Summer Burns (10 page)

"
I know,
"
I snapped as I headed back into the kitchen to get the broom.

"
Mommy, why did you throw the vase at Auntie Autumn?
"
Emma asked as I came through.

I paused. Crap. Now I have to find a way to answer this one without terrifying my daughter. Her little graphic tee-shirt gave me an idea.

"
Um, because her red hair scared me. I thought she was Operetta come to life to come get me.
"

Emma burst out laughing.
"
Mommy, Operetta is my
Monster High
dolly. They don
'
t come to life!
"
She stroked her shirt before shoving the last bite of macaroni in her mouth.
"
Can I be excused please?
"

"
Sure. Go brush your teeth first, then you can see your aunt.
"
I didn
'
t want her traipsing through the broken glass in her bare feet.

"
Okay.
"
And off she went. In the foyer I could hear my sister and my mother talking a mile a minute--well, that was mostly Autumn--as I got a wet rag to make sure no little pieces of glass was left.

They were still in the hallway, but I noticed that the bigger chunks of glass were piled together.

I wondered who bothered doing that. Likely
not
my wayward sister.

"
Yeah, Mom, you should have seen this bohemian salon. Chain link fencing on the walls, bright colors everywhere, and this humongous retail area. It was crazy. Nothing matched, but everything matched. It was amazing.
"
She swung her arm out as I swept, and almost hit me in the face.

"
Seriously Autumn?
"

"
What? You shouldn
'
t have been standing there,
"
she snapped at me.

"
Did you take pictures? I
'
d love to see.
"
Mom always wanted to see whatever super funky salon that Autumn found in her travels. Why, I didn
'
t know, but she always asked.

"
I have a whole bunch on my phone, I
'
ll show you when I get settled. I gotta just put this stuff in my room.
"

"
Yeah, about that,
"
I said. And I might have been a bit gleeful to spill the information.

Autumn turned and looked at me.
"
What
'
s wrong with my room?
"

I shrugged.
"
Nothing, if you don
'
t mind sharing it with Barbie and Ken.
"

"
Wait, what?
"
Her gaze narrowed as she looked between me and Mom.

"
You haven
'
t been here for three years. I didn
'
t think you were coming back,
"
Mom said.

Autumn
'
s eyes opened wide, giving her the crazy eyes.
"
I never said I wasn
'
t coming back.
"

I raised my eyebrow.
"
I
'
m pretty sure you did. I very much recall you saying
'
I
'
m off to the great big world, and I won
'
t be back.
'"

"
I did not say that!
"

"
No, you said
'
explore.
'
That I remember,
"
Mom added.

She rolled her eyes.
"
You gave away my room.
"

"
This isn
'
t a hotel, Autumn,
"
Mom said.
"
While you
'
re more than welcome to stay, darling, you
'
re almost thirty. A place of your own is not a bad idea.
"

"
I can
'
t believe this. Summer
'
s here, and she
'
s thirty-five.
"

"
I
'
m not even thirty-four yet!
"

"
Whatever. You
'
re over thirty, with a kid, and living with Mommy.
"
Autumn put her hands on her hips.

"
Do not even go there,
"
I snapped, not liking my sister
'
s close-to-the-mark shot. Much closer than the vase I threw at her.

I had extenuating circumstances.

Right?

"
Girls, please,
"
Mother said.
"
Breath in and out. Let go of your animosity.
"

I huffed.
"
Please Mom, it never worked when we were kids.
"

Autumn, however, closed her eyes, and started slowly breathing.

I rolled my eyes and took the broken glass to the trash can. While Autumn and Mom were meditating in the foyer, I could at least go see what could be moved back into Emma
'
s room so Autumn could have her space.

And I about got ran over by Emma--in full Elsa gear--darting to see her long-lost auntie.

"
Slow down,
"
I said.

She rattled off an apology, but didn
'
t really slow down. Any other day I probably would have jumped on her about it, but tonight I was tired. And she was excited. I couldn
'
t blame her. New person and all. I heard her colliding with Autumn, and my sister
'
s cooing over how big Emma had gotten.

I sighed at the sight of the playroom--toys everywhere.

While I started picking up, I went through a mental list of what I
'
d need to do to move me and Emma out of Mom
'
s house for good.

Because if Autumn was back, then I wasn
'
t going to be able to stay. Our animosity was as legendary as me and Shelby
'
s fight under the bleachers.

While some of it was the typical
"
jealous sister
"
bit--and I knew that--there were other things that were a little more complicated. A lot of it had to do with Autumn being unable to commit to anything.

Personally, I thought she was narcissistic.

Mom said that I exaggerated--Autumn was just like her father.

Which explained a lot. He couldn
'
t commit to anything either, according to the snipits I heard from Mom over the years.

Regardless, Autumn and I never did well together. We were very close in age, and as kids, we fought all the time. Winter was forever trying to keep us from killing each other.

"
See Auntie Autumn, here
'
s my dolly. Her hair is just like yours!
"
Emma held up her red-haired
Monster High
doll.

"
Well, I
'
ll be. She sure is.
"
Autumn held the doll next to her face.
"
We could be sisters!
"

I snorted.
"
Come on, Emma, help me pack up these dolls and put them back in your room.
"
Emma jumped into the middle of her dolly tea party and started packing all the little pieces away into their bins.

"
Cute dolls,
"
Autumn said, picking up another doll--this one with green hair.
"
Maybe I should do this one next time.
"

I raised my eyebrow.
"
I won
'
t do it.
"

"
Did I ask you to?
"

I didn
'
t say anything--again, witty comeback void in my brain--and took the box of toys into Emma
'
s room and tried to stash it somewhere.

"
Sheesh, you don
'
t even care that I
'
m here?
"
Autumn said, following me.

"
I
'
m happy you
'
re home Autumn,
"
I said as politely as I could. Tonight, that was in hairstylist voice. And I
'
m pretty sure Autumn noticed.
"
How long are you staying this time?
"

She took a seat on Emma
'
s bed.
"
Not sure yet. I
'
m waiting to hear back on--
"

"
So you
'
re jobless.
"

"
Rude,
"
Autumn said.
"
And no, Mom said I could work at the salon while Mikelann was on maternity leave. Guess she
'
s leaving next week.
"

Migraine eminent
.

I rubbed my brow.
"
Well, you at least know how to be a receptionist.
"

She shrugged.
"
It
'
s only temporary. I
'
ve got an application in with an airline to be a flight attendant.
"

"
You
'
ll like that, you
'
ll get to travel around.
"
I tried to be happy for my sister. And it wasn
'
t like I didn
'
t want her to find the right place for herself in the world, but I just found her listless existence, well, annoying.

"
I know, I
'
m giddy. I can
'
t wait to hear back about it.
"

Emma came in, grunting as she pushed a tub into the room.
"
Mommy where can I put this?
"

I took the tub and stacked it with the one I
'
d brought in already. They were making Emma
'
s little room look even smaller, but there wasn
'
t much that could be done about that right now.

We
'
ll figure something out. And it may involve us finding our own place.

"
You
'
re going to be on airplanes?
"
Emma asked, her eyes wide.

"
Yes, I will. I
'
ll help passengers get seated, bring them drinks, and take care of them while they
'
re flying.
"

"
That sounds amazing,
"
Emma said, holding her arms out and zooming around her tiny space.

I left them both to their conversation, because, well, as the mommy here, I had things to take care of.

Surely Autumn wouldn
'
t stay long, would she?

Chapter Eight

Wednesday

"
You
'
re kidding,
"
Ortiz--the rookie--said as they took in the chaos before them. Hennessey took a couple of breaths. He expected a certain amount of noise and people, but this was a little more than he anticipated.

Deep breath.

"
It
'
s a good cause, right Sarge?
"
Miller said.

Kids roamed the gymnasium, moving from one section to another. Each table had something going on--the sign outside said charity drive, but really, this was more elaborate than Summer claimed.