Connie's POV:
My mind raced as I sped down back roads on the way to Connellsville Airport. Jules was still at school, but I had insisted on picking her mom up at the airport so she wouldn't have to take a cab. I was now starting to regret that decision. I mean, I didn't even know this person. I was fully prepared not to like her. She was just another one of the women my dad had thought he'd been in love with. And she was not my mother.
I wondered how my mom would have handled this situation. With her usual graciousness and kindness, no doubt. I would try my best to do the same, I decided.
But there was so much more on my mind besides the arrival of my half-sister's absentee mother. I was kicking myself over my hasty retreat from Penny and Wooton's house the evening before. I knew Penny would be hurt.
Sure, I was thrilled my best friend and her husband were expecting a baby. Wasn't I? I just couldn't make myself feel the elation I knew I was supposed to feel about their announcement. This was going to be just one more big change I'd have to learn to deal with.
It seemed like anyone who ever meant anything to me got to change and move on in life. Eventually they all left or got married or had babies, while I faded into irrelevance. Always left behind, unchanging and alone.
Connie, get it together, I reprimanded myself. I'd been through all of this before—so many times it started to feel like a broken record, playing the same thing over and over and over again.
But then there was Jeff. That was something different. We'd been spending a lot of time together lately. Sometimes as part of a group, sometimes alone together. Although I'd sworn off dating, lately I'd begun to feel some things I hadn't felt in a long time. I wondered if he felt the same. But—no—I didn't want to know.
My feelings scared me. I tried to push them out of my mind, but they kept popping back up somehow. I didn't want to get hurt. And I also wanted to make sure this was real—that I wasn't just making something up to fill a void or meet expectations.
But there was no time to think about that now.
This is it, I said to myself as I pulled into the arrivals lane, heart pounding. She was waiting by the curb with a pile of suitcases that made it look like she'd brought her entire house with her. I honestly wasn't sure what I'd expected her to look like. Why had I never asked Jules to show me a photo of her?
I had to restrain a gasp as her image came into focus. She was drop-dead gorgeous. Dark hair fell in loose waves past her shoulders, and a Hollywood smile flashed across her face. Sharply clad in a well-cut blazer and dark-wash skinny jeans, she looked like she'd just walked out of the boardroom of a hot new tech startup, not an airport.
It startled me to realize that she couldn't have been more than 10 years older than I was, though she looked like she could've been younger than me. I wondered if she'd had any plastic surgery.
"Over here!" I rolled down the passenger window and waved as I put the car in park.
"Connie!" She clacked over to me in her high heels and smothered me in a hug. "Oh, hi! I've just been DYING to meet you. I've heard so much about you."
"Same here!" I almost squeaked out the words, trying to match her enthusiasm. "Um, is it alright if I put a couple of these bags in the back seat?" I asked, frowning at the rapidly-filling trunk of my tiny hatchback.
"Oh, sure! Wherever it'll fit works for me! Sorry, I usually take Uber Black—you know—with those huge SUV's so there's usually PLENTY of room."
"We'll make it work." I forced a laugh, cramming in the last of her bags and slamming the trunk before it could all come crashing down on me like an avalanche. "Ready to head out? You go by Jan, right? Is it alright if I call you that?"
"Well, actually, I'm going by Gigi now." She slid into the passenger seat, and I started the engine. "It's short for my middle name, actually—January Garnet Faulkner's my full name, you know. See, garnet is the birthstone for January—weird, right? But what can you do? Anyway, my agent thought I should start using a different first name. I mean, January is such a mouthful, and Jan is just—well, it sounds like somebody's grandma. Don't you think?"
"Yeah, sure. I mean, I guess…" This was going to be a long car ride.
I felt my throat tighten as we neared Whit's End, where we'd planned to meet up with Jules. As nervous as I'd been to meet Jules's mom, I think I was even more anxious to see how mother and daughter would react to seeing each other for the first time in months. And in the back of my mind, there was a nagging feeling that Gigi wouldn't be going back to California alone.