“I CAN’T BELIEVE HE HAD THE AUDACITY TO ASK ABOUT ME.”
Kendra tossed her phone down. She’d spoken to Jennifer, who’d told her about Derek, which prompted a call to Trey—who said he hadn’t planned to tell her about the convo with her ex, but reluctantly did.
Whatever sluggishness she’d been feeling had been overridden. She sat up on the lower-level sofa, mentally stoking it.
“I mean seriously, the audacity,” she said again, looking at Molly.
Brooklyn looked up from the movie she was watching, brow furrowed. “What’s audastity?”
“Audacity.” Kendra kissed her forehead. “It means someone has a lot of nerve.”
“Darla already said it.” Molly sat lotus style on the floor, shaking her head. “Schmuck.”
“Why pretend you care? You obviously don’t care.” Kendra spoke to the air, turning now to Molly. “He only went up to my office because others asked about me, and he would’ve looked like a schmuck if he didn’t. Well, guess what? Now he’s a double schmuck.” She rolled her eyes. “Ugh!”
Molly cracked up.
“That face you just made,” Molly said. “You need to capture that on camera. It can be your God’s goodness photo of the day.”
Kendra had to laugh. “Right. Caption: He gives muscles with which to contort the face into maniacal expressions.”
Molly’s eyes lit. “I dare you.”
“Seriously?”
“Double dare.”
Kendra moved faster than she should have and groaned when she got stabbed by a shooting pain.
“I’m sorry,” Molly said. “I shouldn’t have goaded you to get up, especially for something dumb like a schmuck photo.”
“I need it,” Kendra said. “Instead of lying down focused on what hurts, I can do something fun and silly.”
She moved to get up again, waiting for Molly’s help this time, and was glad her camera and tripod were already downstairs. She set up the tripod in the backyard for good lighting and positioned the camera.
Molly watched. “What are you gonna do, run it through your mind again and get mad all over?”
Kendra stood a little ways from the camera. “That’s exactly what I’m gonna do.”
“Okay, cool, I’ll help,” Molly said. She paused, clearing her throat. “Can you believe Derek’s audacity? I mean, the nerve of him stopping by to ask, ‘Hey, how’s Kendra?’ after he dumped you the week before your wedding. Who does that?”
“Exactly!” Kendra said. “Who does that? Who has that much nerve? Every time I think about it, it’s just—ugh!”
Kendra clicked, several times, making even more faces at the camera.
They moved back inside and uploaded the shots on the computer. When the thumbnails of Kendra’s face appeared on-screen, they couldn’t stop laughing.
Brooklyn paused the movie and ran over to see. “Look at your face,” she said, joining the laughter. “Can I make some silly faces for the camera too?”
“You sure can, as soon as I’m done with this.”
Brooklyn ran back, and Kendra and Molly continued surveying the choices.
“Make that one bigger,” Molly said, pointing.
Kendra brought the thumbnail to life on-screen. She’d never noticed the cleft between her brows when she frowned, or the way one eye narrowed more than the other.
“You know,” Kendra said, “jokes aside, it is kind of amazing that God made our faces to move and stretch and dimple like this. It could’ve been a flat, immovable surface.”
Molly made a face herself, stretching it long, which made her laugh. “That’s true. We can do all sorts of things with our faces.”
Kendra brought up her blog and uploaded the picture with a slight change of caption: Today’s goodness: When news that provokes bitterness turns into laughter at funny faces.