Grissom left Sara's Place after breakfast to visit his mother, so Sara felt relief that she would not have to see him for most of the day.
She accompanied Polexia to Apollo and Dionysus Bridal not soon afterwards. She sat in the front seat of Wiley's Ford while Elizabeth, Megan and Sophie crammed into the backseat.
"What about Kirya?" asked Sophie.
"What about her, honey?" asked Polexia, already taking on the motherly role for her stepdaughters.
"What about her dress?"
"Kirya's mother is taking care of her dress," Polexia replied and to Sara whispered, "Veronica got a great deal at one of the pageant warehouses."
"Oh," was all Sara could say.
Maia was happy to see Sara again and delighted to see the younger girls. Of course, the final adjustments were made for everyone.
"You guys can take these home today," she said, smoothing the skirt of Elizabeth's junior bridesmaid dress.
"Good," Polexia smiled. "And you guys will get your flowers on the day of the wedding I'm having wreaths made for the girls."
"Sounds lovely, Polly. How's Elsa? Trying to squeeze into her dress?" Maia made a face as if she'd bitten into a rotten walnut.
"Last I heard she was eating nothing and drinking only water."
Sara wanted to laugh.
"Beauty is pain, my dears," Maia smiled as she helped Megan out of her dress.
Once Maia was assured that each dress was perfect in its own way and fit to a T, she packed each dress with loving care and sent the girls on their way.
"That was fun," Sophie said as they piled into the old Ford, the dresses in the trunk. Sara could tell Polexia was nervous about putting them in there, but there was no room in the backseat.
"We're gonna look sooo pretty in our dresses!" Megan exclaimed.
"I can't wait!" Elizabeth squealed. "I want to take lots of pictures to show my friends back at school!"
"Keep the camera away from me," Sara muttered.
"I can't," Elizabeth said. "I have to show my friends. I tell all of them about my cool aunt Sara."
"Really?" Sara twisted around in the front seat.
"Yeah. I tell them about your job mostly, but that makes you cool."
"Is that the only thing that makes me cool?"
"Of course it is."
Megan and Sophie giggled as Sara rolled her eyes. "Very funny, Libby."
"We think you're cool anyway," Sophie said proudly. "We don't care about your job."
"Yeah," Megan affirmed, sticking her tongue out at Elizabeth, who retaliated with the same maneuver. Sophie did the same at Elizabeth again, to get even.
"Hey," Polexia said, looking in her rearview mirror at the girls. "Do I have a backseat of young ladies or snakes?"
Sara had to laugh. "You're gonna make a super step mom, Polly."
"You think so?" Polexia grinned.
"Sure."
Polexia gave a sigh full of relief. "Thank you, Sara," she said, reaching over and squeezing Sara's hand. "I needed to hear that."
Later that day, Sara was sitting on the front steps reading a book Wiley lent her, The Da Vinci Code, when a sleek black limousine pulled up to the front of Sara's Place. She looked up and down the street, wondering if anyone else was watching. Who could this be?
The passenger door flung open and a little girl's high, chime like voice echoed across the rolling lawn. "AUNT SA-WA!"
Sara stood up and grinned widely. She knew exactly who this was. She put down her book, stood and held her arms out, "Kiki!" she exclaimed.
Rosy and dimpled, Kirya, Sara's five-year-old niece, stumbled out of the limo wearing an extravagant peach dress, a mess of ruffles and sequins, and a prizewinning smile. Sara could tell she was fresh from her latest beauty pageant, just by the excitement in the girl's eyes and the makeup that was still caked onto her face. She ran across the lawn and flung herself, full force, into her aunt's arms. Sara buried her nose in Kirya's golden curls and inhaled a harmony of scents—perfume, hairspray, leather.
Kirya's mother, Veronica, stepped out of the limo moments later, shouting, "Kirya Grace, don't wrinkle that dress!" and slipping Versace sunglasses in front of her eyes and stepping across the lawn of Sara's Place in lavender high-heeled sandals. She was dressed in a lavender skirt and blazer outfit, her blonde hair piled like soft-serve ice cream on top of her head, her makeup perfect. She put a hand over her eyes, "Sara, is that you?"
"Veronica! Hi!" Sara put Kirya down and held the child's hand. "How'd she do?"
"Second runner up," Veronica cringed behind her sunglasses. "We were beaten by a six year old whose talent was balloon animals."
"That's impressive for a six year old."
"Kirya was very broken up, weren't you, Kirya?" Veronica bent to touch her daughter's cheek with the palm of her hand and then held Kirya's chin between her thumb and forefinger. "But now we know that if we want to place higher next time, we need to learn our song a little better." Veronica had Kirya sing for her talent, dressing her up like Shirley Temple and singing "Good Ship Lollipop".
Kirya did a curtsy and giggled. Then she stuck her tongue out at Mommy. She didn't look broken up to Sara.
"Are you staying for the wedding?" Sara asked curiously.
"Oh, God no," sighed Veronica with disgust. "No, no, I just came by to drop Kirya off and I'm off to Puerto Rico for the long weekend with my friend Rosemarie and her private jet. Kirya, on the other hand, has spoken of nothing else but coming to see her sisters and her aunt Sa-rah."
"Aunt Sa-wa," Kirya grinned.
"Rah, darling, rah. You need to enunciate those R's. Tsk. I must employ a speech coach for her, or she'll never outgrow that lisp," Veronica sighed.
Sara smiled, "I don't know, Veronica. You can get away with a lot with a lisp like that. Could be why she's won all those titles."
"Mmm. Well, I'm off. Please give Wiley and his new wifey my regards," Veronica air-kissed Sara on both cheeks and gave Kirya a nice big one that left a smudge of lipstick. "Be a good girl, Kirya, and play nice with the other children." She tapped Kirya on the nose with a perfectly manicured finger. "By the way, I'm putting Kirya in the Holiday Princess pageant again this year, Sara. I hope you'll be able to make an encore appearance."
"I'll sure try."
With that, Veronica got back into the limo and took off, but not before the driver had brought Kirya's luggage to the porch of Sara's Place.
Last year, Veronica had enrolled Kirya in a pageant around Christmastime: the Holiday Princess pageant she had spoken of. It was held annually in Las Vegas and Veronica notified Sara, who never passed up an opportunity to see her nieces and she accepted the invitation. When she got there, she almost wished she hadn't—screaming children, tense mothers and the smell of hairspray was permeated the hotel ballroom where the pageant was being held. She also hated the way these girls were dolled up and horrible images of JonBenet Ramsey flashed in front of her eyes. There were one hundred girls in ten age groups were competing—poor Kirya was a speck on the radar. However, when she saw her aunt Sa-wa rooting her on, her face erupted into the biggest smile the girl could muster.
"I'm gonna sing and dance extra hard today for you!" she brightly told Sara before she went on stage for the first number.
There was only so much of the pageant that Sara could handle. It was sickening. She said nothing to Veronica, of course, who prattled on endlessly about this girl or that girl and her mother or what this mother did to get her daughter's last title. Sara spent the majority of the event in the hotel lobby, on her cell phone or laptop but kept a keen ear out for Kirya's name to be announced for each portion.
While most children would begin to bawl wildly at the sudden absence of their mother, Kirya stood strong as she watched Veronica's limo slink away. She tilted her pretty blonde head up and gave Sara an angelic look. "I'm not gonna cry, Aunt Sa-wa. So don't worry."
"I won't worry," Sara promised. She knelt and removed Veronica's lipstick residue from the child's cheek with the corner of her denim jacket. "Come on, let's go see your daddy."
"Where's Veronica?" asked Wiley when Sara had escorted Kirya to the backyard where the rest of the family was having lunch on the patio.
"Puerto Rico. She dropped Kirya off five minutes ago. Tell your daddy what you placed, Kirya."
"Second wunner up," Kirya announced happily.
"Placed? Don't tell me Veronica put her in another Tiny Little Darling Princess Pageant?" Wiley winced. He was not the biggest fan nor a supporter of child beauty pageants. When they were married, he couldn't stand the amount of money Veronica spent on the "habit", as he called it, between costumes and training. Sara secretly believed it was why he divorced her.
"I think it's sweet."
"Sunshine, I pray that you never have a daughter," Wiley shook his head with a smile.
She didn't tell Wiley that she prayed the same exact thing.
A/N So sorry so short!