“Warren said he’d bring me.”
“Okay, I’ll see you then. Thanks again for the use of the land.”
I called Martha and gave her the good news and then had to listen to a complete rundown of the preparations so far, which left my ear sore and tingling when I finally hung up the phone almost an hour later.
I didn’t rush home that night, and when I walked in the door, horror dawned as I saw the dining table set for a special dinner. Was it too late to run out and get a card?
Joe came out of the kitchen and smiled at me. “Guess you forgot what day it is?”
“June twenty-first. Oh, Joe, I’m so sorry. There’s been so much going on and—”
“Never mind. Happy anniversary. Come and have some champagne.”
Sarah was in the kitchen, filling three champagne flutes. My heart sank. Apparently she’d forgotten her announcement from the night before that she was leaving.
What kind of mother isn’t happy to see her own daughter?
I forced myself to toast with them. The pale, sparkling wine was dry against my tongue, almost not like a liquid at all, and did nothing to loosen the tightness in my throat.
Joe proudly showed me the flooring he’d picked out. Brazilian cherry in seven-inch-wide planks. The cabinets were a raw cherry wood, which was beautiful, but not to my taste. I’d always pictured something lighter, more modern.
“It’s very nice.”
“You don’t like it?” His face fell.
“I do, it’s just that . . .” I thought with a pang of the pictures I’d cut out of magazines in anticipation of the fun we’d have planning the remodel. The hours spent sitting around the butcher block table, talking, laughing, dreaming, mixing and matching, until we both decided on the perfect combination. Together.
Life was so ironic. Finishing the kitchen was something I’d wanted for a long time. But not right now. And now it was all being done in a rush.
Jasper, ignored in the excitement, lifted his leg and peed on a scrap of what was left of the vinyl floor.
Thanks to years of teaching, I knew the serenity prayer by heart. I carefully set down my champagne glass. “Come on, Jasper, let’s go outside.”
Even though it was shutting the barn door after the horse had escaped, I had to start somewhere. I didn’t even ask when was the last time anyone had thought to let him out.
I followed the puppy into the yard and sat for a moment in the metal glider on the back porch. We’d bought it at auction, wobbly, rusted, and missing screws. Joe had painstakingly sanded it down, made it sturdy again, and painted it with several coats of aqua paint until it gleamed.
Jasper peed up against the corner of the shed, and then again on the pedestal of the birdbath, and finally he produced one long stream against a clump of emerging daylilies.
I leaned my head against the glider, feeling like I’d been falling apart a little more and more every day since Sarah had come home. Now my emotions were so close to the surface I was a walking raw wound. Had I really been that peaceful and happy before, or was I just kidding myself?
I took a deep breath, stood up and went back inside.
“I’m sure the kitchen will look great when it’s done, Joe. Now, let’s celebrate.”
Joe grinned and we hugged, and Sarah topped up everyone’s glasses. I poured some water for myself.
We chatted about the preparations for the country fair over dinner.
“Hey, Mom, I asked one of my PA friends to lend us some walkie-talkies for the parking attendants to use. She’s going to ship them to me here.”
“What’s a PA?” Joe asked. “A pain in the—”
“Daddy! No, it’s a production assistant!”
Sarah laughed, the sound as light and joyous as the bubbles in the champagne. How beautiful she was. How precious to me.
She made no mention of leaving again, nor of any work on the horizon. I knew she expected me to ask, but the new Daisy would let her make her own way. She’d either pay her mortgage or lose the condo. Simple as that. It was out of my hands now.
There was a slight lull in the conversation.
“I wonder what will happen at the preliminary hearing for Angus,” I said.
Joe dropped his fork onto his plate with a clang. “Could we please stop talking about Angus for one night? You’re depressing everyone. Ruining the mood.”
I fixed my smile in place. “Sorry, everyone.”
Sarah looked down at her plate, not meeting my eyes.
Joe sighed. “I admire your desire to help people, Daisy, I really do, but I’m worried about what this is doing to you—and to us.”
“Okay, okay.” I smiled harder. “This Veal Marsala is delicious, Joe. However did you make it?”