The Summer of Sunshine and Margot - Susan Mallery Page 0,99
Wesley. Bianca could be charming and fun but she was also self-absorbed and thoughtless. What must it have been like to not know which mother you were going to have to deal with on any given day?
“Are you even in love with Wesley?” she asked bluntly. “Are you going to be there for him, no matter what? Are you going to take care of him, in sickness and in health? What if he ends up in a wheelchair? Will you be there, then? Or is it all about being mentioned in a biography?”
Bianca stood and glared at her. “I can’t believe you’re even asking me that.”
“Someone has to.”
“It’s not your job, though, is it?”
“My job is to help you be the best wife possible for a man in Wesley’s position. I was so careful when I did my research, but I never thought to ask if you genuinely loved him or if this was just another role for you.”
“Of course I love him. I do!”
Margot didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure how Bianca felt about anyone but herself. Still, she wasn’t sure her opinion mattered one way or the other.
“All right. We were going to spend the afternoon discussing the cultural differences between European countries. Would you like to get started on that?”
Bianca was silent for nearly a minute. Finally she nodded. “Yes, let’s talk about that.”
* * *
“There are so many ants that if you took all the ants and weighed them and all the people and weighed them, it would be the same!”
Connor sounded both impressed and scandalized by the information as he lay on the grass, reading from a book on ants.
“That’s a lot of ants,” Declan agreed.
“It is.”
Declan had ripped out the old hedges a few weeks ago. Now he carefully dug out holes to plant the new hedges. The morning was already warm and sunny. The afternoon would get well into the eighties and it was still a couple of months until summer. One of the reasons he loved Southern California.
“Scientists think there are over a million ants alive for every single person alive.” Connor giggled. “I want to name my million ants.”
“Do you know a million names or will you just call them Ant One, Ant Two, Ant Three?”
Connor laughed. “I’d call them Connor Ant One,” he joked.
“So you want a kingdom of ants.”
“Uh-huh.” He turned the page. “Here it is. There are super colonies, Dad. The ants are all connected and they share the same chemical makeup so they’re related.” He frowned and turned the page. “Oh, I remember. They’re Argentine ants and they’re supposed to be native to South America but they’re all over the world. The super colonies go for thousands of miles.”
“That’s a serious pest problem.”
“Dad, it’s not a problem. It’s cool. I wish I had a super colony of ants.” He sat up. “I’ve taken really good care of my ant farm.”
“You have.”
“Maybe I could get a second one.”
More ants? They weren’t a lot of trouble and so far the farm hadn’t leaked or expelled or whatever it was an ant farm did when the residents escaped, but more of them? In the house?
He looked at his son’s eager face and thought about all he’d been through in the past eight or nine months. If he wanted another ant farm, what was the big deal?
“Sure,” he said. “Do some research online and then we’ll talk about it. I’ll let Sunshine know.”
“She won’t mind, Dad. She loves my ants.”
Declan doubted that was true, but knew she wouldn’t make a fuss. Very little rattled her, which was one of many things he liked about her. She was down-to-earth and accepting. He knew she cared about Connor.
“I’m going to go tell her right now,” Connor said, scrambling to his feet, grabbing his book and racing into the house.
Declan returned his attention to the series of holes he’d been digging. Just three more, he told himself. Then he would start planting.
The physical work felt good. He’d had a difficult week at work—Jessica and James were still annoying him with their inability to make a decision. In theory most of the garden was planned, but all it would take was one distraction and they would be starting over. He and Heath weren’t losing money on the job because they’d been careful with the pay structure. Every time there was a deviation from the initial, approved plan, the company billed by the hour until they were back on track. So his frustration wasn’t financial, it