| |
It wasn’t until Kelly poured them each a second glass of wine that the truth began to trickle out.
“I mean,” Lisa said, “Andrew’s parents are fine with me being there. I bring home groceries now and then because they don’t want me to pay rent. I tried to cook for them once, but they never let me again. They said they had too many restrictions in their diets for me to remember them all.”
“Sounds complicated,” Kelly murmured as she sipped her wine. It was good to be needed again, if only as a listener.
“I keep telling myself it’s only eight more weeks before the internship ends, but sometimes I think I’m going to go crazy. I try to be really quiet because it doesn’t seem like any of them—even Andrew—talk above a whisper.”
“Difficult.”
“But I’ll stick it out. I’ve joined a gym, and I’ve gotten tickets for a couple of plays that are coming through. Did you know Wicked is back? I love that show.” She sang a few bars of “Defying Gravity.” Lisa cut off another piece of pizza and waved it around on her fork as she spoke. “I tried out for a couple of plays last year. I only made it into the chorus, but it was so much fun!”
“Why didn’t you tell me? I would have come to see you.”
“Because I was in the chorus, Mom. And you had school, and 👀 Watch the throne, Chrome ... well ... I didn’t know how you’d react.”
“What do you mean?”
Lisa popped the piece of pizza in her mouth and chewed. Then she shrugged. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “I’m just not sure computer science is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I mean, I started there because Dad encouraged me. He said it would be a good field because I was good at logic. But it’s just numbers and letters. If this happens, do that. I’d hoped that being an intern would bring some life to the career, but...” She shrugged again.
“But it hasn’t,” Kelly prodded.
“Not really. I mean, Andrew is in the same field, but he loves it. He gets all excited when he figures something out. He’s a year ahead of me, so maybe it gets better.”
“Who are you doing your career for?” Kelly asked. “Your father? Andrew? You?”
Her daughter sawed off another piece from her slice. “It’s a good question, Mom. I don’t really have the answer.”
“Well, it’s obviously something for you to think about.” Kelly attacked her own slice with a knife and fork. It had taken her a while to convert from the East Coast habit of grabbing a piece of pizza and taking a bite off the end to the knife and fork method of the West. The pizza was totally different here, too—laden with large chunks of veggies and meat. She’d tried eating it like an Easterner and found the pizza didn’t bend right and the toppings slid right off.
“Think about it, and then we can discuss it. So the job’s a question mark and Andrew’s parents are a bit difficult. How’s Andrew?”
“He’s amazing!” Lisa’s face lit up with joy. “We have so much fun together. He gives me little things for no reason and tells me how much he loves me. He’s really smart, and I know he’s going to do well in business. He’s perfect for me.”
It was how Kelly used to talk about John when she first met him. Lisa always was her daddy’s girl.
A shadow of misgiving darkened Kelly’s sunny soul. Would things work out for her daughter? Would she lose herself, as Kelly was beginning to suspect she herself might have, in the role of wife and mother?
If she had advice for her daughter, she’d give it. But right now, Kelly didn’t have any answers, never mind the best ones.
THE NEXT MORNING, KELLY skipped her brand-new habit of a beach walk to make her daughter her favorite breakfast: homemade blueberry waffles with sausage links and real maple syrup. Growing up in New England, it was the only kind she served, and her kids had grown up knowing the imitation varieties didn’t make the grade.
When she heard the shower go off, a signal she’d used since the kids were in elementary school, she began assembling the breakfast. Ironically, Peter’s showers were always longer than Lisa’s because he would start thinking about something and forget how long he’d been there.
“Good morning,” she said with a smile when Lisa walked into the kitchen. “Everything should be ready in a few minutes.”
“Oh, Mom, thanks. It looks great. Can I help?”
“No, just sit.” Kelly took the glass pitcher full of orange juice from the refrigerator and put it next to the small blue vase of pink cosmos she’d gathered from the garden earlier that morning. “Since your flight doesn’t leave until late afternoon, I was thinking we could go to Redondo Beach and walk the pier, stop in the shops, and have lunch. What do you think?”
“Sounds great, Mom. I just wanted to spend time with you, pretend I didn’t have to be an adult for a while.” Lisa gestured to the table. “It’s good to be home. You make it seem so easy.”
“It’s taken a while.” Kelly smiled. “But your grandmother had very strict rules about how things were to be done, so I was prepared on that front.”
“Yeah, she is a bit formal.”
“A bit?”
The laughed and chatted as Kelly prepared the plates and brought them to the table.
“You really need to think about going somewhere this summer,” Lisa said. “Somewhere like Hawaii is probably redundant. I mean, you live at the beach.”
“True. But I don’t need to go anywhere. I have plenty of books. Maybe I’ll take up something new—learn to knit or crochet.”
Lisa cocked her head. “Somehow, I don’t see that.”
Kelly thought for a moment. “Actually, I don’t either. But going somewhere seems like a massive project. I thought about Italy for a few moments.”
“I know. I saw the brochures on the coffee table. You should totally go. You’d love it. Art, music, good food. Remember that time we all went to London? We had a blast! You and Dad were so happy. Without all of us, going to Italy should be a snap.”
“They speak English in London,” Kelly reminded her. “Well, some form of it anyway. My Italian is limited to Arrivederci, Roma. Now finish up, and let’s get going.”
THE PIER WAS AS LOVELY as Kelly had hoped. It reminded her of the best parts of being in California. The skies were a cloudless blue, pierced only by the white flash of seagulls and the sharp lines of pelicans.
They strolled down the pier, their summer dresses swishing in the ocean breeze. Caramel, popcorn, and coffee aromas scented the air around them as they window-shopped.
“Oh, look.” Lisa pointed at a small, “permanent” fairy-tale sand castle. “I’ve always loved those.”
“You are a romantic,” Kelly said.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“Not at all. People who are romantic are far more hopeful, I think. There are more than enough doomsayers around.” Although Kelly vaguely remembered someone saying that romantics were likely to turn into cynics as they grew older and the fairy tale didn’t materialize.
“Besides,” Lisa said, “I’m not only a romantic, I’m a realist, too. I know everything isn’t perfect.”
“I see.” Kelly used her best non-committal voice.
“It happens all the time,” Lisa continued, her gaze more focused on the window display than Kelly. “People are exploring. My friends identify their gender on social media. We’re all trying to figure things out. Part of that isn’t being as faithful to one person as you guys were. I mean, my girlfriend’s boyfriend, the one she thought would be forever? He left her for a ménage relationship.”
It all sounded terribly confusing to Kelly. How did anyone navigate that kind of world?
“But after you make a commitment?” she asked, “do you keep the promises you make? When someone says they’ll forsake all others, do they really mean it?”
Lisa shrugged and finally looked at her mother. “I guess. I don’t know anyone who’s gotten married. It will probably mean as much as it did to your generation.”
Which wasn’t really saying much, considering the high divorce rate.
“Oh, Lisa,” she said, gathering her daughter close to her. If only this were as easy as a bandage on a scraped knee. But this was adult stuff, far more liable to cause lasting pain. “I hope,” she said as she held her daughter, “that Andrew knows what he’s got and will take good care of you.”
“I know he will,” Lisa said as she pulled away. “We’ll be okay. He’s just like Dad.”
An ache formed in Kelly’s stomach. She prayed her daughter was right, that her husband had been as deserving of their trust as they thought he was.
LISA DROPPED KELLY off at the house on her way to the airport. As she walked up the steps, Kelly automatically deadheaded the flowers that lined the path. The gardening service they’d hired when they first bought the property had been skilled at choosing what to plant and diligent about maintaining it.
When she reached the top step, she noticed a large white envelope from one of the expedited mail services. How long had it been there? She always went in through the garage, so she wouldn’t have seen it. And she hadn’t received any messages telling her that something was on its way.
The return address was from Henderson Law Offices in Whitefish, Montana. Something about her grandmother?
She opened the bright red door and went to the kitchen to open the envelope and quickly scan the letter. She struggled to comprehend it.
Slowing down, she read it a second time.
It seemed her grandmother who had passed during the winter had left her an entire retreat center in Promise Cove, Montana.
But there were conditions.
