Page 4

“Mom!” she squeaks, smacking a hand over her eyes. “Your first assumptions are pregnancy and death?”

I lift a shoulder in a noncommittal shrug, then circle my hands in the space between us, urging her to tell me what the hell is going on.

“After I graduate next month, I won't… I mean, I'm not—”

I hold up a hand, palm out. “Don't even say it. Not a chance.”

“Mom,” Taeler pleads, her voice taking on a high-pitched tone. “Just hear me out.”

I shake my head and shove off the couch. Her eyes stay glued on me as I pace the narrow hallway. “You're going to school, and that's final.”

“I can't afford it.Youcan't afford it.”

I flinch, her words a knife to my tender heart.

“It's not your fault,” she whispers. Her beautiful blue eyes dance between mine searching, pleading. She stands and grips my shoulders, stopping my pacing. “It is what it is. I'm not upset; I don't feel cheated. You've given me everything you can. I know that. Now, for me, after graduation, it's time to support myself. To be an adult.”

“You're not an adult,” I grumble. Lifting a hand, I slide my fingers through her blonde hair. We shuffle closer, her forehead finding my shoulder as she releases a long exhale.

“Per the state, yeah, I am. I know you want to change my mind, but you won't.” Her words are muffled against my shirt. She's right; I won't change her mind. Taeler is as stubborn as an old mule—a trait she inherited from her father, obviously. “You think I don't pick up on all the stress you're under to pay those crazy student loans each month plus the other zillion bills? I don't want that for me. I'll go full time at the factory after graduation and save up. As I have money, I'll take courses at the junior college.”

Lips to her hair, I smile. She's smart, wise even—a trait she received from me, obviously.

“Mom, I know you're behind on a lot of bills, including the trailer payment.” Failure settles in my gut like a heavy rock. “I know you're on the verge of losing it, and then what will you do? Live at that crappy office the city lets you use? I'll figure this out on my own, promise. I can't sit back and watch you sink deeper in debt because of me. Please just let me do this, for you.”

I tuck my nose into her hair and inhale deeply. “I want you to have so much, so much more than I ever had,” I whisper past the knot of unshed tears lodged in my throat. “I'm sorry.”

She deserves a better life than this, a mother who can provide more—be more. It's not for lack of trying, that’s for fucking sure. I've worked my ass off, yet I’m still here scraping my way through life. I'm utterly exhausted. Nothing I've done is enough to pull me out of the economic status I was born into. I've done what I can for a better life for myself and Taeler, but every time, despite my hard work, I keep failing. Some days I hope for that one chance, one opportunity to prove I'm more than this trailer park, more than an addict’s daughter, more than this sleepy town. To ram my success down the throats of everyone who's judged, sneered, and laughed at my hope of breaking the cycle.

I've put in the work, put myself through undergrad and law school, yet the stupid poverty fate gods keep diverting me back to this path lined with bills I can't pay. One would think my résumé, University of Texas at Austin and then on to Harvard Law, would be enough to boost my status, to show everyone in town I'm more than who they judged me to be. But no, that would disrupt the tiny predestined box they want to fit me into.

I press my lips to Taeler's hair, murmuring a quick good-night. My heart sinks as she shuffles down the hall to the single bedroom.

Even with the odds stacked against me, I still have hope. Hope that one day I'll get a chance, that my luck will change for the better. Who knows, maybe the stars will align and I'll get that chance to prove to everyone I'm destined for so much more than this.

And maybe one day I'll have a unicorn as a pet and a genie as a best fucking friend too.

* * *

I jam a red, indented finger against the On/Off button again and again, each time more aggressively. “Come on, you lazy piece of shit,” I curse under my breath. “Work. I'm freezing my tits off here.” Still not even a flicker of heat. “I will toss your sorry ass into the closest dumpster if you don't turn on right now,” I yell at the ancient space heater.

A click, then the smell of something burning, and finally the rusted metal heating elements flare to life.

Still bent over the contraption, I give it a condescending smirk and a hard pat. “That's what I thought.”

“You're talking to the heater again,” a female voice croons from the door. “I thought we talked about keeping your crazy under wraps.”

Standing tall, I look over my shoulder and stick my tongue out. “Sometimes these things need a reminder of who's the boss around here.”

“Right,” Jennifer says with a chuckle. “I'm going out for a break. Want to come with?”

Peering through the dirty window of my mayoral office, I catch a tree's green-dotted branches bending in the hostile Texas wind. I walked out this morning without a warm jacket, and it turned out colder than I expected. A Texas April is a fickle time for weather. One day it's beautiful, the hint of spring making you whip out your flops, but then the next, it’s bitter-ass cold like today.

“I do, but not outside. Forgot my coat.” I glance to the window again and tilt my head toward it with raised brows. “I won't tell if you don't.”

A sneaky grin spreads up her cheeks as she nods in agreement. “You're the boss. I can't say no, can I?”

Hands raised, fingers tapping, I let out my best impression of an evil chuckle. “I love all this power.”