you say anything,” Violet began, “it’s only temporary, I swear.”
“I was going to say hello to my niece and nephew, actually,” Lily told her. “Hello, niece and nephew.” She doled out the hugs, and they returned them with firm enthusiasm. Vi’s children were usually slightly disheveled and grubby, but they were a happy pair, as affectionate and easygoing as their mother.
“Why don’t you two go around back and play,” Lily suggested. “I’ve got a tetherball set up.”
“How come you got a tetherball but you have no kids?” Megan asked.
“Maybe I play with it all by myself,” Lily said with a wink. Honestly, she didn’t want to go into it as she felt a now-familiar twinge. She and Crystal had put the ball up together only a few weeks ago when the first signs of spring appeared, so Charlie could play with it when she visited with her mother. The reminders of Crystal sneaked up on Lily and seized her heart, and the sense of loss took her breath away. When did it end? she wondered. Did it ever?
Megan and Ryan resumed their shoving contest as they made their way to the backyard.
Lily gave her sister a hug. “I barely got a chance to talk to you at the funeral, but thanks for coming. So how are you?” she asked.
“Fat, that’s how.” She ran a hand around the cinched-in waistband of her jeans.
“Oh, come on. You look great.”
“I look fat. You know I always overeat when I get stressed out.”
“What’s stressing you out?” Lily asked, though she could probably guess. Violet’s life seemed to have been designed for stress. She had married straight out of high school and had the kids soon after. Her husband, Rick, rarely held a steady job. He had a habit of starting oddball businesses that were marked for doom from the start, and when they failed, no one was surprised except Rick himself. Plant day care, professional clowning, ice delivery, fly-tying lessons and extreme topiary were just a few of the enterprises that were supposed to earn him his first million.
“So what’s up?” she asked Violet as she unlocked the door and led the way into the house.
“We had to move,” Violet said, sinking down on the couch. “Our lease was up and the landlord raised the rent ridiculously high. We’re living in an apartment in Troutdale now.”
Lily got two bottles of organic juice from the fridge and handed one to Violet. “I take it the, ah, voice-acting business didn’t work out?”
Violet shook her head. “Disaster. He dubbed one Japanese commercial and they sent him packing. He said he had to talk so fast, he sounded like he was on helium. I feel so bad for Rick.” She met Lily’s gaze. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Bull, nothing. You’re giving me a look. What’s that look mean?”
Lily offered a smile to cover her frustration. “You’re amazing.”
“I am? In what way?”
“Your devotion to Rick. Does he know how lucky he is to have you?”
Violet sipped her juice. “I’m the lucky one.”
Lily bit her tongue. Lucky. The man had all but ruined them financially several times in a row. Still, she conceded, he never stopped trying, and his wife adored him. Love was such a strange business. No wonder she didn’t understand it.
Violet took her silence for disapproval. “All right, so he’s not exactly Donald Trump. But I didn’t marry him for his ability to make a buck. I married him because I love him, and here we are eleven years later and I love him more than ever.” Violet’s eyes shone, and Lily had no doubt she believed her own words.
“That’s wonderful for you,” she said. Was it? she wondered. Was it wonderful to adore someone in spite of his flaws, or was it madness?
“Don’t do too many backflips for me, big sister.” Violet laughed. “I’m not a brain like you. I don’t have a college degree, but I do know what love is.”
Lily regarded her thoughtfully. “Meaning I don’t.”
“Meaning it’s different for everyone. For me, it’s the way I feel when Rick walks into the room and my heart speeds up. It’s how safe I feel in his arms and how sweet he is with the kids, not what our bank balance is or isn’t. Sometimes you just need someone to fall back on, someone to put his arms around you and tell you things are going to be all right. Everything else is just details, Lily. They don’t matter. That’s what love does. It makes the small stuff…small.”