My mom just got home from the Outlaw and she was laughing and happy. I haven’t seen her look that way in a long time. She even sat down with me on the couch and put her arm around me and told me she was proud of me and that she was sorry. She didn’t say what she was sorry about but I knew it was about my dad and how screwed up everything is so I told her it was fine. I know it was dumb, but I liked it when she said she was proud of me. It was kinda cool.
Chapter Twenty-one
“All right, we’re here. What’s the emergency?”
Winona turned around to face her sisters, who were standing by the front door. “It’s a fashion 911. My date with Mark is in an hour and somehow I need to lose forty pounds and buy a new wardrobe. And I think I need microdermabrasion.”
“Take a deep breath,” Vivi Ann said.
“What is she, in labor? Breathing never works. I say we get her a straight shot,” was Aurora’s advice.
“We are not getting her drunk before her date.” Vivi Ann laughed. “Besides, lately that’s your advice for everything.”
“Consistency is a virtue,” Aurora said primly. “I’ll be right back.” She left the house and was back in a flash with her makeup kit (housed in a designer case that was as big as a tackle box) and a pretty pink box from the clothing store on Main Street.
“What’s all that?” Winona asked. “I only called you guys fifteen minutes ago.”
“We were waiting for it,” Vivi Ann said. “Remember when the banker from Shelton asked you out? You were a wreck.”
“And that teacher from Silverdale. I think you actually puked before he got here,” Aurora added.
“She did.”
Winona collapsed onto her garage-sale sofa, realizing for the first time that it kind of smelled like gasoline. “I’m hopeless.”
Vivi Ann sat down beside her. “No. You’re hopeful. That’s your problem. Maybe this guy is finally the one. Your Neo.”
“Do you have to use the word finally? And I hated those Matrix movies, you know that. They made no sense.”
“She’s looking for Tom Hanks in Sleepless,” Aurora said. They all knew—but never said—that since Luke had gotten married seven years ago, Winona had grown increasingly despondent over her romantic future. Her self-esteem—never high when it came to men—had fallen below sea level. “Come on, let’s get this intervention going. Ricky is coming home from school this weekend, and I want to make his favorite enchiladas.”
Winona let herself be carried away by their enthusiasm and self-declared proficiency. Vivi Ann painstakingly straightened Winona’s long hair, layer by layer, until it fell in silken columns along her face. Aurora applied makeup with a surprisingly restrained hand—smoky violet smudges beneath her mascaraed lashes, a sweep of rose-hued blush, a lipstick just bright enough to bring out the color of her eyes.
“Wow,” Winona said, smiling at her reflection. “Too bad he can’t just take my head out to dinner.”
Aurora came up behind her, holding a gauzy black sundress with a plunging vee bodice and crinkly skirt that fell from an empire waist.
“My arms will show,” Winona said.
“So will your boobs,” Aurora said, helping Winona out of her T-shirt while Vivi Ann helped her out of her sweatpants. “Did you shave?”
“I’m not a complete moron.”
“I don’t know about that. Here.”
Winona let Aurora pull the stretchy dress over her head. It fell easily into place and she turned back to the mirror and tried to see herself through his eyes: a tall, big-boned woman with a pretty enough face and flabby arms wearing a black, summery dress that showed off her cleavage. Absent liposuction, this was as good as she was likely to look. “Thanks, guys.”
Aurora studied her. Removing one dangling red earring and then the other, she handed them to Winona. “Wear these. And try not to talk about your campaign.”
“Why not?”
“You can’t avoid going into mind-numbing detail. Especially when you start talking about refurbishing downtown. Trust me. Zip it.”
Winona looked to Vivi Ann for confirmation. “Really?”
Vivi Ann grinned. “Really.”
Aurora looked at her watch. “It’s five forty-five. I gotta go.” She hugged them both and left.