Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Sienna was old enough now to know that the tricks they performed were just that, but she couldn’t help watching them practice with pure delight in her heart and a gasp on her lips when an act went just right.
There was something enchanting and beautiful about the choreography alone when it came to a perfectly executed show.
“Today . . . ,” Mirabelle repeated. Sienna opened her mouth to speak, but Mirabelle grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. “Come with me. I have an idea.”
“An idea? Mirabelle . . .” Mirabelle pulled her into her bedroom at the back of the trailer. She let go of Sienna’s hand and stepped up to a dresser next to the door. This room smelled even more strongly of lily of the valley, and her bed featured a quilt of yellow roses. Mirabelle opened the top drawer of the dresser and pulled out a small wooden box. She opened it and reached inside, and Sienna noticed a stack of photos, but Mirabelle covered them with her hand before Sienna had a chance to see who they were of. Her family? Mirabelle didn’t ever talk about her family. She didn’t have any pictures hung—except of Gavin—and she and Gavin never had any relatives over for holidays or anything else, but maybe she’d had a falling-out with them.
Sienna wanted to ask, but she also didn’t want to invade Mirabelle’s privacy.
Mirabelle brought something out of the box and held it up. Sienna blinked. It was a beautiful, delicate silver bracelet with pale-purple stones. “Do you think your friend would like this?”
Sienna’s gaze flew to Mirabelle’s. “Like it? Oh yes, but I couldn’t—”
“You can, and you will.” Mirabelle took Sienna’s hand and pressed the bracelet into it. Without letting go of her closed fist, Mirabelle looked down, seeming to be considering what she was about to say. “I know I haven’t spoken of Gavin’s father,” she started haltingly, meeting Sienna’s curious gaze, “but he was not a nice man, Sienna. He was violent and cruel, and so I took Gavin and I left him.”
“Oh,” Sienna breathed. “I’m so sorry,” she said, her voice small.
But Mirabelle smiled. “Don’t be sorry, love. I’m not. Our life is better without him.” But something shifted slightly in her expression, as though she wasn’t entirely sure of what she said.
“And . . . and you have Argus,” Sienna said, wanting to make the haunted look in Mirabelle’s eyes disappear.
Mirabelle’s worried frown transformed into a gentle smile. “Yes. Yes, I have Argus.”
Mirabelle let go of her hand, and Sienna opened it, the bracelet catching the light and sparkling up at her. “It’s not an expensive piece,” Mirabelle said, her words rushed. “But more than that, it has . . . difficult memories attached to it. I should have given it away long ago.” She stared at it, appearing troubled for a few moments before seeming to catch herself, her smile brightening. “It must be fate that I kept it and that it should belong to Amybeth. Let it make new memories. Good ones.”
Sienna considered it doubtfully. It was lovely. And Amybeth was kind. Sienna would love to gift it to her, but she wasn’t certain she should allow Mirabelle to give her something that—despite her words—looked valuable.
But if it was, wouldn’t she have sold it by now? There were several times she’d seen Mirabelle wringing her hands, a worried frown on her face as she’d gone through her bills. “I—”
“Oh! And I have a box that will be perfect for it too.” She grinned, pulling Sienna into a hug. “Say yes, Sienna, and you go to that party and have the time of your life. Nothing would make me happier.”
Sienna smiled back, love and gratitude gripping her so that she could hardly breathe. “Okay, Mirabelle. Thank you. Thank you so much.”
A little boy caught Sienna’s attention, breaking her from the recollection that had tears burning the backs of her eyes. God, it’d been a long time since she’d let herself get so fully immersed in a memory. The child ran from the side of one of the trailers and ducked behind a tree, holding his hand over his mouth as though to keep himself from laughing out loud as three other children turned the same corner he had, each ducking behind a tree or the side of a porch. They were playing hide-and-go-seek. Mirabelle had never let them play that particular game. It’d made her nervous, she’d said, that one of them would hide somewhere and get trapped. And she’d looked genuinely distraught when she’d said it, so Sienna and Gavin had obeyed. At least while she was home. Sienna’s lips tipped slightly, and she swallowed her emotion down as she watched the innocent game play out, the “finder” making the others howl with glee as he located them. These kids were young still. They lived and played with optimistic joy. They weren’t old enough yet to realize that others would look down on them for where they came from. They weren’t self-conscious of their secondhand clothes or their parents’ broken-down car that would likely backfire in the carpool lane and make others nearby dive for the bushes in fear that a lunatic was firing a weapon into the crowd.