Tomorrow Starts Today Read online

  And then, just when Andi was sure Celia was never going to speak again—she exploded. There was finger-pointing and “I trusted you” and “I couldn’t be more disappointed” and “I should have known!” When the screaming stopped, all Andi and Bex could do was fall back onto the couch, their hands in their laps, their heads hung in shame.

  “I hope you got all that,” Ham said after his wife disappeared up the stairs. Making sure they knew they had to clean—all night if necessary—he nodded and followed Celia out of the room.

  “Scary,” Andi said when he was gone and the coast was clear. “I’ve never seen her that angry.”

  “You know what’s scarier?” Bex asked. “Neither have I.”

  Andi sighed. Slapping her hands on the tops of her legs, she stood up. She didn’t want to risk making the woman any madder by not doing as they had been told. And they had been told to make the house spotless. Looking around the room, Andi let out an even bigger sigh. That wasn’t going to be easy. The place was a complete and utter disaster. Piles of sticky string were bunched up in the corners, and long strands hung from the chandelier and floor lamps. Chips had fallen out of bowls and been crunched under dozens of feet until the crumbs were embedded in the rugs. Somehow soda had ended up on the walls—not to mention the black light paint Celia didn’t even know about yet.

  Moving around the room, Andi began to pick up odds and ends. “Don’t worry about it,” Bex said as she, too, began to clean. “I’ll make it clear that you were against this party the whole time.”

  “Except that’s not true,” Andi said, stopping and walking over to Bex. “I want people to think it was my party.” She stopped and looked around at the mess. Then she smiled. “Because it was a great one! Thank you!”

  Bex smiled back at Andi. “It was my pleasure,” she said, pulling Andi in for a hug. She knew that they didn’t have the traditional mother/daughter relationship. They might not ever have that kind of relationship. But she wanted to make Andi happy, no matter what. And if that meant throwing a party for her and taking the blame, or not taking the blame as the case might be, then that was what she would do.

  As they stood there, Ham walked back into the living room. Leaning down, he picked up a decorative birdcage strung with little lights and righted it.

  “Hey, Dad,” Bex said. “Sorry we ruined your vacation.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Ham said, walking over to them. “It was just the first one—in thirteen years.”

  “Why did you come home?” Andi asked, curious. Considering how long it had been, it seemed strange that they would cut it short.

  Ham sighed. “We got a call from the neighborhood watch,” he explained. “They were very concerned. They had never heard anything resembling the sound of parties coming from our house before.”

  Bex and Andi exchanged small, triumphant grins. While the outcome hadn’t been what they were hoping for—at least not on the parental front—the party had obviously been a success. No boring party ever got shut down for excessive noise.

  Choosing to ignore the look between the two girls, Ham reached out and gave Andi a squeeze on her shoulders. “Hey, why don’t you go to bed?” he said gently. “I’ll help Bex clean up.”

  Andi had to admit that bed sounded really good right then. She had been thinking about crawling into her big comfy bed ever since the last guest had slipped out the door. But she wasn’t about to leave the two of them to clean up after her party. Unless, of course, they really wanted to do the cleaning. Turning, she looked up at Bex with a questioning expression.

  “It’s okay,” Bex said, granting her permission. “Go.”

  Giving her a grateful smile and a sincere thank-you, Andi reached out and wrapped her arm around Ham. “Sorry, Pops,” she said, squeezing him tightly. Even if she still wanted to know who her biological father was, it didn’t mean Ham was any less her father. And his hugs still made her feel better, no matter what was going on.

  With a kiss on her head from Ham, Andi turned to go. But then she stopped. There was one last thing she had to say before her head hit the pillow and she conked out. “We are going to have that conversation, right?” she said, giving Bex a serious look. “The one we started outside?”

  Bex nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I promise.”

  Satisfied, Andi turned and headed upstairs. Bex and her father watched the younger girl go. Silence fell over the living room as, for a long moment, neither said anything. Then Bex let out a deep sigh and resumed picking up. Watching his daughter as she collected boas and the odd cowboy hat, Ham grew thoughtful. He had seen Bex upset before, but he had never seen her like this. It was as though she were carrying a heavy weight on her shoulders and it was pushing her—and her spirit—down. He knew that his wife was still furious Bex had told Andi the truth, but he wasn’t. Not really. He was proud of his daughter for taking ownership of her life. And he didn’t want to see her regret that decision now.

  “What’s she talking about?” he asked, reaching down to pick up a pillow from the floor. “What conversation?”

  “She wants to know who her father is,” Bex said. “She won’t stop asking.” As the words left her mouth, she realized how desperately she needed advice. This whole parenting thing was so new to her. She spent every minute of every day worrying she was going to mess up Andi’s life—or mess it up even more than she had by keeping the secret in the first place. Sighing, she sank back down on the couch and stared at the blue boa on her lap, fiddling with the fake feathers. “What am I supposed to tell her?” she finally said.

  “The truth,” her father said simply.

  “I’m just not sure how many life-altering blows she can handle,” Bex said. “‘Hi, I’m your mom,’ followed by ‘Your dad doesn’t even know you exist.’”

  “He knows.”

  Bex looked over at her father. His head was down and he seemed oddly fixated on plumping the pillow in front of him. Her eyes narrowed. Then her heart began to pound as what he had said sank in. “What’s that?” she repeated, hoping maybe she had just misheard him. Maybe he had said, “It snows,” or “This goes.”

  But she hadn’t misheard him. “Andi’s father,” he said. “He knows she exists.”

  Bex was shocked. Her ears rang, and she felt suddenly sick to her stomach. She had spent the past thirteen years clinging to the belief that she had kept two secrets—one from Andi, and one from Andi’s father. And now it turned out he knew? She shook her head. “Who told him?” she finally asked.

  Coming around the couch, Bex’s father sat down next to her. He put a hand on her knee and gave it a squeeze. “I did,” he said. His eyes were kind and his voice soft as he broke the news to his daughter. He hadn’t wanted to tell her like this. He hadn’t wanted to have to tell her at all. But he had spent too long keeping too many secrets. Now that Andi knew the truth about her mother, she deserved to know the truth about her father. Even if it was going to make things a bit bumpier for Bex.

  Andi thought she would fall asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, but it turned out she was wrong. Long after she turned off the light and got under the covers, she lay awake, staring up at the scarves Bex had sent her that she had turned into a canopy. She listened to the muted sound of Bex and Ham talking until they finally headed to bed and the hallway light turned off. Then she lay there simply listening to the house as it settled into the night, creaking and groaning as it shifted on its foundation.

  She had thrown her first party. And not only had she thrown her first party, she had thrown her first party and it had been awesome. Images from the night kept flashing through her mind. Dancing with Jonah, showering people with strands of pink string, her stairway entrance. She saw Buffy and Cyrus having a blast, and she saw Bex in the middle of it all, guiding the night like a ship’s captain.

  When she had found out Bex was her mother, not her sister, Andi had been convinced her life was never going to be the same. And it turned out it wasn’t. It wasn’t the same at all. B
ecause now she had someone in her life who wanted her to stand out and stand up for herself. She had someone who wanted her to dare to live life to the fullest. And while that meant she might get in a little bit of trouble, it also meant she was going to have so much fun.

  She sighed, turning over and snuggling farther down under her covers. Now, she thought as sleep finally found her, if she could just find out who her father was and why Bex was so determined to keep him a secret. She yawned. But Bex had promised to tell her. So she would just wait and see. For now, she would go to sleep, visions of her party dancing in her head.