Free Laguna Nights by Kaira Rouda

you.”
    “You too,” Madison said as she turned off the engine and hung up. She hoped her mother was fast asleep, dreaming of health and wellness, and nothing to do with the late hour her daughter was arriving home. Madison climbed the wooden stairs up to the front door to her cottage in barefoot. She noticed the lights were out in the back cottage and she was relieved, certain her mom was sound asleep. She turned the key in the lock and slowly pushed the door open. Her mom sat in the corner chair, facing the fireplace, wrapped in her favorite blanket.
    “Hey Mom,” Madison said, knowing her makeup stained face would give everything away even as she tried to paste on a smile.
    “Madison Holly Alcott, what did that ego monster do this time?” Francine said.
    Madison looked at her mom and before she could help herself, tears were streaming down her face.
    “Come sit down beside me,” Francine said patting the arm of the chair next to her and Madison dropped into the overstuffed white chair. Her mom patted her hand and Madison felt like a child again, living in the canyon, not a part of the rest of the town. She hated this feeling. That she didn’t belong, that she wasn’t good enough, that she’d never be good enough for Laguna Beach, for success, for Josh.
    “It’s not his fault,” Madison said, finally breaking the silence once her tears had dissipated. “We still have a connection, like always. It’s just his choices. He makes terrible choices, Mom.”
    “Actions speak louder than words, honey,” Francine said.
    “I know, of course I know that, but it’s like he needs a reality check in his life. I think that’s what I was for him, back in high school,” Madison said. She looked out the French doors toward the deck and over the tops of the cottages and homes below, saw the moon rising over the ocean.
    “Because you were my daughter, the daughter of a nail salon owner from the canyon?” Francine said. Her tone wasn’t bitter, just factual as always, Madison noted. She knew her mom was proud of their life, that they’d hung on, that Madison had graduated from one of the best, most beautiful high schools in the state. “I wouldn’t change anything. Your upbringing made you successful, scrappy. I don’t worry about you taking care of yourself when I’m gone. Remember when you took over the salon for a whole weekend, and nobody realized it? You were eleven years old!”
    Madison smiled at the memory. Her mom had been sick with the flu, unable to even lift her head off the pillow. Madison had taken the bus into town, opened up the salon and managed client appointments all day, splitting them between the two other manicurists, somehow keeping the peace between long-standing clients and tourist walk-ins.
    “Joleen called me that Sunday and told me I may as well retire since you were going to take over the place. I laughed and told her you had to go back to school or else I would’ve handed you the keys,” Francine said. Madison could hear the smile in her mom’s voice even as the moon rising started to shed a glow in the room where they sat.
    “You need to get to bed, Mom,” Madison said, reluctantly pushing herself out of the chair and helping her mom out of hers. “I’ll walk you over to your cottage. You really shouldn’t be waiting up for me like this. It’s not healthy. And if you do, stay in your cottage. I’ll always check on you.”
    “I know you will, honey,” Francine said. She stopped walking and looked at Madison. “What is it? What did he do this time?”
    Madison took a deep breath and let it out. “He’s engaged, it turns out,” Madison said holding her palms up to silence her mom. “But that’s fine. It is. I just let myself get attached a little bit again. I’ll be fine.”
    “Ego monster,” Francine said and began her slow walk toward her cottage, Madison falling in place next to her for support.
    “I guess,” Madison said. “Oh, and they’ve talked my boss