She snatched the bag off the counter, shrugged as she slung it over her shoulder. “I guess I forgot. And, you know, I assumed she probably told you herself.”
Georgette revealed little to him, and he was okay with that. “I haven’t spoken to her in a while. Have you?”
“Day before yesterday, I think.”
Was it just him, or did she sound less disappointed than usual. “You should send her a text or an email to thank her, let her know the bag arrived.”
“Sure, maybe later. I’m going up to my room now. What’s for dinner?”
“Not sure. I thought we might go out.”
“Can Casey come?”
“Of course, if it’s okay with her mom.” Or maybe Sarah would want to join them, make it a family night. Or he could order takeout for the girls and invite Sarah to have dinner with him. Right. He’d gone from family night to date night in point-zero-eight. Like that was going to happen.
“I’m sure it’s fine with Sarah. She has a business meeting or dinner or something tonight.”
Did she? Or maybe business dinner was a euphemism for a date.
“She’s, I don’t know, like on the Chamber of Commerce or something. Casey says they have meetings once a month. Anyway, she usually stays home and her mom orders takeout for her, so I’m sure it’s okay for her to come with us. I’ll text her and let you know.”
So much for date night, he thought after she left the room. It wasn’t as though he’d had a shot at that anyway, but he liked knowing Sarah wasn’t on a date, either. And if he couldn’t spend the evening with an attractive woman, he’d rather spend it with a pair of teenagers than a roomful of stuffy businesspeople.
KATE TOSSED HER bag on her bed and plopped herself next to Princess, who was curled up with her nose resting on her back paws. She unzipped her ankle books, toed them off and shrugged out of her jacket.
“Life can be such a drag sometimes.”
The cat opened sleepy eyes.
“Not your life. Mine.”
Princess’s eyelids slid shut again. Kate wrapped her arms around the cat and brushed her cheek against Princess’s soft fur.
“When Mom calls, she always talks about what she’s doing and never asks about my new school. My dad never stops talking about what’s happening in my life, and he even noticed the DKNY bag Sarah gave me.”
Who knew he paid attention to those things? Not me.
“So I lied and said Mom sent it. She could have, right?”
Except her mom never sent things like that. She’d given Kate a credit card so she could buy whatever she needed, but her dad wouldn’t let her have it because there was no reason he could think of for a kid to have a credit card. He had let her use it to buy school clothes before they left the city, and even then there’d been a spending limit because he was covering half the cost himself.
“Which makes no sense, since Mom has way more money than he has,” she told Princess. “And she doesn’t care how much I spend on clothes, but that’s my dad for you.”
The cat stood, stretched and curled up again, this time on her other side.
“Dad just doesn’t get it and it’s totally unfair.”
That was why she’d had to lie about the bag. He thought designer clothes and “fancy” handbags and salon manicures were a waste of money. She could tell he liked Sarah, but if he saw all the amazing things in To the Nines, he would say Kate was wasting her time. She needed to go to the library and do homework and study and get good grades in stupid subjects that had nothing to do with what she wanted to do.
She sat at her dressing table, ran a brush through her hair, checked her makeup.
Sarah had invited her to take a look around, but then she’d complimented Kate’s outfit and had actually let her help in the store. No one had ever done anything like that for her before. Sarah listened to her ideas, had told her to go ahead with the displays, and when Kate went back on Thursday, she’d made a point of telling her about all the great things her customers had said about the windows.
Sarah was cool. She had great taste in clothes, there were fashion magazines on her coffee table, and she didn’t just work in a clothing store, she owned one. It was weird that Sarah and Casey were so completely different but still got along so well. Kate had never met a parent and a kid who were such good friends. In a way it wasn’t fair that Casey, who had no fashion sense whatsoever, had such a cool mom who totally did “dress to the nines,” even when she was serving up pizza and hanging out on the deck.
If anything, Casey seemed more like the kind of kid her dad wanted. When Sarah and her dad suggested she go with Casey on the first day of school, there was no polite way to say no. Besides, there were advantages to being friendly with a Goody Two-shoes, not the least of which was getting her dad off her case. Now she was glad she’d agreed. Casey knew everyone, and although she didn’t seem to have any close friends, all the kids seemed to like her. Especially Dexter, who was easily the cutest boy in the whole school. She was pretty sure Casey liked Dexter, too, and she was equally sure the girl didn’t have a clue he liked her back. Kate didn’t know why, but she hadn’t mentioned it to Casey.