Home Free - Fern Michaels [96]
The boys shook their heads.
“Then we should hit the road,” Jack said. “The temperature is dropping, and the roads are going to freeze up again. Thanks for everything, Myra.”
Twenty minutes later the caravan of cars was gone. Myra closed the door and turned to look at Annie and Charles, her eyes misty.
“Well, that damn well sucked,” Annie said.
Myra ripped at the pearls on her neck and sent them flying across the kitchen. Annie and Charles gasped in horror as a flood of tears rolled down Myra’s cheeks. “Tomorrow night, we’ll be . . . retired,” she sobbed.
The two women clung to each other as they sobbed out their misery. Charles looked on as he wrung his hands. The dogs howled and circled the two wailing women, who ignored them.
“We need a drink, Charles. A stiff one. I think you need one, too, so you can think about your memoirs and how you’re going to make your life interesting,” Annie said as she led Myra into the living room, where a fire blazed and the Christmas tree sparkled.
“I wasn’t expecting that, Annie. The worst part is, I can’t blame them. They’re young. They deserve to get on with their lives. I guess I even knew it was coming. I just didn’t expect it to be this soon. Did you? What’s taking Charles so long with our drinks?”
“I think he’s picking up your pearls. You really made a statement, Myra, when you snatched those pearls and flung them across the room. Did that help? Do you feel better yet, Myra?”
“About as good as you felt that day you got your ass tattooed. You weren’t expecting the pain, and I sure as hell wasn’t. You’re right, Annie. This really, really sucks.”
“There is a bright spot. Yoko is going to have a baby, and I do think Nikki and Jack will follow through and adopt. Lizzie, Cosmo, and Little Jack are coming for Christmas, so we have that to look forward to.”
Myra sniffled. “It’s not the same thing, and you damn well know it, Annie. I must say you are taking this rather well.”
“We don’t have a choice, Myra. If we try to interfere, try to coax them to stay, they’ll end up hating us. You like to knit. I’m sure we’ll find some other interests to take up our time.”
“Liar, liar, pants on fire!” Myra blubbered.
“Oh, good, here’s Charles with our drinks. What should we drink to, Myra?”
“Our new lives!” Myra wailed.
Charles set the drinks down on the coffee table and ran from the room. He was so choked up, he was afraid that he was going to burst into tears himself. He must really be getting old, or else he just didn’t realize how stupid he was. In a million years he never thought his chicks would fold and move on. Never. Ever.
A lone tear rolled down his cheek, then another one, until he was blinded with his own unhappiness.
Chapter 26
They were in place. The six-room apartment on Kilbourne Place was in lockdown mode.
Isabelle turned on the big-screen TV. “What will it be, girls? The Cooking Channel, the Shopping Channel, or The Ellen Show?”
“What are they cooking?” Kathryn asked.
Isabelle clicked on the Cooking Channel. “Some kind of fish with the head still on it. They’re going to stuff it. Yuck! They’re selling handbags on the Shopping Channel. Made out of candy wrappers. You wanna watch that?”
“Why not? A girl can always use another handbag,” Alexis said as she peered at the colorful bags lacquered to a high shine.
The truth was, no one was the least bit interested in what was on the big screen. They were just yakking to pass the time until they got the call from Avery that Mr. OO was on the way.
“The roads are pretty good, and it finally stopped snowing. Maybe our guy will leave early today to beat traffic,” Annie said.
“You wish,” Myra said as she reached for the pearls that were no longer around her neck.
“The minute Avery calls, we have to go dark, and that means turning off the television,” Nikki said. “I wonder how Jack and the others are making out with Jason