Life is a goddamn cockblock.
Sunday night, Elizabeth asks if everyone will have a sleepover with her, and so Cricket stays at the house for movies and popcorn and staying up late gossiping with the ladies.
Monday morning, Lav decides to do her exorcist impersonation.
No idea where she picked up a stomach bug, but she has one, and it’s bad.
I refuse to let Cricket up to help.
Don’t need any more of us getting sick than necessary.
I miss two jobs in the early part of the week, and I still need to finish the mother-in-law house before Caro and Mike arrive to check out their wedding venue.
Wednesday, I think maybe I’ll sneak down and see Cricket after Lav’s in bed, except I fall asleep on the couch and wake up at three a.m. with my daughter snuggled on one side and my cat on the other.
And a crick in my neck, because I’mI can no longer sleep on the couch without hurting my body in my sleepyears old.
But Thursday—Thursday, I can see the light.
Lav’s back to herself.
I finish the last coat of paint in the bedroom midafternoon.
My attorney reports that he’s gotten confirmation of delivery of our reminder letter to my in-laws that they’re not welcome in Lav’s life, and I haven’t received any emails or voicemails yelling at me about it, so maybe they’ve gotten the memo.
And I have a text message from Cricket that she thinks she’s ready to go into town.
Whenever I’m up for it.
No rush.
She can wait.
She’s not impatient.
And she knows this isn’t a date.
I smile as I read the wall of messages, her overthinking on clear display.
Some days it’s worse, and today is one of them.
Understandable.
She’s been safely squirreled away here without any interactions with the general public since she arrived.
I text her back to be ready in thirty minutes—earlier is better for avoiding the larger crowds—and then I head to the main house, where Lav’s getting a lecture in the kitchen from Dori about the chemical reactions that happen as grapes ferment.
“You got her another couple hours?” I ask Dori.
“Big plans, big guy?” Dori replies.
“Yes.”
Her eyes flare wide for half a second, then she grins. “If the house is a-rockin’…”
My face actually gets hot. “Did you time travel from the last century?”
“Yep.”
