Ivy’s shoulders dropped. “You’re not failing.”
Tearing up, Sienna said, “I am. Everyone is so upset all the time. Parker barely says a word, Poppy’s acting up every chance she gets, and you’re… wanting to have sex with some stupid boy who wears windbreaker tracksuits and has his tips frosted!”
“God, Mom, you’re so shallow!” Ivy spat out.
She reached out and gently put her hands on Ivy’s face. “No, well, maybe. But I just want your first time to be special. With a good guy who you could see yourself spending your life with. When you’re an adult. Is that too much to ask?”
“Yes.”
“Mom!” Poppy yelled. “You’re going to make Parker late for his match!”
“Get in the car!!!!” Sienna hollered back. Turning to Ivy, she said, “Okay, we can talk about this later. But please hurry up. My life is falling apart here, Ivy. Come on, help a lady out.”
“Oh, fine,” Ivy answered, grabbing a pair of sweatpants off the hanger and stuffing them into the bag. “But I’m still mad at you. And Dad. And Poppy.”
“Be as angry as you want. Just do it in the car.”
ZANE
“No, it’s actually the third time they’ve stayed here,” Zane told his mother, June, pressing the phone to his ear with his shoulder while he unloaded the groceries. She called when he was carrying the bags in from the car, and, in an effort to be a better son, he made the catastrophic mistake of answering.
“Are you sure? I thought they only stayed over the one time.”
June was about as disappointed in her son as any parentcould be. She loved Sienna like a daughter, so when he had called her with the news that they were separating, June was despondent. That was the word she had used—despondent. Not upset, not angry, not shocked. Despondent. June McCreight, who lived in an airy patio home in a luxury retirement village in Palm Springs (that Zane paid for), had a word-of-the-day calendar to keep her mind sharp, and had an ever-expanding vocabulary.
She said all the things he knew she would when he told her.What do you mean you’re taking a little break? That’s not how marriage works. When your father lost his job, we stuck it out, Zane, even though it was very hard and Ned Castillo from down the block had a thing for me. You remember Mr. Castillo, don’t you? He was the city manager. He had a terrible comb-over, but he drove a Caddy and made a heck of a rack of lamb. I could’ve jumped ship right into his big manly arms, but I stayed with your father even though he was a grump…
Their weekly phone calls since that day had improved, but only marginally. Zane tried to keep it focused on the kids—Poppy is already reading at a third-grade level. Ivy’s shopping for her prom dress.Parker’s judo is going great,but it’s a lot for Sienna to juggle with school and danceand soonbaseball will be starting.
But inevitably, June would bring it right back to his marriage.Of course it’s a lot to juggle, Zane. It always has been. If you’d noticed sooner, maybe you’d still be living with your family.She also started each call armed with advice, much of it provided second-hand from the other people of ‘the village,’ none of whom were famous, which meant they didn’t understand Zane’s life at all. Although Vincent Hughes (who had been happily married since 1952) used to be a weatherman in Missouri so he knew what it was like to have women throw themselves at him.Was their problem because women were always tossing their panties on stage?Horrible behavior. Rude. Unsanitary. When women were after Vincent, he’d simply look at his wedding band and tell those women he was married to the love of his life, so no thank you. And believe him, he had his share of gorgeous ladies proposition him over the years.
June was in constant problem-solving mode, trying to help her son salvage the scattered pieces of his marriage to her favorite daughter-in-law. (Sienna was also her only daughter-in-law, but that didn’t make her less beloved.)
“They stayed over twice. Once during their Christmas break and once last month.”
“Is Parker coming this time?”
“No, he’s going to a judo tournament in San Diego with Sienna. That’s why the girls are coming here.”
“Have you seen him yet?”
“When I picked up the girls and dropped them off. He still won’t talk to me though,” Zane answered, his throat getting that awful thick feeling again. He cleared it away and put the carton of orange juice in the fridge.
“Well, that’s certainly distressing.” Another word-of-the-day. “He must really be hurting.”
“Yeah, and he’s really hurting me,” he said, immediately hating that he dared to whine about a mess he got himself into. “Not that I blame him, of course. I just miss his voice.”
“I can relate to that.” June, who was anything but subtle, meant that she had to suffer the fate of going months between calls from her son when he was on tour. When he didn’t immediately start groveling, she continued. “What are you going to do with the girls all weekend?”
“I rented some movies for tonight, and I’ll make popcorn and milkshakes. Hopefully Ivy will want to write some songs with me after I get Poppy to bed. She seems to likethat,” he said, a wave of desperation coming over him. “I thought tomorrow or Sunday we could go to Disneyland or Universal, but Ivy has a lot of homework so I imagine I’ll have to get her to buckle down at some point or Sienna will be pissed at me.”
“That might not work. According to the Weather Channel, you’re supposed to get rain all weekend.”
“Then we’ll go to the mall or something. Whatever we do, I’ll make sure they have an amazing time.”
“Smart. That way they can go back to Sienna and sing your praises.”
“That’s not why I’m doing it, Mom.” That was exactly why he was doing it.
