Page 107 of Made

“You haven’t heard about the unicorn?” I said, amazed. “Evie! You have to tell her about the unicorn because, you know, he’s like an indirect gift from her!”

“What?” Esme said.

Evie related the story about Thunder became Thorn and how Esme’s mother had appeared in spirit form while a rapt and fascinated Esmerelda stared.

When Evie reached the end of the tale, Esme hesitated for a few seconds before saying, “Wow.”

“I know. She only gets to keep him until puberty though,” Evie said.

“Bottom line. Rhiannon is good?”

“Excellent,” Evie said. Turning to Esme, she asked, “How ‘bout you? Tell me about the experience.”

Esme seemed more reserved than usual. I was wondering if she’d been permanently shaken in a way that had altered her core personality.

She smiled at Evie. “Getting back into the swing. Don’t make me do details.”

“Too soon?” Evie asked.

Esmerelda nodded.

I rushed to change the subject. “So. The party?”

My daughter rolled her eyes and grabbed her hair at the temples. “My wish for my daughter is that someday, when she meets her soul mate, he comes with a sane mother-in-law.”

I laughed. “I know your husband. He’s worth the trouble.”

“Well, if you put it like that,” Evie said. “One good thing that came from Esme’s nightmare experience was the dogs. Oh, my gods, does he love those dogs! He even looks younger.”

I chuckled. “He already looked young, Evie.”

“Oh, I know. But now he looks like he’s been photoshopped.”

“Youalllook like you’ve been photoshopped!” I said. When there was no response to that, I forged ahead. “But please don’t bring the dogs around. I’m afraid my pups wouldn’t know what to make of talking dogs.”

“Duly noted,” Evie said. “As for the party, Maeve is in her element which means she’s driving everyone either employed or related crazy.”

“That’s a given,” I said. “It’s Maeve!”

“Yeah. ‘Nuff said. Right?”

“So,” I said to Esmerelda, “I’ll bet this experience has changed Kagan.”

“In what way?” Esme asked.

“I don’t know. More confidence? Maybe this was the thing that finally put to rest his inferiority issues.”

Esmerelda’s eyes were wide enough to show white all around her irises. “Whatinferiority issues?”

Sometimes my mouth works faster than my brain. It’s an unfortunate condition, and a wonder I’ve survived with such a handicap. Without thinking it through or bothering to recall that I’d made my husband a solemn promise of confidentiality, even going so far as to state that I’m good at keeping secrets, I said, “You know. The thing Maeve said to him about being ‘made’, not born.”

Lines formed between Esme’s brows. “I know nothing about this.”

As you can imagine, having coffee with these two women, there was no way I was going to escape Molly’s without telling them what I meant.Shit. Shit. Shit.

“Okay, girls, here’s the thing. I gave Keir a vow that I would never tell. But I just got carried away and spilled beansthat need to stay unspilled. Can you let me off the hook? I can’t say more.”

Evie smirked. “What do you think?”