Come on, come on, come on,” London muttered under her breath as she glanced in her rearview mirror, looking for an opening so that she could move into the right lane. Austin traffic was always a bitch, but evening rush hour was a special kind of pain in the ass.
That’s what she got for canceling on her mother and stepmom for the past month. Their weekends were now all booked up—because they both had more interesting lives than she did—and a weeknight was the best either could do. London had come close to suggesting they just skip their monthly dinner altogether, but she was in no mood for the backlash that would cause. She heard enough shrieks of “you work too hard” and “we never see you” already; the last thing she needed to give The Mothers was more ammunition for their argument that she was a workaholic.
Besides, she was intrigued by the sense of urgency she’d gleaned from their multiple text messages today, reminding her at least a half-dozen times about tonight’s dinner. She’d inquired about her dad, wondering if he’d had another TIA, but April had assured her that Kenneth was doing fine.
She quickly took the exit for Bluff Springs, grateful to get out of the traffic snarl. But one quick glance around as she pulled up to an intersection reminded her that she was now smack dab in the middle of Suburban Hell.
Someone could offer her a million dollars for the Craftsman-style bungalow she owned in Hyde Park—in fact, multiple people had offered her well over a million for it—but there was no way London would leave her charming little neighborhood. Not if this tan-colored, strip mall–laden existence was the alternative.
Her mother adored the cookie-cutter house she’d bought several years ago in a planned development just south of the city. And despite the fact that London would get lost if she didn’t know the house number—because there were only three home designs in the development, and they repeated over and over again—she was happy that her mom was happy. Having London’s stepmother, April, nearby also helped.
She always got strange looks whenever she told people that her mother, Janette, and her father’s current wife were best friends.
No, they didn’t grow up together. No, April didn’t steal London’s dad from her mother. Kenneth Kelley had gone through three wives between the time her parents divorced and his latest—and, hopefully, please, God, last—marriage. Her mother and April had hit it off from the very beginning, despite April’s being ten years younger. And her ex-husband’s new wife.
Her family was strange. There was no other way to describe them.
London pulled into the parking lot of the chain restaurant—another aspect of suburban life she could do without—and spotted her mom and stepmom walking up to the restaurant entrance. She blew her horn to get their attention, and pointed to an empty parking spot a few yards away.
Of course, a Prius swooped into the spot before she could get it. Because that’s just how her luck rolled these days.
She circled the steakhouse a couple of times before finding a spot, then quickly made it inside to where her mother and April were waiting. Hugs were dispensed, and the obligatory “skipping meals again?” and “are you getting enough sleep?” questions were asked.
London answered with yes and no, because why lie?
She gestured for them to go ahead of her as they were ushered to a table, but moments after they were seated and served glasses of water, she noticed something was off. The Mothers both had pensive looks on their faces.
“What?” she asked, setting her menu on the table.
Her mother looked to April. “Do you want to tell her?”
Panic immediately seized the air in London’s lungs. “What’s going on?” she asked. “You said Kenneth is doing okay, so who’s sick? Is it you?” she directed at April. “You?” she turned to her mother.
“No one’s sick. It’s not anything like that,” her mom said.
“Then what? You know I don’t play this vague, guessing-game shit. Somebody tell me what’s going on.”
“It’s Nina,” her stepmom said. “She’s not sick, but she is having…issues.”
Nina was her fourteen-year-old half sister, the oldest of her dad and April’s three children. Koko, the youngest of the girls, and Miles, her dad’s only son and his true pride and joy, were eleven and eight. All three were named after Kenneth Kelley’s favorite musicians, Nina Simone, Koko Taylor, and Miles Davis. London was forever grateful that her own mother had pushed back against naming her after Muddy Waters.
“What types of issues is she having?” London asked, finally able to breathe again now that she knew no one was on their deathbed. She took a sip of her water.
“I caught her taking nude photos of herself yesterday,” April blurted.
London choked on the water. “What?”
“You heard me. And not just topless, but full-on nudes! Front and back!”
“Oh, God,” London groaned. She set her elbows on the table and started to massage her temples. “Please tell me she didn’t text them to anyone.”
“April was able to stop her before she could,” her mother said.
“And I stood there and made sure she deleted them from her phone,” April added. “I watched her as she did it.”
“Did she delete them from the deleted files?” London asked. They both stared at her like she’d just flown in from Mars. Wonderful. London took another drink from the cup of water, hoping against hope that it had magically turned into vodka.
“Just a little tip,” she said. “When you delete pictures and videos from your phone, they go into a deleted files folder where they’re still available for thirty days.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that,” April said. She frowned. “I need to make sure some pictures Kenneth and I took—”
“Stop right there.” London held her hand up. “Do not even attempt to finish that statement.” She sucked in a deep breath and slowly blew it out. She made a mental note to contact Taylor about those stress-relieving yoga techniques.
“Back to Nina,” London said. “Why was she taking nudes? Does she have a boyfriend? Did he pressure her into taking the pictures? And did you tell her how easily those can get out and fuc—freaking ruin her life!”
Dammit! She would have hoped that Nina knew better than to do something like this!
“I don’t think she has a boyfriend,” April said. “I think she likes this boy, and she took the pictures because she’s trying to get his attention. The two of them are in the marching band together. He’s a drummer, of course.”
“I thought he played saxophone?” Janette asked.
“No, it’s definitely the drums.”
“That is not the important thing here!” London said.
“Hmm,” her mother said. “As two women who were both married to a musician, let me tell you, it matters, honey.”
“It does.” April nodded.
London had never wanted to flip a table more than she wanted to at this very second.
“Fine,” she said. “This saxophonist or drummer kid, did he pressure Nina into taking the photos? And are you sure this is the first time she’s done this? Or that she hasn’t tried to do it again?”
Damn, how could April even be sure of that? Nina could have taken a bunch of nudes ten minutes after her mom made her delete the ones she’d caught her taking. Those pictures could be making the rounds on the cell phones of horny little marching band members as they sat here ordering dinner. Or, worse, already plastered all over the Internet.
“I don’t know,” April said, her voice trembling. “We got into a big fight over it. I wanted to take her phone away, but then I thought, what if there’s a school shooting or she gets into an accident? How would I get in touch with her?”
London pressed her fingers hard against her temples. She didn’t have any kids because she didn’t want to deal with this kind of shit. Yet, here she was, dealing with this kind of shit.
And where was Kenneth in all of this? Had April even bothered to tell him? Would he have left the golf course, or practice with the seventies cover band he played with on the weekends, or whatever the hell he was into these days to see about his daughter?
The server finally showed up to take their meal order, placing a basket of hot bread in the center of the table and running through a list of dinner promotions. London told him she was good with just the bread, but one look from The Mothers had her adding a side salad and an order of shrimp scampi, which looked to be the least threatening items for someone who was prehypertensive.
Of course, their current conversation was doing more to send her blood pressure through the roof than anything on this menu could ever do.
“I’m assuming you want me to talk to Nina?” she asked once the server was gone.
“Yes, please,” April said. “She looks up to you so much more than you realize, London. She’ll listen to you.”
London wasn’t so sure about that. The fact is, she didn’t see her younger siblings very often. It wasn’t something she was proud of, and she constantly promised herself that she would try to do a better job at being a big sister, but with her schedule and their schedule, which was nearly as hectic as hers with all their extracurricular activities, months could go by before she saw Nina, Koko, and Miles.
The only reason she saw April as much as she did was that she usually tagged along when London and her mom got together for their monthly—okay, every other month these days—dinner.
“I just don’t know what to do about any of this,” April said. “Nina and I have always had such a good relationship, but lately it’s as if I’m enemy number one.”
“She’s fourteen and you’re her mother,” Janette said as she picked up a roll. “Believe me, you are enemy number one. I speak from experience. And it will only get worse.”
“I was not that bad,” London insisted. She looked to April. “I’ll be honest, I’m not even sure how to approach Nina without biting her head off. She should know better.”
“She’s fourteen!” Janette reiterated. “She’s a walking hormone who is trying to impress a boy. You don’t want to hear the kinds of things I did to get boys to notice me when I was that age.”
“No, I do not,” London said. “I never want to hear about that. Ever.” Her mother rolled her eyes at her. “I’ll talk to her,” London said. “And I’ll try to impart just how awful life could get for her if those pictures were to fall into the wrong hands.”
Fall into the wrong hands? Her sister had nearly delivered them with a fucking bow into the wrong hands. Because a fourteen-year-old boy’s hands were always the wrong hands. London’s heart started to pound with panic just at the thought of what could have happened if April hadn’t caught her in the act.
Oh, God. The breadth of this horrible situation suddenly hit her. April had caught her. In. The. Act!
How humiliating must it have been for Nina to have her mother walk in on her taking full-frontal nude photos? London would cringe into eternity if something like that had ever happened to her at that age—or any age.
And now they wanted her to talk to Nina?
But how could she say no?
“What about Saturday?” London asked. “Maybe I can take her to the mall or bowling alley or wherever teenagers like to hang out.” It’s not as if she knew. She hadn’t hung out with other teenagers even back when she was a teenager.
April reached across the table and covered London’s hand. “Thank you so much, honey. I hope you can get through to her.”
London just hoped she made it through the conversation without her head literally exploding.
After dinner, her mom invited her to come over to the house for pound cake. Even though Janette lived only five minutes away and pound cake sounded divine, London declined. She also declined her mother’s leftover flatbread pizza, while making a promise that she would not skip any more meals.
By the time she was in her car and heading back to the freeway, London’s nerves were completely shot, and she was in desperate need of a way to unwind. As she waited at a red light, she picked up her phone and texted Drew.
Want company?
His response was almost instant.
You never have to ask that question. Get over here.
She cursed the stupid smile that formed on her lips, but it refused to go away. They still weren’t friends, but maybe she could move him into the frenemy category.