Bound by Blood (An Anya Maynard Novel)

Chapter Sixteen

   There was a bit of chaos in the morning when Kayla came stumbling down for breakfast in her barely there pj’s, leaving exposed skin for miles, grumbling about our early call time for the parade. She made no effort to steer clear of anyone so we had to dance around her to avoid accidently triggering her gift. Poor Greg was unaware though, and when he came in to grab a cup of coffee he placed a hand on Kayla’s shoulder as he was sliding by her and she jumped, spilling Connor’s caramel French toast all over the floor.

   She glared at Greg for imparting his memories on her but kept her mouth shut.

   Connor glared at her for ruining breakfast and told her the next time she came to eat it was to be fully clothed.

   I smiled because Connor’s words implied that Kayla was welcome in our home.

   Then I frowned because I shouldn’t care if she was around or not.

   Then I cursed because I did.

   The rest of the day went surprisingly smooth. Steve seemed to be doing a little better, the concern was still all over him, but having an opponent, someone to direct his anger at helped his demeanor by miles. He wasn’t happy by any means but he wasn’t…lifeless. It was enough that I was able to convince him to ride in Connor’s truck as he drove it down the parade route even if he wasn’t going to join me and the other girls from the diner on the float.

   Connor was the one driving, said no matter how progressive a pack we were he just couldn’t throw candy from a bubble gum pink float.

   We got to the launch point for the parade in ample time to set up said float, filling the multihued buckets with pounds upon pounds of candy Maddie bought to throw to the crowds. It was the theme of the float, Candy Land after she fell in love with that Katy Perry music video.

   Her touch was everywhere, with the whip cream guns and diet soda fountains, the giant gummy bears she had carved out of god only knows what and person sized lollipops. Everything sparkled and glittered to the point of irritation- it would be blinding once we made it in the sun- the music was too loud –and not one of us could figure out how to turn it down- and the shiny surfaces were slippery…

   And we all had our moment of grief without her here to enjoy us with it.

   It was almost painful to slap on those silly smiles and pretend like everything was okay. But once we realized who was lined up in front of us they became genuine. It was the teachers association from the high school and they were putting on their moving play based on The Proposal…with a twist. The roles were reversed and the men were dressed as Sandra Bullock while the women looked like Ryan Reynolds. It was hilarious, especially with the men occasionally losing a roll of socks or a water balloon out of their bras and chasing it along the parade route.

   Connor told me they did it every year, picked some chick-flick movie and did their interpretation of it. The classics like Dirty Dancing and Pretty Woman always went over better, but their rendition of The Notebook came in a pretty close third last year.

   The floats came to a stop in the fairgrounds and the voting began on the different categories like best Large, Small and Sponsored floats, best on foot ensemble, best classic car…it went on forever. It was as if there were enough classes to make sure everyone earned a trophy.

   After congratulating the winners I was dragged away by the girls from the beauty shop. I had agreed to sit in the dunk tank they had set up- to raise money for beauty school scholarships- for a while and was their highest earner all day. All and all I had only ended up dunked a handful of times but Connor and Steve had wandered over just as a young boy had given up, offering to pitch for him and down I went. After I had fully pruned I excused myself to check out the rest of the carnival. Julie and Kayla were always nearby, Julie’s eyes flitting everywhere and Kayla offering casual brushes against anyone looking suspect.