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I considered her thoughtfully for a minute as her attention was stolen by the arrival of our food She looked like a cheerleader She looked like the kind of person that would never let you believe that you would fail Everything about her inspired the belief that things would indeed work out the way they were supposed to Just like the woman that had stepped up to take care of ood-bye to my mom Caroline was never ht, positive personality was very si she had also been handed soh while er in ketchup and smashed the top bun back doith my palm Dixie did the same with hers and ot inside of her as she took her first bite It made the fit of my jeans evenher with that er The woman he married was a lot like you She saw the best in everyone and in every situation She was quick to sive" She was also the reason I knew that having soood and pure in my life wasn’t in the cards forI’d opened the door to a line of questioning I couldn’t avoid forever Talking about Caroline ically with both of them

She arched her eyebrows a little bit and went back to herto see besides the woman that fell and hurt herself? You said you swore on your mother and noe have your secondpaths with at least some of your parents at soht be a little intimidated by that but Dixie was likeable and she liked everyone, so I knew she would fit right in with the re members of my family "What are they like?"

It was an easy question but one that I tended to dance ers asked it because they ondering how I ca and they wanted enetic makeup I knew Dixie could care less what color skin and eyes the people who hadto help her climb my complicated family tree

"My mom was a beauty queen A pretty blonde with blue eyes that wanted to be the next Miss Ae and was effectively disowned by her parents" The corners of e I always felt on randparents were so close-minded and cold "She never told me if the reason they were so pissed was because she prettypregnant, or because she got knocked up by a guy as biracial It was like she was doubly defying their antiquated and racist views He was African American but he also had a solid chunk of Middle Eastern in him, too He played soccer at the sa when Mouy, but she often told h for her when I was young"

Dixie sucked in an audible breath and I could see how deeplyfor otten to the parts that actually wounded and left scars yet My frown dug deeper intoin front of randparents never bothered to contact either of us Not once Not even when she died when I was thirteen"

I kneas a boiven her that information more tactfully but the words rushed out I’d held the them with anyone, so they took their chance to escape and fell heavily between us

"Oh, Church" She sounded like she wanted to cry for me

I lifted a hand to hold off the rest of her syuy named Julian Churchill He’s now the sheriff in Lowry, but back then he was a patrol cop and he pulled her over for speeding He told her he would let her go if she agreed to a date" It was totally unethical and coal, but luckily h school, and agreed to go It was a story they always told with srin but I kne it all ended and that in turnI also never talked about the fact that initially I hated Jules I hated that I had to share my mom with him Hated that he showed up and took care of her when that was my job I also resented the fact she picked another man with dark skin to fall in love with I wanted her life, and ment and speculation and toout of her way to keep it hard by falling in love with someone who didn’t look a whole lot like either one of us I was too little to understand why all of that thinking rong and that who my mother loved was completely out ofshort of terrible to Jules As an adult I would like to take those actions and a lot of those words I hurled at hiuy He took ot married a year later and he asked if it was cool if he could adopt e license" I reht My ether was better No one other than my mom had ever wanteddistinctly unwanted, but there was Jules, big, badass Jules, tellinger I so carelessly tossed his way It would go down forever as one of the nificant ht ere a perfect fanant for a long time Jules just wanted to es and a round of failed in vitro treatned herself to the fact that it wasn’t nant She called it a miracle" Really it was a curse