Free Your Eyes Don't Lie by Rachel Branton Page A

voice, or anything Makay could pinpoint as foreign, but she definitely had an exotic flare in her beautiful bronze coloring, though perhaps her skin was just tanned. Her eyelashes were twice as thick as Makay’s—and the mascara she wore made them even thicker.
    Brette met her eyes in the mirror. “Tessa told me about your parents. To tell you the truth, that’s the only reason I came tonight. I thought if you could do it, so could I. Go on, I mean.” She hesitated, her voice lowering as she glanced at the other women in the room. “Of course, I didn’t have it nearly as bad as you did, losing both parents. I never knew my father, but I did have my mother all these years. Isn’t it . . . doesn’t it feel weird to know that there’s no one out there? No one to pick you up if you make a mistake. To pay the rent or give you a place to go if you can’t make it. I feel . . . so alone.”
    Makay shook her head and said slowly, “I don’t know what it’s like to have anyone do those things.” She regretted the words the instant they left her mouth. They sounded so self-pitying. Besides, Brette was mourning the loss of her mother and bringing up her own sad history wouldn’t help Brette. “It gets easier,” she added quickly. “You learn to cope. To survive. And you have friends like Lily and Tessa. They’re good people.”
    Brette turned, leaning her bottom against the counter. “Yeah. I feel kind of stupid crashing at Lily’s. I’d been staying at my mother’s since her death—it seemed pointless to keep my apartment when I have to figure out what to do with the house—but suddenly I couldn’t take being there alone anymore. I’m seriously thinking of getting a dog.”
    Makay laughed. “Don’t give in to that urge. You won’t be able to go anywhere without worrying if you’ll have a couch when you get back, or if it’ll pee on the carpet. And the food! My dog eats more than three times what I do. I can’t even think about a vacation because who would I leave him with?”
    “Kind of like a kid, huh?” Brette laughed with her. “Although if all kids are as sweet as your little brother, I think it’d be great having a kid. We had quite a conversation on Thursday when he was there at Lily’s. Well, before he abandoned me to play with Jonny. I think he’s probably the smartest first-grader in Arizona.”
    Makay’s heart warmed to her. “He is pretty amazing,” she agreed, “despite . . .” She trailed off. Despite what? Despite being born to a druggie? Despite having only Makay to raise him? It all seemed so unfair to poor Nate.
    “Hey,” Brette said, apparently interpreting Makay’s thoughts from her expression, “you’ve done great with him. I wish . . . I wish I had something like him in my life.” She shook her head. “All I’ve got is my mother’s little house that creaks at night, a job at the hospital that I’m probably going to lose because I’ve missed so much with the funeral and everything, and a bunch of my mother’s papers in a foreign language I can’t read but that I’m sure are terribly important.”
    “You’ll make it work,” Makay said. “You have to.”
    Brette smiled. “You’re right. I will.” She moved aside as a woman approached, indicating that she wanted to wash her hands. “Do you think your admirer has given up? He’s probably a stalker, you know.”
    “Nah, he’s just a guy looking for a good time, and if that means dancing, I’m fine with it.” Makay started for the door. It wasn’t like she was going to invite him to her apartment, even though Nate would be at Lily’s.
    “You’re probably right. It’s just all that creaking at night that’s freaking me out. I kind of wish I hadn’t given up my apartment or broken up with my boyfriend so I’d have someone to come over and check out the house—although breaking up with him was the smartest thing I ever did.”
    Makay leaned forward and whispered, “Maybe you should get a