Alison’s grin faded and she adjusted her bikini top.
“Oh, God, I’m sorry,” Cindy said, her eyes tearing. “How could I say something that stupid?”
“It’s okay,” Alison sighed. “I’m just still not over it all.” She took a quick glance at her dad, and was almost certain he was pretending he hadn’t heard. Scott, however, made no such pretense.
“It’s just going to take time — after
“But you’re a big sissy,” Michael said, finally putting down his book. “And you were five years older than Alison, too, which is really pathetic.”
“It wasn’t pathetic,” Scott began. “It was very tragic. Alison has a right—”
Alison suddenly found herself laughing. “Will you two stop it? Yes, I really miss Mom, but I’m okay. But let’s be honest,” she added, looking down at her breasts. “Cindy’s not that far wrong. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t, but at least Conrad gave me good ones. So let’s talk about something else, okay? Like Stanford.”
“Well, I didn’t get a scholarship like you did,” Cindy said, “so I’ll have to find a job.”
Alison brightened. “Oooh, I’ll get one, too, and then we can live off campus.”
“Slow down, amigos,” Michael said. “I think you can both live in the dorm, at least for the first year.”
“I say we celebrate with a frozen yogurt,” Scott said. “Ladies? What’s your pleasure?”
“Vanilla,” Alison said, lying back down on her towel as Cindy ordered chocolate. Typical — best friends and total opposites.
With Cindy on one side and her two fathers on the other, and with the warm Santa Monica sun shining down on her from above, Alison felt some of the weight of her grief for her mother lift.
Scott was right — it was going to take time. But she had time, and for the first time in a year, she was starting to see that in spite of everything that had happened, she still had the future stretched out ahead of her.
If only her mother could be here to be part of it…
“Hey, Mom,” she whispered. “Did you hear that? Cindy and I are going to be roommates at Stanford.” Then, realizing she’d actually spoken the words out loud, she opened her eyes and found her father smiling at her. “I’m going to make Mom proud of me,” she said. “I really am.”
“She already is, cupcake,” Michael said. “She always was.”
