Marissa Cooper took an abnormally deep breath as she boarded her flight. She was tired and nervous. It was too early in the morning for her day to start. She sighed. This is what you did though when your daughter had her cotillion coming up. She had been surprised when Remy called from Austin to ask her to come out for her cotillion. Part of her was pretty sure that Ryan had put her up to calling. The rest of her liked to think that her daughter actually liked her enough to want her to be there for her special day. Marissa sort of scoffed quietly as she got comfortable in her seat. She knew that Remy had absolutely no reason to want her there. Marissa and Remy weren't exactly close.

When Remy was two and a half years old Marissa started drinking pretty heavily. At the time Ryan simply accepted her destructive actions. She had just started planning parties and was getting pretty big on the club circuit. He figured it was just her way of getting ahead. A year and a half later he was tired of raising their daughter on his own and then having to take care of his wife in the middle of the night when she came home throwing up. He told her that she better check herself into rehab or that he was leaving and taking Remy with him. She had dismissed his ultimatum until of course he actually left and he took their only daughter with them. Fast forward twelve years Marissa was finally sober, but Ryan and Remy had moved on and lived a comfortable life in Austin, Texas. From what Summer told her Ryan was the hottest architect in Texas and had been responsible for some of the biggest projects in the state. Basically he was raising her really well.

Marissa smiled every time she thought of Ryan raising this sixteen year old girl basically on his own. She had a feeling that their daughter was what some would consider eccentric. He made a point to send her pictures regularly and to keep her somewhat in the loop of Remy's busy life. She never worried about how Ryan would get along without her. It was more or less how she would get along without him.

They got married spontaneously. It had all started out as a joke. Ryan and Marissa had gone out to Vegas for the weekend to just sort of spend time alone before they went back to their respective colleges. For him it was Stanford. For her it was UCLA. They were playing slots and getting wasted and just having a good time. It was when they were stumbling back to their hotel room that the idea came up. They were waiting for the elevator up to their suite when they saw a couple stagger out of a room. They had just gotten married and were going on and on about the guy who performed the service. Apparently he was dressed up like Frank Sinatra. Ryan and Marissa were drunk and intrigued so they went to check it out. Neither one of them is sure exactly how they ended up married but somehow it happened. They finished school and then started a family. They had the perfect life. And then Marissa decided she wanted to use her degree and actually go to work. With work came alcohol and the occasional hit.

She watched the woman push the drink cart down the aisle. She could almost smell the vodka from her seat. If only she could take a sip to just calm her nerves. She knew that a sip would lead to a glass and a glass would lead to a bottle and a bottle would lead to Ryan sending her back to California. She wanted to be sober for Ryan and Remy. She needed to be sober for them. When the woman politely asked her what she wanted Marissa did the safe thing and asked for an Evian. She took a sip of the water, stared out the window, and waited for the plane to land.

Ryan smiled at the young man who suddenly appeared in his kitchen. He pushed a plate of pancakes at him. "She's upstairs being sullen."

Collier nodded as he grabbed a pancake off of the plate. He had been dating Remy for three years. Her acting this way did not throw him off in the slightest. He knew she would storm downstairs in a few minutes and act as though this whole thing didn't bother her when everyone knew it did.

Remy sat down at the kitchen table and poured herself a glass of orange juice. She was wearing a pair of shorts and an old Texas A&M t-shirt.

"Don't you think you should wear one of the outfits she bought you?" Ryan asked without actually looking up from his paper. He knew she was only doing this to get under his skin. Sometimes he wished his daughter was a little less passive aggressive.

"I like what I'm wearing. Besides I have to wear a cocktail dress all night." Remy was not looking forward to the pre-cotillion mixer tonight. She hated mixers. Her father always said it was the price you paid if you wanted to be a multi-millionaire. She often felt as though being middle class was a much better life anyway.

Collier finished his pancake and then looked at his watch. "Are you going to change or not because we need to leave for the airport in like two minutes?" He didn't see the point in wording it differently. When it came to Remy he was almost always blunt.

"Not." Remy huffed. "I still can't believe your making us pick her up from the airport when it was your idea for her to visit."

Collier unhooked his keys from his belt loop. He fixed the belt buckle he was wearing. He couldn't remember where he was when he won it. "Thanks for the pancake."

Ryan kissed his daughter on the cheek. "Don't be too hard on her Remy. Your mother is a recovering alcoholic. The last thing she needs is to be pushed into a relapse. I love you too. I'll see you tonight."

The two things Marissa hated most about flying were not the uncomfortable seats or the lack of personal space, but rather landing and taking off. She pulled her Chanel sunglasses out of her purse and used them to hide the bags that she knew were under her eyes. She wished flying wasn't so hard on her looks. She ran her fingers though her hair. She wanted to look as good as possible when she saw Remy.

Remy tried to ignore the fact that her heart was beating rather loudly. She didn't want to be nervous. She figured if she ignored her heart then she wouldn't be nervous. She looked over at Collier who was flipping through this months issue of Sports Illustrated. She looked down at his belt buckle. "That was a good one."

"A good what?"

"Rodeo," Remy replied as she pointed to his belt buckle. She loved his buckles. They were a part of him as much as her arm was a part of her.

"I can't even remember where I was when I won it." Collier admitted. In the last two years Collier had competed in over eighty rodeos. He rode bulls way more than he read books.

"Lubbock. That was the one where your hand got trapped as you were trying to get off the bull and he proceeded to try to trample you." Remy could still recall just how scared she had been as Collier struggled to get away from the bull.

"Flight 769 from Orange County, California has arrived at Gate 13."

Remy let out a ragged breath she hadn't realized she was holding in. She looked over at Collier. "She's here."

"I know."

"Then why aren't we moving towards the gate?"

"I thought you might need a moment to collect yourself." Collier told her.

Remy nodded. That was one of the pluses about dating a guy for as long as she dated Collier. Even though sometimes she wished there was more mystery she loved how well he knew her. He could read her like a book. Sometimes it bothered her. Moments like these though it made her smile. "I'm collected."

Marissa instantly recognized Remy the moment she got off of the plane. Remy in a lot of ways looked just like Marissa. She was thin. She had long dirty blonde hair. She had delicate features. The only difference really was her height, she couldn't have been more than 5'5". She rushed towards her daughter and hugged her. She frowned when she felt Remy tense up at her touch. "It's been too long Remy, way too long."

Remy fought the urge to ask whose fault was that. She did what she knew her father would want her to do. "I know."

Marissa looked over Remy's shoulder and found that a tall, thin, and extremely handsome young man was standing there watching her. "Who's this?"

"Mom, this is my boyfriend Collier. Collier this is my mother Marissa Cooper-Atwood." Remy felt a bit odd introducing the two.

Marissa grinned at how cute the two of them looked together. She thought about correcting her daughter. She no longer went by Cooper-Atwood. It made her feel too much like her mother. "It's nice to meet you Collier."

Remy couldn't help but keep looking over at her mother as they made their way from the gate to baggage claim.

Marissa was surprised when Collier not only grabbed her bag but then refused to let her carry it. She could see why her daughter liked this boy. She made a mental note to find out more about them later. "So are you excited for your cotillion?"

Collier scoffed even though he tried very hard not to.

Remy elbowed him in his side. "Um I wouldn't exactly say excited, more like anxious."

Marissa sensed that was a nice way of saying hell no. From what Ryan told her Remy didn't really seem like the cotillion type. She preferred painting to pampering. "Well I am. You don't know how excited I was when you asked me to come here. It meant a lot to me."

Remy felt a little guilty when she heard this last part. She wished she had taken her father's advice and worn something a little nicer. Her mother was the kind of woman who dressed like it was a fashion show no matter what the day called for. She had even made being pregnant seem posh, even though that was way before maternity wear actually looked somewhat flattering. "I'm glad to hear that."

Marissa knew she was in Texas when Collier's vehicle of choice turned out to be a very large truck. She felt a bit silly when Collier had to help her climb in. Her daughter seemed to be a natural at riding in large trucks. She figured that came with growing up in this area. She also figured that if she had chosen to leave with them instead of drinking she too would have been a natural at getting in big trucks. Her jaw dropped just slightly when they pulled into the driveway of Ryan and Remy's home. It was very Dallas. She could just picture J.R. smirking on the front porch. "This is definitely not what I was expecting."

"This is Austin Mom, not Burnet, we don't fit the Texas stereotypes."