Love Letters From Ladybug Farm - Donna Ball [56]
“And wash your hair,” Bridget suggested.
Cici glanced sideways at the lank strands falling toward her face. “I can take a hint.”
“And for God’s sake, get some decent fast food,” Lindsay said. She gathered up their leavings on a tray as they stood.
Cici placed a hand lightly on each of their arms and smiled. “I’m going to be fine,” she said. “Really. And so is Lori.”
“Oh, we know that,” Lindsay assured her with a sigh. “All the two of you have to worry about is a broken leg and an extended hospital stay. We’re the ones who have to deal with the mother of the bride.”
Bridget and Lindsay made their final shopping trip while Cici returned to Lori’s room. The doctor was in there when Cici pushed open the door, and Lori’s expression was so stricken that Cici’s heart went to her throat. “What?” she demanded, hurrying forward. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, Mom,” Lori said, her eyes filling. “He says I’ll be here another week. How can I stay here a week?”
“I said,” the doctor corrected, scribbling on his clipboard, “that if you continue to do as well as you have done, you could be out of here by Wednesday. That’s six days.”
Cici pressed her hand to her thudding heart, weak with relief, and tried to find some words of comfort for her daughter. All she could manage was, “You’re lucky your leg is in a cast or I’d wring your neck. You scared me to death.”
“But I have an exam Monday! I can’t stay until Wednesday!” Lori turned pleading, tear-filled eyes on her mother. “Tell him!”
Now that Cici’s heartbeat was almost back to normal, she could take a breath. But before she could speak, the doctor shook his head. “Sorry, no chance. She’s doing well otherwise, though,” he told Cici, and Lori pressed her head back against the pillow, eyes closed in despair, as he briefed Cici on her progress.
“You don’t understand,” Lori insisted when he was gone. “I’ve got to take that exam. If I miss it I’ll get an incomplete for the entire semester, and if I have an incomplete I’ll be taken out of the running for the internship, and I can’t miss out on this, Mom, I just can’t!”
Cici nodded sympathetically and sat beside Lori, tucking a tissue into her hand. “I know how much you were looking forward to this.”
“I had a personal recommendation!” She pressed the tissue to her eyes. “I was going to live in a real Italian castillo. I was going to learn wine making from the experts. Sergio and I had plans. Now it’s all over. Everything I planned, everything I worked for...”
“I’m sure your friend will understand,” Cici said. It was easy to be generous now that she knew Lori was not spending the summer in Italy.
Lori leaned her head back helplessly against the pillow. A lone tear escaped from her closed lashes and trickled down her battered cheek. “How?” she said tiredly. “I can’t even contact him. I don’t have a phone, or a computer ... Anyway, it wouldn’t make any difference. It’s over. Just like everything else I try, I’ve totally screwed this up.”
Not even the return of Lindsay and Bridget could lift Lori’s spirits. “I can’t do anything right,” was her new anthem, and it was uttered in the most morose tone any of them had ever heard from the naturally ebullient Lori. “Every time I get a little bit ahead, something knocks me back down.” She gestured resignedly to the cast on her leg. “Why does everything always happen to me?”
Lindsay smiled. “We know that feeling, sweetie. It’s been the story of our lives since we moved here.”
“Every challenge we face is a chance for personal growth,” Bridget pronounced, and at the looks she received from the other three she quickly offered, “Look, honey. We brought chocolate.”
Bridget spread out the contents of their shopping bags across Lori’s bed—candy, hand lotion, a hairbrush, mirror, nail polish, paperback books. Cici gave her two friends a grateful look, but Lori barely noticed.
“I’ve worked so hard,” she said. “This whole year, everything I’ve done—up in smoke.”
“Not everything,” Cici said, trying to inject patience into her tone. “It’s just one course. You’ll make it up.”
“Maybe you could