Vintage Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball

Author:Donna Ball
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Blue Merle Publishing
Published: 2012-09-22T22:00:00+00:00

~*~

Cici didn’t reach her ex-husband until after supper, 7:00 eastern time, 4:00 in LA. At first, she was a little awkward. “Listen, Richard,” she said, lowering her voice so as not to be overheard by Ida Mae, who was clearing up dishes in the other room, or her housemates, who were busy getting themselves settled for the evening, “I don’t know what got into you, but … thank you.”

“For what?” he sounded distracted.

“You know.” She glanced around, trying hard not to be overheard. “Yesterday. I know we have our differences, but in one way, nobody’s better than you. I just wanted to make sure you knew that I … well, I appreciate that.”

“For God’s sake, Cici, you’re on speaker phone.” A click and he sounded exasperated as he demanded, “What are you talking about?”

Now she was exasperated, too. “You know, the money! Lori must have called you. I told her not to, but—”

“Oh, cripes.” He groaned. “I forgot. Tell her the check’s in the mail. I’ll make sure it goes out today.”

Cici blinked. “The check?”

“For the wedding. And listen; don’t try to hold me up for more. We agreed when Lori started college to put aside twenty thousand for her wedding, and if it’s more than that, you’ll just have to figure it out. That’s what I told her, and that’s what I’m telling you. I’m not an ATM, you know.”

Cici’s head was spinning. “Wait a minute. You haven’t talked to Lori since you talked about the wedding?”

He said, “Okay, listen, I already feel like crap about this, so just don’t go off the deep end, okay? I was going to call her tonight. I’m not going to make it back east for her graduation. I’ll be there to walk her down the aisle, I’ll be there as long as she wants me for the wedding, but I’ve got this hot new client in Australia, and he starts shooting a blockbuster in May—so top secret I can’t even say the director’s name on the phone—and if I don’t babysit him the whole first week, the whole damn thing might blow up. So I’m sorry, but graduation isn’t going to happen for me, and if you think you can make me feel any worse than I already do, you just go ahead and try.”

“Are you kidding me?” Cici’s voice rose to a screech, the reason for her original phone call all but forgotten. “Are you really kidding me? Your only daughter, her only college graduation—do you have any idea how hard she’s worked for this? How hard I’ve worked? And you can’t even be bothered to show up? Do you know how this is going to make her feel? The child worships you, although why, I can’t begin to imagine! And this is how you react to the greatest accomplishment of her life?”

He said darkly, “True to form, Cici. I knew you just had to try to make me feel worse.”

And for the next quarter hour, that was exactly what she did.

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