The Grass Is Always Greener

by Jen Calonita

  Like Zoe’s e-mail. She had reread it three times. Part of her wanted to reply, but she wasn’t sure Zoe would even read it. She’d once said her in-box had over a hundred new messages she hadn’t gotten to yet.

  California.

  Emerald Cove.

  California.

  Brayden.

  Her mind went to him whenever she had this push-and-pull debate. How could she pack her life up and leave him and Mira? She didn’t know if she had it in her to walk away from a place she was finally beginning to know like the back of her hand for the unknown with Zoe. When she was with her mom’s sister, she always felt like there were more questions than answers. Why didn’t her mom tell Zoe she was pregnant? Why wasn’t Zoe talking to her mom when she died? Why did it take till now for Zoe to reach out to her? But the biggest question of all was the one she would never have an answer to: Why did Grams keep all this from her?

  As Izzie rose to the surface to take a breath, she thought of Grams’s safe-deposit box again. The key to it still sat untouched in her desk drawer. She wasn’t sure why she was so afraid to see what was in there. She knew Grams wasn’t hiding a small fortune. Maybe the box held the diamond necklace she always claimed she’d hocked or something of her mother’s she’d kept. Whatever it was, Izzie still wasn’t ready to open herself up to the emotions that came with seeing it.

  She reached the end of the lap lane and stopped for a moment, resting her chin on the edge of the pool. She had turned on the pool’s stereo system when she arrived, and instrumental jazz music floated through the high-ceilinged room. Coach Greff always had it playing during practice. She said it helped them concentrate on their strokes. Today, it was making Izzie sleepy. She was going to need a nap before the Crystal Ball, and Mira would be furious. She’d already planned on them getting ready with Charlotte, Nicole, and Violet back home. Knowing Mira, that meant starting at two. She pulled herself out of the pool and headed to the locker room. If that was the case, it was time to go home and face the grooming squad. She headed to the locker room and ran into Savannah. “Guess we both had the same idea this morning,” Izzie said.

  Savannah placed her goggles on her head, a stony expression on her face. “You and I never have the same idea.”

  Savannah was always less friendly without an audience, but Izzie wasn’t sure why she was being so hostile now. Their booth at the street fair had been a smash, just like their parade float before it. Like each other or not, they were rocking it as club cochairs. Instead, Savannah was glaring at her as if Izzie had stolen the last Oreo in the box. “What’s gotten into you?” Izzie asked. “I thought you’d be taking interviews with the local news by now about how you single-handedly reinvented the street fair.”

  “You think you’re so funny.” Savannah’s voice wavered, and Izzie looked at her strangely. “You’ve won, okay? I give up. The only person anyone was talking about yesterday was you! ‘Look how much the Monroe girl knows about the children’s hospital. Isn’t it lovely how well Isabelle holds herself in front of reporters?’ ” Savannah crumpled onto the locker-room bench, and Izzie could swear she was about to cry real tears. “The Junior League couldn’t stop talking about what a turnaround you’ve made since you arrived in EC. Everyone thought your work on the Falling into You Fest was a fluke, but after the fair, people think you’re the second coming of Victor Strausburg!” Her forehead creased. “No one thanked me for my work yesterday. It’s as if I didn’t even exist. Even my mom commented on how lovely your wings looked, and the wings were my idea!” Her brown eyes were hollow as she looked up at Izzie. “So gloat all you want. I know when I’ve been beaten.”

  Izzie wasn’t sure how to react. Here Savannah was waving the white flag and Izzie still didn’t feel satisfied. What fun was winning when the other team forfeited? Savannah tamed was not a pretty sight. She almost felt bad for her. “You’re not beaten. If you’re worried about losing your crown, don’t be,” Izzie told her. “I do not want to be queen. Just go swim.” She started to walk away. “And try not to drown.”

  “I know you know there is no Pierce.” Savannah’s cool voice echoed in the empty locker room. “I guess you’ll be using that as leverage now, too.”

  Izzie turned around. She’d had a hunch. “If you want to create a fake boyfriend, that’s your issue, not mine. I just assumed you made him up to make Brayden jealous.”

  Savannah’s brown eyes turned steely. “I’ve been over Brayden since the minute I found out he liked you. It was bad enough he dumped me, then left me hanging at cotillion, but to not have someone else waiting in the wings? I looked like a loser.” Izzie wasn’t sure why Savannah was telling her all this. “I couldn’t bear another question about who I was taking to the next charity-league auction, so instead I made someone up till I could find a guy who was everything I wanted.” She shrugged. “It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever done.”

  That was for sure. Izzie was happy being with Brayden, but if she didn’t have a boyfriend, she wouldn’t mind going it alone. Savannah obviously thought differently. It was kind of sad.

  “The worst thing I’ve done in a while,” Savannah said, trancelike, “was humiliating Mira at my sweet sixteen.” She looked down. “Which is why I don’t blame you guys for not inviting me to yours.”

  Izzie blushed slightly. Sending Savannah an invitation had been a hot topic between her and her sister. Some days they felt they should invite her just to keep the peace; other days Mira got upset all over again about what had happened at Savannah’s party. In the end, they decided not to send her an invitation.

  “It feels funny not being invited to something that everyone is talking about,” Savannah admitted. “That’s never happened to me before.”

  Izzie thought Savannah looked tiny without a posse around her. Izzie still didn’t like Savannah, but maybe there was a part of her that was starting to understand EP’s queen bee. No one liked being left out, she realized, thinking of Kylie. Maybe she could extend an olive branch to Savannah just this one time. “Do you think you could find a dress to wear by next weekend?”

  Savannah eyed her with suspicion. “I always have a dress on standby. Why?”

  Izzie headed to the showers before she could second-guess what she was about to say. “Your party invite will be in the mail today. Just don’t make me regret sending it.” And just saying that made Izzie smile. It was nice to have the upper hand for a change.

  “I’m home!” Izzie yelled as she came through the front door. She didn’t expect anyone to actually answer. Her aunt and Mira were probably getting their hair done before Mira’s and Izzie’s friends arrived to prep together. (Izzie was just going to let the girls do her hair later.) Her dad had probably taken Connor to his friend’s for the night, and Hayden was most likely helping Kylie get ready for her EC debut.

  But Aunt Maureen surprised her by yelling back. “We’re in the kitchen!” Izzie walked in and found her aunt sitting at the island with her dad, who was reading the paper.

  “Shouldn’t you guys be getting ready?” Izzie asked, and then realized that Aunt Maureen’s hair had already been fashioned in an updo.

  Her dad looked at her over his reading glasses. “You don’t look like you’re getting ready yet, either.” He smirked. “Have a good swim?”

  She felt her wet head. Of course he would know where she’d been. “Yep. I was clearing my head.”

  Her dad frowned. “I’m sorry about the assault at the street fair. I was told the press wanted to talk about the Emerald Cove Children’s Hospital, but obviously Grayson’s coverage has everyone looking for a sleazier angle.”

  “It’s okay,” Izzie said, even though it wasn’t. “I just wish they had shown up after the street fair. We could have bragged about how our booth made seven hundred dollars for the Emerald Cove Children’s Hospital and that you matched the donation.”

  “Sadly, that is not the kind of story they want to cover these days.” Her dad grimaced. “I just got off the phone with my st
aff. I told them from now on they are not to comment on anything regarding my children, and if they get any calls from Grayson, they are to turn them over to me immediately.” His hazel eyes blazed. “Grayson is getting a warning call from my lawyers as we speak. If he wants to come after me and my record, let him try. But he cannot continue to gun for my children.”

  Aunt Maureen poured him another cup of coffee. “I wonder how Grayson Reynolds would like it if someone went after his sons.” She touched her pearls. “How can his wife allow him to pick on innocent children?”

  “Whether I win this election or not, Grayson is not going to get off easily,” he vowed. “I’m not going to be happy till I see him gone from his job at the Gazette.”

  Izzie had never seen him out for blood before. “You’d really try to get him fired?”

  “He’s been trying to do the same to me forever,” her dad said. “Maybe it is time for his life to be under the same scrutiny that mine is.”

  Izzie thought of Zoe. She was so good at spinning lies that she could have been a tabloid reporter herself. She talked a big game, but there was always another celebrity to charm, a shoot to do, or friends to see. Would life in California be more of the same? “My mom would have loathed a guy like Grayson, don’t you think?” she asked suddenly, wondering how similar the sisters could be.

  “Yes,” he said without hesitating. “She wouldn’t have liked Grayson’s dirty work one bit. It was always Zoe who was a bit more theatrical.”

  That was the opportunity Izzie had been waiting for. “If you know Zoe so well, why did you never tell me about her before she showed up?” Izzie asked, somewhat hesitantly. She noticed her aunt and dad look at each other.

  “Maybe I should give you two some time alone,” her aunt suggested. “I should start getting ready anyway. Once the girls descend on this house, there won’t be a mirror free.”

  Izzie didn’t want Aunt Maureen to feel like she was being pushed out, but she understood if the conversation made her feel uncomfortable. Even though no one said it, if things had been different, Aunt Maureen wouldn’t be the one standing in this kitchen. Her mom would. But that’s not the way life worked out, and who was she to say which way would have been better? She adored Aunt Maureen. That didn’t mean she missed her mom any less. “Please stay,” Izzie begged.

  Her aunt shook her head. “This is a conversation for you and your dad to have.” She squeezed Izzie’s arm on the way out. “But if you need me, you know where to find me.”

  Her dad slid over a plate of cookies, but Izzie wasn’t hungry. “So you want to know about me and Zoe,” he said, sounding tired at just the thought of the conversation. “All right. But all I can tell you is what I remember from years ago. Until she showed up around Christmas, I hadn’t seen her since Chloe and I were together.” He stared at her sadly. “When your social worker told me your grandmother reached out to her first to be your guardian and she had said no, I thought, She must be the same selfish girl I knew back then. It made me think you were better off not having your heart broken by her after all you’d been through. That’s why I didn’t tell you about her.”

  We’d be like sisters, Zoe had said. Zoe had gone from disowning her to wanting to be her sister. It was hard to wrap her head around. “So you two never got along?” Izzie asked.

  Her dad gave her a politician’s answer. “We didn’t see eye to eye on many things.”

  “Like?” Izzie pressed.

  He took off his reading glasses. “Zoe and I were always competing for Chloe’s attention. It was comical at first, how we each wanted her for ourselves, but after a while, Zoe got bent out of shape about how much time Chloe and I spent together. She was the only thing your mom and I fought about. Your mom felt guilty and wanted Zoe to tag along, but I felt like Zoe was a third wheel always trying to stir up problems. Sometimes I think she’s the reason we broke up.” He looked pained. “Zoe was always inside your mom’s head, telling her it would never work out between us because my job came first. And it did, sort of. I was just starting out, but that didn’t mean I didn’t love your mom.” He moved the cookies around on the plate. “The day my trade came through for the Braves was the day your mom left me. She said she didn’t want to do the long-distance thing. I tried to talk to her, but she wouldn’t listen. By the time I got to her apartment, she was gone.”

  Izzie felt overwhelmingly sad. It was weird hearing about her parents’ breakup. Their lives didn’t seem so different from her own.

  “Zoe told me then that your mom was tired of playing second fiddle in my life. I tried calling Chloe for weeks to say that wasn’t true, but she changed her number and then Zoe stopped taking my calls, too. I finally gave up.” It had been decades, but her dad still seemed torn up about it. “I told myself I was better off, but the truth was I was devastated.”

  He really loved her, Izzie realized. Did her mom know that? It must have been horrible carrying a baby thinking the dad was someone who’d chosen his career over the two of you. If anything, their breakup sounded like a huge misunderstanding. A misunderstanding that Zoe had made even worse. She wondered if their whole lives could have been different if her parents had just had one more conversation.

  Her dad looked at her sadly. “Are you okay with all this? If Maureen finds out I made you want to skip the Crystal Ball because of this conversation, she will never forgive me.”

  “I’m okay,” Izzie realized. “It feels good to know the truth. I should probably shower before Mira gets home.” She slid off her stool and headed to the door, then hesitated. “Thanks for finally telling me all that.”

  Her dad put his reading glasses back on and looked at her. “You are welcome. I hope you know that I’m always here for you.”

  Izzie gave him a small smile. Knowing he was made all the difference.

  Eighteen

  Usually the restaurants along Main Street were crowded on a Sunday night. But tonight, horses clip-clopping down the empty street replaced the sound of the trolley bell, and most stores were going dark by seven. The Crystal Ball was worth shutting down Emerald Cove for.

  Carriages were lined up as far as the eye could see. Mira watched as men in top hats and long black overcoats, carrying canes or wearing fake mustaches, descended from buggies to lend a hand to women in stunning ball gowns. Some of their dresses had long trains, while others had wide hoopskirts made of silk and lace. She could have watched people arrive and leave all night. In fact, that’s what she had always done when the Butterflies were working the party. But this year, she got to attend and she was in her own carriage with her friends, waiting to be dropped off. She fanned herself in anticipation as the horses trudged forward toward the town square. Gloves and a fan were a must for every lady in 1888 Emerald Cove, and all of Mira’s friends had them.

  Sadly, not everyone enjoyed going back in time as much as Mira did.

  “There is no way anyone wore their hair like this,” Izzie grumbled. “I look ridiculous.” Izzie’s bob had been parted in the middle and was held in place by two thin headbands just like a picture they had found of a partygoer in EC in 1888. Izzie’s dress was just as beautiful. The golden gown had a fitted bodice and puffy sleeves. Mira was just happy to see her wear a dress. Izzie hadn’t found one for their sweet sixteen yet.

  “I think you look like an old-fashioned Southern belle,” said Charlotte, who looked amazing herself in a pink silk gown. “Girls didn’t usually have short hair, but they did wear headbands like that, so your look is perfect.” According to the historical society librarian, Mrs. Roberts, long hair was all the rage as were low décolletage that showed almost everything and big long skirts that revealed almost nothing. The girls had done a lot of research before picking their costumes. They made three trips back to the Harborside costume shop before each settling on one.

  Mira still wasn’t sure she was happy with hers, even if it was pretty. She kept pulling at the dress’s bustline to keep it from dipping too low. The dress’s bottom half wa
s gorgeous, though. Several ivory layers were held up by pretty rosettes that allowed the blue fabric underneath to peek out. Nicole and Violet had similar dresses in lavender and rose. “Stop worrying so much,” Mira told Izzie, and snapped a picture before Izzie could stop her. “Keep your smiles handy. I plan on getting lots of photos of us tonight.” Hopefully some of those shots would also include Landon. Just knowing he was going to be there, and he wanted to hang out with her, had her excited.

  “Good. I need a picture of all of us together.” Nicole touched her hair to make sure her updo hadn’t come undone. The bun made her look even taller than usual. “I have this lonely sparkly purple frame just waiting for a shot of all my friends.”

  Charlotte hugged Nicole. “Aww… You called us all your friends. We’re like our own little posse!”

  It was true. As spring had sprung, so had their friendships. Mira liked how it felt to be part of a group again. Everyone seemed to be happy to be together, but Izzie was also noticeably sad. “Does anyone know if Kylie is coming tonight?” Mira asked, hoping the answer would put Izzie at ease.

  “She said she was when I saw her at the costume shop the other day,” Nicole said quietly. “She asked me how you’re doing, Izzie.”

  Izzie turned toward her, trying to find a comfortable position in the fitted dress. “Did she mention our fight?”

  Nicole shook her head. “Nope. She was totally normal. I think she just gets flustered easily in a group, you know?” she told the others. “One-on-one, she’s really nice. She helped me pick out these earrings and the bracelet.”

  Izzie played with one of her long gloves. “I wouldn’t blame her if she never talked to me again. I said some pretty awful things.”

  “You’re not the only one.” Violet sighed. “I feel like your fight is partially my fault.” She looked down at her gloved hands in her lap. “She reminded me a lot of Dylan, and I didn’t think you needed another Dylan in your life. I guess that is why I was making things hard on her,” Violet said sheepishly. “I’m sorry, Izzie.”