Girls of Summer(25)

Juliet flushed. “Mommy, are you saying this isn’t my home anymore?”

“Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. Sweetheart, this will always be your home.” Lisa walked into the kitchen. “Come on. Let me make you some hot chocolate.”

Juliet followed her mother into the kitchen. “I’d rather have a glass of wine.”

Lisa said, “Oh, good. I wasn’t really up for making cocoa.” She settled into a chair and leaned her arms on the kitchen table. “The red wine is already open. There, on the counter.”

“Would you like a glass?” Juliet asked her mother.

“No, thanks. I’ve already had some.”

Juliet poured a glass and sipped the wine.

Lisa gave Juliet an appraising look. “So, how are you, darling? Why the surprise visit?”

Juliet cleared her throat. “Work can be…stressful. My boss is leaving for New York, so we’ll all have to get used to some new boss, but that’s not such a big deal. I just wanted, I don’t know, to spend some time at home.”

“How long are you planning to stay?” Lisa asked.

Juliet bridled. “What, is there a time limit now? Because you want to be alone with your boy toy?”

Lisa smiled gently. “Juliet. Of course not.”

Juliet sat across from her. For a moment, Juliet noticed the gray streaks in her mother’s hair, and a rush of love swirled through her. When she was in her early teens, Juliet had seen a therapist who had helped her understand that because Juliet couldn’t take her anger out on her shit of an absent father, she took her anger out on her mother. Juliet understood, but that didn’t make her anger disappear.

   “It’s the weekend and I’m done with my work, or I can finish it from here, and I, um, thought I was getting a cold.” Juliet didn’t want to tell her mother that her heart had been broken, but here in her childhood home, with her darling mother looking so concerned, the words spilled out. “Okay, I’m not getting a cold. I’ve been dumped. Brutally.” Tears rose to her eyes.

“Tell me,” Lisa said.

“He was my boss. Hugh Jeffers. He’s smart and sophisticated. When he asked me out, I was thrilled. He’s so—superior. He took me to ballets and operas, and he has a piano in his apartment. He wrote a song about me.” At this, Juliet broke into sobs. “I thought he loved me. Then a week ago, he suddenly announced to the entire office that he was moving to New York and a new administrator would take his place. Oh, Mom, he didn’t even tell me in person! He didn’t call me. I had to call him, and he was so cold.”

Lisa rose from her chair, moved around the table, and bent to hug Juliet tightly. “I’m sorry, Juliet. So sorry.”

Juliet leaned into her mother’s sympathy and cried until she felt all emptied out. “Thanks, Mom.” She reached across the table for a paper napkin and blew her nose.

“Honey, use a tissue,” Juliet said. She moved the box of tissues from the small desk area to the table. “A tissue’s softer. That napkin will chafe your skin.”

Juliet burst out laughing. “Oh, Mom, you’re always such a mom!”

Lisa returned to her chair. “I guess I am.”

“Well, thank you.” Juliet wiped her eyes and sat up straight. “Sorry to be so pathetic. I suppose I thought I’d come home and sleep in my own bed and spend the days watching television in my flannel pajamas snuggled in a quilt on the sofa.”

   Lisa smiled. “And I would bring you grilled cheese sandwiches and make a big pot of vegetable soup.”

“Yeah. That, too.”

“I can certainly do that, but you might want to watch TV in my room. I bought a wide-screen since you were here last. The downstairs is going to be filled with hammers and saws and music.”

“I’ll probably keep to my room. I can watch stuff on my computer.”

“I think we should go to bed. We’ve both had a long day. Sleep is a great healer.”

Juliet and her mother went through the comforting routines they’d had for years. Double-checking the front and back doors. Turning off all the lights except the small nightlight in the kitchen. Going upstairs to their rooms, calling good night.

At the door to her bedroom, Lisa turned. “Juliet?”

Juliet answered, “Yes?”

“How old was this Hugh Jeffers?”

Juliet shrugged. “Thirty-six. Maybe thirty-seven.”

“Right.” Lisa smiled. “Good night, sweetheart.” She went into her room.

Juliet cocked her head. What did her mother mean?

As soon as she asked herself the question, she knew the answer. Juliet had fallen for a man ten years older than she was. So was it wrong that her mother fell in love with a man ten years younger than she was?

Well, Juliet decided, he’d better not break her mother’s heart.

Lisa had an en suite bathroom but Juliet and Theo shared the bathroom at the top of the stairs. Lord, the arguments Juliet and Theo had had. He was such a guy. Tiny whiskers all over the sink after he shaved. They looked like bugs. Why couldn’t he use a paper towel and leave the sink clean? Not to mention the soggy towels and sweaty sports clothes he left on the floor.

   In high school, when Theo was such a god, so gorgeous, so hunky, with girls swarming around him, Juliet had threatened to take photos of the way he left his bedroom and their bathroom, but Theo only laughed, not worried at all.