A Year on Ladybug Farm - Donna Ball [17]
“So do you,” Lori replied generously.
“So. How does it feel, saying good-bye to the house you grew up in? Are you going to miss the old place?”
Lori thought about this. “A little, I guess. But everything changes. And it’s not as though I hadn’t already moved out.”
Cici nodded sagely. “Very sensible. So you’re not mad at me for selling?”
Lori gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “Of course not. I know all about that midlife crisis stuff. It’s just like Dad driving around in a Porsche and dating models half his age.”
“Nothing,” replied Cici evenly, “is like your dad dating models half his age.”
She grinned. “It’s okay, Mom, even he knows it’s stupid. But it’s like my social psych prof says, it’s a life passage. And at least you didn’t marry the pool boy or run off with your Italian lover.”
Cici lifted an eyebrow. “I didn’t know those were options.”
“It has to do with reinventing yourself. Men do it because they’re afraid of losing their virility. Women do it because, once their children leave the nest, they don’t know what their role in life is anymore. Some women go to spin class. You bought a hundred-year-old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. It’s no surprise to me.”
“Well, as glad as I am to know you’re learning something in social psych class, let’s go back to that Italian lover I could have run off with.”
Lori laughed. “See? No surprise. You’re a nut, always have been.”
Cici hugged her. “I love you, baby.”
“Love you back.”
“I wish you were coming with me.”
Lori looked very seriously into her mother’s eyes. “Mom,” she said, “I have a life.”
Cici didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry, and she struggled hard to keep from doing either. “But you’re coming this summer, right? Aren’t you dying to see the place?”
“Well, maybe not dying . . . it sounds like an awful lot of hard work to me. But I’ll definitely try to make it out for my birthday. There’s an airport there right?”
Cici realized she had no idea where the nearest airport was in relation to her new home. Had she ever in her life lived further than an hour away from an airport? “Oh sure,” she replied airily. “Paved roads and everything. And it’s all horse country out there. Maybe we could talk about keeping a horse for you to use when you visit.”
This time Lori’s expression was a little sad. “Mom,” she said gently, “I’m really too old to bribe with a pony.”
Cici opened her mouth to reply, snapped it shut again, and instead hugged her daughter fiercely. “I miss my baby,” she whispered, squeezing her eyes tightly shut.
“I miss you, too, Mom.” Lori leaned back and smiled through what Cici was surprised to see was a shimmer of tears. “But we’re both big girls now, huh?”
Cici sniffed and carefully blotted her mascaraed lashes with the tips of her index fingers. She tried to mimic Lori’s brave smile. “You bet.”
Lori gave her mother’s fingers a reassuring squeeze, then held out her hand, palm up. “Cell phone,” she said.
Cici hesitated, then grinned, dug into her pocket, and plopped the device into Lori’s open hand. “Let’s get back to the party,” she said.
Holding a drink, Kevin slipped his other hand around Bridget’s arm and nodded an apologetic smile to the group surrounding her. “Mom, okay if we borrow you for a minute?”
Bridget excused herself and let Kevin lead the way to Cici’s downstairs guest room, which tonight was serving as a coat closet. Kate, who had just returned from putting the girls to bed next door, had cleared off three chairs. She was sitting in one of them, her hands folded, her knees crossed, her expression reserved. Kevin quietly closed the door behind them. “Have a seat, Mom,” he said.
Bridget glanced around, smiling a little. “Why does this feel like an intervention?”
“Nothing like that,” Katie insisted quickly, patting the chair next to her. “We just wanted to talk to you for a minute. Sit down, Mom.”
Curious, Bridget did. Kevin straightened the bottom of his suit jacket before sitting on it, straight and stiff, just like he had been taught