Page 16 of Pugs & Kisses

“I guess visiting your mother isn’t enough of a reason,” Constance said as she stood from behind the desk.

She walked over to the built-in shelves on either side of the picture window that looked out onto the front lawn and pulled something from behind the display copy of the book on women’s heart health she’d co-authored years ago.

Evie frowned when her mother placed a small velvet drawstring bag in her palm.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“I found it while going through some things in my closet yesterday.”

Evie pulled the bag open and gasped. She shook out the piece of costume jewelry she had not seen in years.

“Grandma’s brooch! Where did you find it?”

She’d coveted the frog with blue stones for eyes when she was a little girl.

“It was in a small box of her things. I debated whether I should even give it to you. You’re already too much like your grandmother.”

A firecracker. That’s what her grandmother used to call Evie when she was younger. She, too, used to say that Evie was just like her.

Evie wrapped her arms around her mother.

“Thank you, Mommy.”

Constance’s brow arched. “Oh, now it’s Mommy?”

“When you give me an amazing surprise like this? Yes! Here.” Evie jutted out the left side of her chest. “Pin it on me.”

Constance’s lips twisted with irritated amusement as she opened the clasp on the brooch. “Don’t forget to remind Cameron that the theme for the anniversary party is red. I want to make sure everyone is coordinated.”

Great. Way to kill her happy mood.

She would probably regret this, but Evie decided to rip off the Band-Aid.

“Cam won’t be able to make it to your party,” she said.

Her mother’s forehead creased in affront. “He’s known about the party for months. Why would he make other plans?”

“No.” Evie shook her head. “He won’t be there because we broke up.”

The silence that stretched around the room was so profound—so intense—Evie could practically feel it on her skin.

“What did you say?” her mother asked.

Evie pushed out a deep breath. “Cameron and I broke up,” she repeated. “He moved out of the house, and I left Maple Street Animal Clinic. So, if you hear of any veterinary practices hiring, point them my way.”

To her surprise— not —her joke fell flat.

“Evelina!” Her mother raised her voice, something she rarely did. “What are you saying? How could you do this?”

“ I didn’t do this. Cameron did—”

“Four years,” her mother said, cutting her off. “You were engaged for four years, after being together for ten. Is that why he left you? Because you wouldn’t set a date for a wedding? I warned you that Cameron would not wait forever for you, didn’t I?”

“First of all, we haven’t been together for ten years,” Evie corrected her. “You’re forgetting about the three separations. And our long engagement had nothing to do with the breakup.”

“Well, then, what did? Why did you break up?”

“The why doesn’t matter,” Evie said. “What matters is that Cameron and I are no longer together. It was my decision to make, and you need to respect that.”

“I will not respect this decision, because it is a horrible one,” her mother said. “Being in a relationship with Cameron Broussard is the one good thing you had going for you.”

Evie’s head jerked back. A slap across the face would not have stung as much as the words her mother had just hurled at her.

“Did you really just say that to me?” Evie asked.

“I apologize.” Constance had the graciousness to look contrite. “That was unfair and untrue. But, really, Evelina. You could have discussed this with your family before doing something so rash.”

“So my relationship choices are done by committee now?”

“You know what I mean,” her mother said.

Yes, she did. And therein lay the problem.

The last time she and Cameron broke up, Evie had decided she was finally done. It wasn’t until her mother got into her head, bombarding her with all the ways she and Cam were a perfect match, that Evie had caved and taken him back.

She and Cameron were a perfect match in the ways that were important to her parents.

They looked good on society blog posts and write-ups in the local paper following a charity gala.

He was the consummate son-in-law for her parents, but they would have to accept that Cameron would not be her husband.

“I’m sorry if you don’t agree with my choice, but I’ve made it,” Evie said. “I am capable of deciding what is best for my own life.”

“And just what do you plan to do with your life, Evelina? You left your fiancé and his vet practice. What will you do now? Go back to rescuing every stray you find on the street?”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Evie said. “I may not be a heart surgeon, but my work still matters.”

Constance threw her hands up. “I’m not having this conversation with you again.” She went back to her desk and sat. Not two seconds later, she popped back up. “You wanted to be a vet and we let you become a vet—”

“You did not let me become a vet. I chose to become one,” Evie said.

Yes, they’d paid for her education, and saved her from a mountain of school debt, but it didn’t give them the right to control her life.

“You’re making a mistake,” her mother said. “Cameron is a good man. He comes from a good family.”

He was not a good man, and he came from a rich, well-connected family. But Evie knew if she said those words to her mother, it would only extend this argument. She was over it.

“I’m sorry you don’t approve,” Evie said. “But the decision to leave Cameron is mine, and mine alone. And I’ve made it.”

She stopped herself before she could tack on Deal with it . She was only willing to go so far with the disrespect, and telling her own mother to deal with it crossed the line.

Instead, she left the office without another word and went to the sunroom to retrieve her dog.

She had to fight the urge to head straight to the doggy boutique—not because she didn’t have the money to spend on him, but because retail therapy wouldn’t make her feel any better.

She had enough shoes in her closet to attest to that.

“We don’t need to buy stuff to prove our worth,” Evie told Waffles, strapping him into his car seat.

“And I sure as hell don’t need Cameron to prove it,” she muttered as she rounded the circular driveway.

She pulled up to the first stop sign and spotted her dad’s bright yellow Lamborghini coming toward her in the opposite lane. Evie waved at him as she drove past and thanked the Lord for perfect timing.

She loved her father. She loved her mother. She did not love her mother and father together.

Even before she understood how to properly categorize what her parents shared, they had shown her what a loveless marriage looked like.

It looked like two people who actively hated each other but stayed together for appearance’s sake.

The sole purpose of the anniversary party Constance was planning was to continue shoring up the lie.

Despite the fact that her father’s philandering was the worst-kept secret in New Orleans, her mother was prepared to smile and pretend the last forty years had been wedded bliss, because as two of the city’s most prominent Black doctors, their partnership mattered more than their vows. Or their happiness.

Evie refused to settle for that type of relationship. She’d made that promise to herself as a fifteen-year-old, when she first learned of her father’s infidelity.

She could still remember the hot, embarrassed flush that rushed over her when he walked through the doors of the French Quarter restaurant where she had been invited to celebrate a friend’s sixteenth birthday.

Even worse than seeing her father out with that other woman was her mother’s lack of a response when Evie told her about it two days later.

She had prepared to see her entire life change.

Divorce, separate homes, having to choose who to spend holidays with.

Instead, her mother had brushed it off and told her to get ready for violin lessons.

Evie had quit the violin a few months later, just about the same time she’d quit trying to understand her parents’ relationship. She would rather be alone than endure such a pitiable excuse of a marriage.

Despite what her mother believed, she did not need Cameron or his practice to give her life meaning.

“And just what do you plan to do with your life, Evelina? Go back to rescuing every stray you find on the street?”

“Why the hell not?” Evie said. She looked at Waffles in the rearview mirror. “I rescued you, and look how much it’s changed my life already.”

She couldn’t take in every stray in New Orleans, but she knew how she could help save them.