Newton Neighbors (New England Trilogy) (33 page)

“He must.” Leticia slapped the bed cover. “Your marriage is more important than any work he is doing. Just a weekend away together. Surely he can do that . . .”

“You’re talking about a man who couldn’t even give me Thanksgiving.”

Leticia shook her head. “I know Rick. He’s a good man. You have to end this argument,
chica
. Somehow you have to make peace with your husband and fight for your marriage.”

Maria pulled her knees up to her body so she could hug them. “I know. I just don’t know how.”

Then Leticia smiled. “Oh, I think you do.”

“Oh God, you’re not suggesting I seduce him like the old days.”

“Is that so bad?”

“I’m too tired and fat.”

“You’re not fat!” Leticia snapped her head up with a look of indignation, like it was an insult against her. “You’re beautiful. Did you see the way Carlos Alvarez looked at you? If you were living here and single, I think you could be his wife easy.”

“But I don’t live here and I’m not single.”

“
Correcto
. So you must go home to your husband, and I’m not saying you have to seduce him. But you could start with a simple apology.”

Maria knew her mother was right. Until now Maria really hadn’t wanted to apologize to her husband. She was too mad at him for working so hard. But she knew it wasn’t all his fault. She couldn’t blame him for her getting older. It wasn’t his fault she had a weak spot for baby crackers, and deep down, she knew it was maybe just a little immature to have run away.

“I have to go home, don’t I?” she said, just above a whisper.

Leticia didn’t speak, only nodded.

“This house—I thought it would feel like home, but it’s different now.”

“Of course it is. It will always be a home for you, Maria, but you have another home now. It’s pulling you more than you know.”

“I want to stay here—it’s safe.”

“No, you don’t.” Leticia stroked her daughter’s hair again. “You always hated safe.”

It made Maria smile. “It’s looking kinda nice right now.”

“You can come back anytime. I’m always here.”

“Thanks.” They hugged again.

Leticia stood and kissed the top of her head. “The most important thing for you to remember is that all of this is very normal in a marriage.” She walked back over to the bedroom door. “But what you do next is critical.” She took a deep breath and then spoke with a stronger tone than before. “Go home to Rick, Maria. Fight to save your marriage.” Her mother’s eyes were bright, and she was speaking from the heart. “I know what it’s like to be alone. You don’t want that. Fight for your love.”

“I will, Mami. I’ll go home Sunday,” Maria said, feeling a little better. “I know what I have to do.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

One Lump or Two?

“So you’re sure you know what you have to do?” Jessie used her sternest voice.

The girls were being driven by Josh to their new home. Ely was in the front, next to her boyfriend, and Jessie was in the back. Ely sank down in her car seat and folded her arms defensively.
 

“Yeah. Stop treating me like a kid. I know—no drinkin’, no parties, no late nights. I get it. Basically, I have to act like a nun for the next six months, or you’ll never speak to me again.”

Jessie smiled. “Yes, that’s it in a nutshell. You just be a regular little Girl Scout. Go to all your classes, do all your own homework. You can see Josh at the weekends but not during the week. This is your very last chance. Do you hear me?”

Ely scowled. “How has it come to this?”
 

Jessie knew her friend would behave.
 

She had been so mad with her roommate on the night of Thanksgiving, she really thought perhaps their friendship was over, but one of Ely’s greatest talents was charming people. Jessie was no exception.
 

Ely had cried and begged. She’d promised the sun, moon, and stars if only Jessie would forgive her. Ely’s parents had even tried. Margaret, Ely’s mother, was so upset about the girls getting kicked out of their rooms, and while she was furious with her daughter, she had pleaded with Jessie not to desert Ely. Margaret had insisted Jessie was the grounding influence on her wild child. Bull had agreed. He’d pushed Jessie to take an apartment he would pay for, but she couldn’t accept that. It would have made her feel cheap. And Dan had cheapened her enough.

Ely had called Noreen Palmer on the morning after Thanksgiving. The old woman listened to Ely’s sorry tale and was determined they should both come and stay with her for the remainder of the academic year. Mrs. Palmer had explained she wanted company, so it was a win-win situation, and if they paid for their food and utilities, she would be delighted for them to move in as soon as they could. That was when Jessie had begun to soften.
 

Living with Mrs. Palmer was a good solution, but the truth was Jessie didn’t want to lose Ely—her only real friend in America. Adorable as their new landlady was, Ely was Jessie’s emotional support—even if she had gotten them into so much trouble.

The atmosphere in the Briskin house on the day after Thanksgiving had been cooler than November in Newton. The extended family had all returned to their own homes, and Ely had kept a very low profile, avoiding her father for the entire day. It was Ely’s mother who had driven them to the airport on Saturday morning.
 

The only one who had seemed immune to the suddenly hostile atmosphere in the house was Ely’s brother, John. He’d told Jessie during a private moment that big family fights were common enough in their home. More often, however, it was him and Bull. John said it was a relief for once that Ely was the one in the doghouse. He’d told her not to worry about it, because his little sister was the apple of her father’s eye and the argument would blow over soon enough.

It was all so strange for Jessie. They didn’t have “family fights” at her house back in Dorking. Yes, there were arguments, but nothing on this scale or with such drama. But by the time they’d arrived at the airport, Margaret was hugging her daughter, and it had been clear she was going to miss her baby. They’d promised to stay in touch, and Jessie had felt a sharp pang for England and her mother.

Now Noreen Palmer was expecting them, and Jessie was making sure Ely was on her best behavior. Josh had landed back into Boston earlier that day and had been roped into getting them from the airport. No surprise, he already knew all about his girlfriend’s Thanksgiving family fight and was extra affectionate as a result.

“You guys are going to have to control yourselves. You can’t take him up to your room in Mrs. Palmer’s house,” Jessie said when she saw them holding hands as he drove.

“I really don’t like the rule about not being able to see her during the week. That’s too much.” He scowled at Jessie in his rearview mirror.
 

“Ely has a mountain of studying to catch up on,” Jessie said. “She’s been slacking off since the start of term and has promised she’ll put her heart and soul into her studies if we’re going to keep living together.”

Josh harrumphed, but Ely didn’t argue.
 

“And you have to walk Rusty sometimes, too,” she said as an afterthought.

Ely smiled and nodded. “I love dogs.”

Jessie almost laughed. She could have asked for the crown jewels, and her roommate would have agreed just to keep things calm. “He’s a bulldog, so he’s ugly as hell but full of personality.”

“Sounds like my first boyfriend,” Ely said, and Josh gave her a playful poke.

Crystal Lake Lane looked beautiful on that first Saturday just after Thanksgiving. There had been a fresh fall of powdery snow, so the yards were blanketed in white. Some families who had stayed in the neighborhood over the holiday had snowmen in their gardens, which gave a definite holiday spirit to the street.

“Decorating your house for the holiday is taken much more seriously over here than it is in England,” Jessie said when they were turning into Noreen’s drive.

“Yeah? Why’s that?” Josh asked, putting the car in park.

“I don’t know.” She got out of the back of the car. “We just don’t do it.”

“We think you’re all too uptight,” he said as they got out of his car and opened the trunk.

Jessie was shocked. “Who? Us? The British? We’re not at all uptight.”

“No? When was the last time your queen did something crazy?”
 

Ely giggled and started unloading the car, but Jessie wasn’t impressed. “She’s the queen—she doesn’t
do crazy
.” Jessie tried to say
do crazy
with an American accent but failed.

It made Josh and Ely snort with laughter. “Okay then—when was she last in a bikini? That’s not crazy. That’s just swimmin’.”

“She’s a great-grandmother.” Jessie defended her queen. “And royalty.”

Josh shrugged and pulled one of the enormous cases out of the trunk. “Just sayin’.”

Noreen opened her front door, and the argument was closed.

“Welcome,” she said with Rusty at her feet. The last time she’d visited, Jessie had used the side door, but today Noreen was at the main entrance, which opened out onto the sun deck. There were a couple of deck chairs and a double swing, but they had been covered for the winter. Now the whole thing was dusted with snow.

“Oh, Mrs. Palmer, thank you for taking us in,” Jessie said, going straight for a hug.
 

“Yeah, that was real decent of you, Mrs. Palmer.” Ely said, adding to the conversation.

The old woman chuckled and hugged them both like they were her grandchildren. “Nonsense. You’re the ones doing me the favor. I need the company and you can remind me what day of the week it is, because they tell me I’m very forgetful.”

Josh lumbered up the slippery steps, lugging two of the girls’ suitcases.

“My, you have a heavy load there, son. Come with me and I’ll show you to the rooms.” He followed her into the house while the girls made fast work getting the rest of their gear out of the car. The air was too cold to linger outside, and it was getting dark fast.
 

Ely, in particular, hated the cold New England winter, having complained about it enough. Jessie was a little hardier, being accustomed to the cold English winter back home, so she was the one who double-checked they had everything out of the car.
 

Just before Jessie went inside, she took a moment to stop and savor the incredible stillness of the night. It was a new kind of silence for her. An absolute quiet, because the snow absorbed all the normal night noises. Nature truly went to sleep when it got this cold. She stood on the sun deck, loving the atmosphere and admiring the house decorations across the street. Jessie remembered it was Todd’s house, Noreen’s grandson.
Nice to have family so near
, she thought. They had an enormous snowman and lights around every window frame.

“Hullo,” somebody said and startled her.

“Oh, hullo,” she said, trying to mask her surprise when she saw a lone man walking along the lane. This was a dead-end street, so pedestrians were rare—plus it wasn’t really walking weather. Jessie didn’t want to encourage the man, so she turned and walked into her new home. She closed the door and wondered if it had been her imagination or had the man in the flat cap had an English accent? It would be nice to have a countryman nearby. They weren’t uptight. Were they?
Who ever heard of the queen in a bikini? Such a notion.

“Ely?” Jessie called from inside the large front hall. She had been in the house before and knew it was pretty, in a faded elegance sort of way, but this was her first time to view it as her new home.

“We’re upstairs, J. Come up.”
 

Jessie could hear the excitement in her friend’s voice, so she bounded up the steps two at a time. Noreen, Josh, and Ely were in a large bedroom at the back of the house.

“This one’s yours.” Ely grinned at her. It was a large room with a king-size bed. Jessie looked at her roommate with worried eyes, but Ely seemed to know what she was thinking. “We’re not sharing a room. This is your room. Isn’t it great? So big. I have one across the hall, and check out your view.”

They looked out the back window to where the yard was covered in snow and the lake beyond was just visible in the fading light.

“The lake’s frozen solid. Wow, that was fast,” Jessie said. “I saw it just a few weeks ago from the Sanchez house and it was still water.”

“Darn, it’s clouded over. You should have seen it a few minutes ago. The moon was shining on the ice of the lake. It was awesome,” Ely said.

“I’m glad you like it. This used to be my room,” Noreen said.

“Oh, please don’t say you moved on my account, Mrs. Palmer.”

Noreen smiled. “Not at all, Jessie. I prefer to sleep downstairs now. It’s easier for my knees, you see. This room has been empty for years.”
 

Josh wandered into the room across the hall and let out a low whistle. The girls followed.

“And this is my room.” Ely gave a victorious grin. It wasn’t a big room, but it was more modern and the carpet looked new. It also had a king-size bed.

“Who decided who got which room?” Jessie asked with suspicion.