“Mommy!” Katie cried as Jodi greeted her after dance class.

“Hey, pretty girl,” she said as she bent to pick up the bundle of pink and blonde.

Katie kissed her on the cheek, and Jodi squeezed her tight, gratefulness flowing through her like it did every time she touched the miracle she’d made from her own body.

“Daddy said you’re going to take me to dress rehearsal.”

“Yes, I am, so let’s get your stuff, and when we’re there, we’ll find a bathroom and get you into your costume.”

Katie wiggled, and Jodi set her down. Katie held her hand and led her to the coatroom where the students kept their bags. Possessions secured, they made their way to the car.

Once Katie was strapped into the booster seat in the back, Jodi took them to the elementary school where the dance school would hold their recital in a few days.

The gym was bustling with dancers, teachers, and parents, mostly mothers. Jodi led Katie into the locker room nearby and helped her strip out of her leotard and tights and wiggle into a different set of tights and a purple tutu.

“My hair’s apposed to be in a bun,” Katie said, brow furrowed.

“Well, let’s see what we can do,” Jodi said, digging through Katie’s dance bag to see what was there.

“Ah, here’s a brush and some bobby pins. We can get it done with these.”

Katie sat patiently while Jodi chatted to her.

“You have my hair, and these curls are impossible to tame, I’ll tell you from years of experience. But if we braid the ponytail, then wrap it around like this, it’ll be a braided bun and it will stay in a lot better.”

“That’s pretty,” Katie said, looking in the mirror opposite the bench they sat on.

“And these little pieces at the front? I have the perfect thing for them.” She led Katie to the sinks and got a few drops of water on her fingers. “If you wet them, then curl them like so—” She wrapped the flyaway strands around her index finger, creating ringlets with them. “They’ll dry like this and won’t be flying all over the place.”

Katie nodded, a bright smile on her face. “You’re good at this, Mommy. My hair’s the prettiest.”

Jodi kissed her daughter on the top of her head.

“You look beautiful. Now you need to go dance like a prima ballerina.”

“Yes, ma’am,” she answered. “Daddy says if you’re going to do something, do it right.”

Jodi laughed. That was Ty all right. “Daddy’s right, so let’s get you out there to do it up.”

They exited the locker room and made their way to the director’s table, where the girls from Katie’s class were gathered.

“Why, Katie,” one of the mothers said as they approached. “What an interesting hairdo you have.”

Jodi’s brow furrowed as she looked around at the other dancers, all of whom had buns too.

“My mommy did it,” Katie announced proudly, obviously not catching the woman’s critical tone as Jodi had.

“You mean your nanny, sweetheart?”

Katie frowned in confusion. “No, my mommy,” she said, pointing to Jodi.

“Hi,” Jodi said, leaning toward the woman with her hand extended. “I’m Jodi, Katie’s mother.”

The woman looked at her hand as if it had a disease, and Jodi retracted it with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh! Well, I’d heard about you, but I thought it must be a silly rumor. I mean who’s ever heard of a woman who gave her child up coming back?”

Jodi’s throat swelled, and she stifled the urge to cover Katie’s ears from hearing the poison.

“Well, here I am,” she said with as much bravado as she could muster. “Not a rumor.”

“Katie, hon,” the woman said, bending over so she was at eye level with the kindergartener. “You can’t dance with your hair like that. Remember how all the dancers need to have the same hairstyle? If you come with me, we’ll get you all set. I have hairspray and an extra hairnet to do your bun right.”

“I like my hair the way it is,” Katie protested, looking to Jodi for confirmation.

“I’m sorry,” Jodi said, though she was anything but. “I’m not sure what’s wrong with her hair?”

“What’s wrong, Katie?” asked a dance teacher as she approached.

“Oh, I was just explaining that she can’t perform with her hair like that,” the evil mother interjected. “It’s fine. I can fix it for her.”

“Hi, Jodi, isn’t it?” the teacher asked, putting out her hand.

Jodi shook it, giving demon mother a look that said, This is what you do to be polite.

“Yes, it’s nice to see you again.”

The teacher smiled patiently. “Ty may not have told you, but all the girls have to wear a traditional ballerina bun, no hair around their faces, no braids or curls. There are specific instructions for how to do it at the director’s table.”

“But I don’t want to change my hair. It’s pretty,” Katie said, her lip jutting out in defiance.

“I’ll tell you what,” the teacher said, kneeling down to Katie’s level. “Why don’t you keep it this pretty way for today since it’s only dress rehearsal, and then for the performance, your mom can do it like the instructions say?”

Katie looked up at Jodi.

“That’s a great compromise, don’t you think?” Jodi asked, pasting a smile on her face.

“Okay,” Katie conceded. “But Mommy? Can we do my hair like this for school?”

“Absolutely.”

“Good!” the teacher announced. “Now that’s all solved, Meghan, I think they’d like your help at the third-grade lineup.”

Demon mother smiled like a snake. “Of course,” she oozed, before taking her pointed tail and heading off to another part of the gym.

“And Katie,” the teacher said, taking Katie’s hand. “Let’s get you to your line. Your mom will be right in the bleachers watching.”

Jodi nodded, smiling as the teacher led Katie away. Then she put her head down and speed walked to the locker room, where she shut herself in a stall before the tears started to flow.

Stupid, stupid thing. What had she been thinking? She really thought she could be a mother after missing the first five years of her life? She didn’t even know the most basic things about Katie’s life. She’d missed all the milestones—first steps, first words, first dance class. She snorted wryly. That was probably the one where they told you about the damn rules for how to do hair.

She leaned back against the door. God. What a mess. Maybe it would be for the best if she took a step back. Let Ty and Lynn do the hands-on parenting. She could be a great cheerleader, go to the functions, tell Katie how fabulous she was, but keep a bit more distance. She obviously wasn’t cut out for this. Her instincts were crap. And why wouldn’t they be? Her own mother had barely even known the name of Jodi’s school. She’d managed to get Jodi fed and clothed—most days—but she’d never once set foot in the school past the first day when she had to sign paperwork. She’d never signed Jodi up for a single activity, never attended one of Jodi’s volleyball games in high school and was late to high school graduation. She didn’t even show up for college graduation.

Yes, Jodi came from the world’s worst maternal stock. And she’d just proven that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

She took a deep breath and wiped the last tear away. But all she could do now was tough it out and make sure Katie had a nice day at rehearsals. She blew her nose, stepped out of the stall, and fixed her makeup as best she could at the sinks before she went back to the gym and tried to pretend she knew what the hell she was doing.

It was the longest afternoon of her life.

* * *

Ty stood in the kitchen later that evening, trying to puzzle out what Katie was reporting to him and Lynn.

“But you said your hair was in a bun. So what was the problem?” he asked, confused.

“Not the right kind of bun,” Katie corrected, looking frustrated.

“They have rules about the ballerina bun,” Lynn said, rolling her eyes. “You remember the instruction sheet they send home every year.”

“Oh yeah. Lots of hairspray, right? So you look like a little seal with everything slicked off your face?”

“I like the way Mommy did it better, and she said our hair won’t stay off our faces ’cause it’s too curly.”

Ty sighed and looked to Lynn for help.

“Well, I wasn’t there,” she said, shrugging. “But we’ll get it all fixed before the recital next weekend, I’m sure.”

Ty knelt and tickled Katie on the stomach. “It’s all good, bug. We’ll make sure your hair’s done right.”

She giggled reluctantly. “I don’t like Samantha’s mom,” she announced.

“Well, she was just trying to help, I’m sure,” Ty said, even though he’d met the woman and thought she was a piece of work.

“She made Mommy sad.”

“She did?” he asked, suddenly on high alert.

“Yes. After rehearsal, she looked like she’d been crying. I don’t want her to be sad, Daddy.”

“Of course not.” Ty was somber.

Lynn shot him a concerned look.

“I’ll tell you what,” he said, putting on a grin for Katie’s sake. “If you go get ready for bed super fast, I’ll let you watch a little of the national rodeo championships on TV with me.”

“Yay!” She jumped up and down. “Chasing cows! Knock ’em down and tie ’em up.”

Lynn chuckled and shook her head. Ty’s sweet, blonde daughter was notoriously bloodthirsty, naming any cow she encountered on the ranch, then asking if that was the one they were eating at dinner.

Ty rolled his eyes. “It’s a little more complicated than that, bug, but yes. Now go get your jammies on.”

After Katie left, Lynn turned from the sink where she was rinsing pots and pans from dinner. Ty packaged up leftovers and stored them in the refrigerator.

“You think something went wrong?” Lynn asked.

“I don’t know what to think.”

“Are you going to ask her about it?”

“Sure. I’ll give her a call after I get Katie in bed.”

Lynn nodded. “Good. I think we need to know exactly what happened.”

* * *

An hour later, Ty finally settled into a chair on the front porch with a beer in one hand and his cell phone in the other.

He texted Jodi.

T: Hey. Are you around?

He waited five minutes and didn’t get a response, so he tossed the phone aside and looked out at the darkness, listening to the sounds of the animals in the barn settling in for the night, along with crickets and bullfrogs starting up their nighttime activities.

He hadn’t needed to worry about another person aside from Katie in a very long time. The sensation was foreign to him. The thought of Jodi upset made him itch in his own skin. But he also couldn’t let Jodi’s feelings interfere with Katie’s needs. If Katie’s hair had to be done a certain way for her to be in the recital, then that was what had to happen even if it hurt Jodi’s feelings.

Damn. His gaze wandered to his phone again. Nothing.

He sighed, and stood to go inside to bed, but he hadn’t taken two steps before he turned, heading out to his truck at the same time he dug his keys out of his pocket. He needed to find Jodi. Figure out what had happened at that dance rehearsal. Because there was no way he was going to be able to sleep worrying about his girls. The thought shot a bolt of discomfort through him. His girls. That wasn’t something he’d ever expected to think. No, Ty had figured he’d devote himself to raising Katie, and when she was grown, maybe he’d have time to find a nice woman, get married, run the ranch together. But now, here he was, a kid, her mother, and so many feelings, he had trouble sorting through them all.

As he drove down the dirt road leading to the PCH, he could only wonder how his father had done it all those years. He’d made it look so easy, balancing the needs of his three rowdy boys and his wife. Now Ty could see it was a lot more complicated than it appeared. As often happened when he remembered his parents, his thoughts turned to the fact they’d missed meeting Katie—their first grandchild. He knew they would have adored her. It was a tremendous loss to Rex and Sophia as well as to Katie. The kind of loss you felt deep in your bones. He’d never thought of the loss of her mother as being the same magnitude as the loss of her grandparents. Maybe because he’d never known Jodi as a mom. But he'd known his own parents, and because of that, he realized exactly what Katie was missing without them.

But, he thought as he made his way through town toward the little string of cottages on the north edge of the town center where Jodi’s rental house was, now he was learning about Jodi as a mother. And if Katie had never had Jodi? Yeah, that would have been fucking tragic too. His daughter deserved her mom. The love that shone in Jodi’s eyes when she looked at Katie, the soft way she spoke to her when they were planning things to do together.

Katie deserved the way Jodi explained animals and biology when they hiked in the canyons around the ranch. She deserved the songs Jodi sang to her when she tucked her in before leaving Ty’s house. She deserved the silly way Jodi had joked with her to take her mind off a scraped knee when she’d fallen in the driveway.

His daughter deserved a mother—her mother. And he had to remember that. Jodi didn’t need to be perfect; no parent was. She just needed to be her, and be present. That was what Katie had yearned for her entire life, and it was what she deserved. It was what they all three deserved.

When he pulled up to Jodi’s house, a light shone from the living room, so he went to the door and knocked, determined that if she wasn’t here, he’d wait as long as it took. He needed to know she was okay—the three of them were okay.

She answered quickly, and his gaze took her in with one swift pass—hair in a messy bun, face devoid of makeup, eyes tired above dark circles.

“Hi,” he said, not moving as if he could sense her fight or flight instincts at the ready. “I texted, but you didn’t respond. Can we talk?”

Jodi nodded, her expression resigned. He stepped past her into the cozy little house, and as happened every time, he was enveloped in warmth, his entire body relaxing, his soul comforted.

“Do you want anything to drink?” she asked, gaze on the floor, her shoulders slumped in defeat.

He took her hand. “No, gorgeous. Come here.” He led her to the sofa, where he sat and pulled her onto his lap. Her head found his shoulder, and they stayed like that, his arms wrapped around her, her head tucked under his chin.

“Tell me what happened at the dance recital,” he instructed gently.

She sighed a long, shuddering breath. “Katie told you?”

He chuckled. “A five-year-old’s not the most reliable source of information. What I got was something about the wrong kind of bun, Samantha’s mom, you, and tears. I figured I’d better get the adult version of the whole thing.”

“It was horrible,” she said softly. “I’m horrible. I don’t know what I’m doing, and I messed it all up. She’s probably so humiliated, having a mother who people whisper about all the time. One who doesn’t know the most basic stuff about her life. I’m so sorry.”

He held her firm and strong, but she was stiff in his arms, her face hidden from his gaze. He could hear her breaths, short, hard, fast.

“She wasn’t humiliated. She was worried—about you. And she was angry—at the other mom. Tell me exactly what all happened.”

Jodi launched into the story, and by the time she was finished, Ty was so mad he thought his head might spin off right there in her living room.

He pushed her away, only so he could see her face, maintaining a hold on her arms as she balanced on his lap. “Listen to me,” he told her, his voice nearly a growl, it was so rough. “Don’t you dare spend one more second of your time or energy on this. Not on that woman, not on the fucking hairstyles, not on any of it.”

She blinked at him.

“I will handle Samantha’s mother and the dance studio. And next Saturday, you will do our daughter’s hair for the recital, and if you want her to have a braided bun, then do it. If you want her to have curls on the sides, then do it. Hairspray? Fine. Hairnet? Great. But you will be the one to decide. You. Are her mother.”

Her upset was unexpected but not unwelcome. He was surprised at how good it felt to be the one who saw her this way—so vulnerable, struggling to put it all together, to become the woman he knew she was growing into.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she sniffed.

His hands, which stayed on her body at all times, brushed aside a stray droplet from her cheeks, and he chuckled and kissed her on her red nose.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m just sorry it all happened. I guess I knew there were mean moms out there, but I’ve never had to think about it for myself. I assumed everyone would follow my lead about you. If I said you could be involved in her dance or her school, then they’d accept that. I never thought about anything but the legal aspects of all this. I never thought about how tough it might be for you to be accepted socially in this new role.”

“It’s not your fault,” Jodi said, giving him a brave smile. “There’s no model for how to integrate a mother into your kid’s life five years in.” She shook her head, and his heart shook with it. “I have to accept I may never really be accepted by everyone else. If I can keep being accepted by her, that’s the only thing that matters.”

He sat for a moment, watching her perfect face, listening to her soft breath. “You will be accepted, gorgeous,” he murmured, stroking silky hair from her face. “My family’s been in Big Sur for three generations. We run one of the largest ranches in the state, and we’ve contributed millions to the improvement and upkeep of this community. We weren’t raised to pull rank, but I won’t hesitate if people are challenging my family. It’s not up to the town mean girls to say if you’re acceptable as Katie’s mother or not, it’s up to Katie and me.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers for a brief moment. “We say you’re in. So you’re in.”

She laughed then, and he knew it was all going to be fine. He also knew he was in this so deep, he might never get out.