“I have different taste,” Rose said. “Which is not the same thing.”
“She’s been very patient with my existing decor.”
“Your existing decor is a lot of gray.”
“Gray is timeless.”
John moved in slightly. Loraine made a note. Rose caught herself and smoothed her expression. She picked up a candle from the shelf beside her, looked at the price, and put it back down.
Two weeks. It had been two weeks since the wedding and the kitchen and the sunroom floor and she had been going to bed in the pool house every night and staying there. Some nights she lay in the dark thinking about the short walk across the grounds to the main house and the corridor she knew by now and the room at the end of it. She looked at the ceiling and redirected herself, which worked with varying success depending on the night.
Lizanne had not pushed. That was the thing Rose kept returning to. Lizanne, who pushed at everything, who had built an entire situation to get what she wanted, had not pushed once in two weeks. She was present and composed and occasionally funny. She took Rose’s hand when the cameras were on them and sometimes when they weren’t, and she had not once appeared at the pool house door or made Rose feel the weight of what had happened between them pressing against her.
Rose couldn’t decide if that was considerate or infuriating. Some nights it felt like both at the same time.
“Can we talk about Daisy?” Loraine said.
Rose set the candle down. “We’ve been clear about this. Daisy isn’t part of the show.”
“Of course, of course. But Lizanne—” Loraine looked at her directly, stylus ready. “How does it feel? Being a stepmother. Taking on someone else’s child.”
Rose watched Lizanne. She expected the smooth, camera-ready answer that would give Loraine what she needed and close the subject.
It didn’t come.
“I always wanted children,” Lizanne said.
Loraine’s stylus stopped.
“When I was young and broke and going to auditions on the bus, it wasn’t possible. And then I was working, and working meant I was never anywhere long enough to think about it seriously. And then I was with Trina for years, and Trina never wanted them.” She paused. “So, I stopped thinking about it. Told myself I’d made peace with it.”
Rose wetted her lips, watching quietly.
“My parents have been gone years,” Lizanne said. “No siblings. For a long time it’s just been work, Katrina, Pat and a very small circle.” She set the throw down. “I like the idea of a family. I always have. I just stopped expecting it was going to be part of my life.”
She straightened up and looked at Loraine, who smiled. “With Daisy’s birthday coming up, you’ll have another chance to experience some of that.”
“Right,” Lizanne said, but shot Rose a look that saidWhy didn’t you tell me?
Loraine called a break twenty minutes later. The crew went outside with their coffees and John set his camera on a side table. The shop went quiet except for the traffic outside.
Lizanne moved alongside Rose near a display of glassware.
“I didn’t know it was her birthday,” she said.
“She’s going to be six. I was planning something small at my mom’s. Cake, a few friends from daycare. You wouldn’t need to be involved.”
Lizanne looked at the glassware. “Have it at the house.”
“Lizanne—”
“No cameras. Daisy’s friends and whoever you want there.” She picked up a glass and turned it over. “Some of my cast have small children. They could come. Daisy would have more people her own age.”
Rose watched her.
“Understated,” Rose said. “Nothing excessive.”
Lizanne set the glass down. “Fortunately, I know an excellent party planner.”
