caught up with her by the car. Tears streamed down Bianca’s face as she pulled frantically on the locked car door.

“We have to go! Now! We have to go. How could you? Do you know what they’re doing? Do you?”

“Bianca, what’s wrong? What happened?”

Bianca turned away from her. “Leave me alone. This was a terrible idea. I just want to go home. I want to go now.”

The last word came out as a scream. Margot flinched, then opened the car doors. The drive back to the house was silent except for the sound of Bianca’s sobs.

When they arrived, Margot turned to her. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what went wrong.”

She expected Bianca to yell at her, but instead she drew in a breath and shook her head. “You can’t know. No one can know. It’s just... I can never go back there again. Promise me we won’t go back.”

“I promise. But please, tell me what happened. I want to help.”

“You can’t.” Tears flowed down Bianca’s cheeks. “You can’t. No one can. But it’s not your fault. It’s me. It’s in me.”

With that, she scrambled out of the car and ran toward the house. Margot stared after her, not sure what had happened or what her words meant. You can’t know. No one can know. What did that mean? That it was a secret? Or no one else could understand what she’d been through?

Something from Bianca’s past had been triggered. Something awful and scary. Something that had left scars on her heart and her soul. Whatever it was, it was a powerful force and it had been with Bianca for a long, long time.



Chapter Fifteen


Declan couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so nervous. The whole situation was ridiculous, and yet there he was, with sweaty palms and a burning desire to bolt. Not that he had any idea where he would go or how running away would make anything better.

His reaction—or overreaction—didn’t make sense. Some woman was dropping off her kid for a playdate. It had happened before and it would happen again. There was nothing to be concerned about. Except, she wasn’t just some woman, she was Elijah’s mother, and for reasons that were no longer clear to him, somehow she had become a viable candidate for him to go out with and possibly, eventually, have sex with.