“Rae Lazareva soon,” I correct softly. “In about twenty minutes.”
Her eyes spill over. So do mine.
So much for the mascara.
We stand there leaking all over each other’s fancy outfits until a knock at the door makes us both jump.
“Rae?” Gideon’s voice, slightly muffled. “They’re, uh—they’re ready for us. Whenever you are.”
I wipe my eyes and Jillian wipes hers. “Go get ‘em, Sunshine,” she whispers.
She slips out the door ahead of me, and I hear her heels clomp down the stairs, followed by the distant sound of the garden door opening and closing. From outside, a lone violin drifts up through the window.
I take one last look in the mirror. “Okay, Mom,” I whisper. “Okay, Dad. Here I go.”
Then I open the door.
Gideon is waiting in the hallway. The sight of him nearly takes me out at th
