“Old!” Janet, Donna and Joan echoed, rather indignant.
“Mmm-mmm. You in trouble now,” Karen teased, cutting her eyes at Summer.
Before Joan or any of the other older ladies could get started on Summer for her little dig, Karen tooted out her lips, cutting her eyes at her mom. The grin on her face was downright impish. “Mommy, what you and Poppa Patrick be doing down there in those woods?”
Donna eyes became as large as saucers. No her child wasn’t getting all up in her personal business. And in front of everyone at that! Putting her left hand on her hip, she pointed her right finger at Karen. “Stay in your lane, little girl.”
Why oh why, did her girls want to torment her? She pierced Starr with a look when she sensed that she was about to add her two little cents. Starr wasn’t fazed. “You know what they be doing,” Starr said to her sister. Standing up, she began swaying her hips to the music in her head, then next came the lyrics to a popular song from the eighties. “They be stroking.” Still swaying her hips she did a little dip. “They be stroking.”
Everyone whipped around to the doorway, speechless. Nita was doing a dance from way back called the rock, as she was, singing some of the other lyrics to the song. “Stroke it to the east, stroke it to the west…I be stroking.”
Screams of laughter bounced off the wall, especially at the expression on Beatrice’s face as she clutched the pearls at her neck. She and Nita heard the lively conversation as they approached the opened door. But never in a million years had she thought Nita would start gyrating and singing such lewd, God-awful lyrics. She had never in all her fifty-something years witnessed such a thing. Women her age didn’t behave as such…did they?
“What’s the matter, Beatrice?” Ava quipped, humor twitching at her lips. This was just too much fun to pass up. Beatrice, in all her sophisticated splendor, nervously shuffling from one Chanel clad foot to the other.
“Well…N – nothing’s wrong,” she stuttered, her face flushing in embarrassment. “I just never knew,” her eyes darted between the mature women in the room, “women our age did those things.”
Nita let out an exasperated sigh. “Beatrice, did you ever have any fun?” Hearing about the woman’s past behavior, Nita immediately disliked her. But as the woman slowly revealed the layers of herself, Nita came to the conclusion that she hadn’t lived a full life, at least how it really mattered. Sure she had money, the finest clothes, jewels, a beautiful home, and took lavish vacations, but she had never experienced living as the other women had. So what they had grown children and were even grandmothers. Every now and again, it was fun to let their hair down and have a little fun with their daughters. It certainly kept them feeling youthful.
All eyes on her, she felt a bit put on the spot. Just this once she wanted to fit in, wanted to really be a part of the in crowd. Hitching her chin up she challenged, “Since I’m lacking in the ways of fun, why don’t you ladies teach me a thing or two?”
Joan was the first to cackle. “I guess she told you Nita.”
Nita wrinkled her nose at Beatrice. “Humph, I guess she did.”
“Road trip! Road trip! Road trip!” The younger women chanted.
“What a wonderful idea,” Janet murmured, putting a manicured finger to her bottom lip as if in deep thought. “It can double as showing the old girl how to have fun and as Karen’s bachelorette party.”
She turned to Donna, making sure that she hadn’t crossed any boundaries since she was the soon-to-be mother-in-law, not the mother of the bride. “If that’s all right with you, Donna.”
Janet sat on the arm of the sofa next to Karen. Hugging her, she gushed, “I already love her like a daughter. My Dom is so lucky.”
Karen blushed, hugging her soon-to-be mother-in-law back.
Beaming, Donna showed off dimples identical to her daughters’. Both of her girls had chosen well. “No problem, as long as I pick the place.”
The mothers smiled at one another. Janet said, “You have yourself a deal.”
Nita clapped her hands together. “Now that that’s settled, Beatrice and I came up to let you know we had arrived. And that the caterer is finished setting up.”
“Oh, good because I am starving,” one of them said as they all filed out of the room, chattering.
Starr tugged on the back of Karen’s shirt. “Wait a second. I need to talk to you.”
After everyone had left the room Starr stared at her sister, tears forming in her eyes. There was so much she wanted to say to her. Growing up they had always been there for each other. Karen had been there when Starr’s ex-boyfriend Marcus dogged her out, destroying her credit, and financially ruining her. And Starr had been there when Gregory suddenly died, helping Karen out with the children.