Sarah Pekkanen Collection #1 by Sarah Pekkanen

Author:Sarah Pekkanen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books

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Twenty-five

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“HOW’S SEATTLE?” I CRADLED the phone between my neck and ear as I lay down on a couch, settling in for a long talk. Isabelle had been gone for only twenty-four hours, but I’d never missed her more. “And how’s Beth?”

“Gorgeous. Both of them,” Isabelle said, and I could hear joy ringing through her voice like a bell. “She met me at the airport. God, she’s so self-possessed and mature for sixteen! She just walked right up to me at the baggage claim and smiled and said, ‘Hi, I’m Beth.’ Like us meeting was the most natural thing in the world.”

“What was she like? Does she look like you? What did you talk about?”

“Slow down, Katie Couric.” Isabelle laughed, and I knew then that everything had turned out fine. “She’s tall and slender and thoughtful, and yes, she looks a little like me. But mostly she looks like herself. She seems so at home in her skin. I wasn’t that way as a teenager, not at all, even though God knows I tried to fake it. But I did it with cigarettes and low-cut shirts. Beth’s confidence comes from her eyes. She looks right at you when you talk to her.”

“What did you say to her? Was it easy to talk?”

“So easy! She had all these questions about why I put her up for adoption and what my life was like back then. She’s a thinker, Julia. Her dad says she loves crossword puzzles and Sudoku and games like Scrabble. I’m a puzzle for her, too, in a way. I can see her digesting everything I say and fitting it into what she knows about me.”

“She sounds great,” I said. “Did you spend any time with her parents?”

“Yes, after she picked me up, she took me back to her house for a while. She lives in a real house, you know? It’s small and homey, and there are books everywhere and knitted blankets on the backs of the couches. They all have funny mugs to drink coffee; Beth gives her dad a silly one every Christmas. This year’s says, ‘Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation,’ and they told me everyone tries to grab it first in the morning. It’s kind of a running joke, to see who can get it first. Isn’t that the cutest thing you’ve ever heard?”

Isabelle hadn’t had any of those silly little moments that strengthened the fabric of a family when she was growing up, I realized. She’d had maids and nannies and then, practically the day she hit thirteen, a set of Gucci luggage and a plane ticket to a boarding school.

“She’d just gotten her license and it was one of the first times she’d ever driven alone, when she came to pick me up at the airport. I love it that I’ll always be a part of that memory for her. And have I ever told you I’ve got a theory that you can see people’s personalities in the way they drive?”

I covered a laugh with a cough: Isabelle was a maniac behind the wheel.

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