Page 9 of The Light Year (Stardust Beach #6)

“And him,” Barbie said, feeling anger wash over her as she gathered her skirt in both hands and stepped off the pedestal.

Now she was eye to eye with her mother. “You’re sugar-coating it, Mama.

He wanted me to marry someone whose family was rich, with business and political ties that would benefit him.

He wanted to be able to tell people the name of the family that his daughter married into and feel proud, not like he had to explain who that family was and why his daughter had chosen to marry a total nobody. ”

“Oh, Barbara,” Marion said. She touched her handkerchief to her face. “I want to tell you that’s not true, but I can’t lie to you.”

“There’s no need to. I’m aware that you’re both disappointed in me for not marrying Jameson Young, or Raymond Canter.

You made sure Ted brought all of his prep school friends around when I was in high school, and none of them took.

I didn’t want to be with Quinn Myers III, or Patton White.

I wanted Todd, and I wanted him from the moment we met,” Barbie said with urgency, reaching out and taking her mother’s hand.

“I saw him, and I just knew that he would be good, and kind, and fun, and he is, Mama. He’s all those things. ”

Marion pressed her lips together and squeezed her daughter’s hand. “I know, Barbara. I can see all those things in Todd. He’s a lovely boy, and he adores you. I won’t deny any of that.”

“Then why don’t you stand up to Dad when he says things about me marrying Todd? Why do you let him berate me every time he has to write a check for the catering, or the reception hall?”

Marion swallows hard and waits a moment before answering. “Because I understand how things work, Barbara. I’m a woman who wanted to finish college, and I found a man who could pay for that to happen.”

“But you didn’t go back,” Barbie said, knowing that her words might hurt her mother. “You let him decide your future for you.”

Marion shrugged one shoulder. “I guess I didn’t need to go back once I married your father. And I had Ted so soon after, and then you came along… life got busy.”

“So you’re saying you truly only married Daddy for the money.”

Marion doesn’t hotly deny this; instead, she blinks slowly, looking at Barbie with a steady gaze.

“I married him strategically. I knew that if I were to become Mrs. George Mackey, no child of mine would ever have to figure out where the money was coming from for an education. I knew I’d never struggle.

But in my heart… sure, I would have loved to have the kind of thing you and Todd so clearly have. Any woman would want that.”

Barbie bit back tears. Hearing that her mother had wanted something different for herself, and that she understood why Barbie loved Todd, was enlightening. She dropped her mother’s hand then and pulled her close, hugging her tightly.

“I want that for you, Barbara,” Marion whispered in her ear as they hugged right there in the sunny back room of Love there is no crisp bite to the air.

Instead, the palm trees wave lightly in the breeze, and the hoods of the cars in the driveways look hot in the sun.

Barbie kisses Todd one more time before she slides off the arm of the chair and puts out both hands to help him up.

“Okay, let’s get you in there to save your mother from endless playground stories. It’s time for me to start dinner here soon anyway.”

Barbie lets Todd rest an arm around her shoulders like he’s really in need of her support, and together, they walk through their home with their arms around each other, much the way they once walked through the halls of their high school.