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play. And she's already used up all her guilt points with me. I'm not doing this for her."

His face, his voice, held nothing but sadness now. "You're very hard, Cilla."

"Okay."

"She's your mother."

"That's right. Which makes me, let's see. Her daughter. Maybe, this time-this one time-she could think about what I need, about what I want." She held up a hand. "Believe me, if you say anything else, you'll only make it worse. Cut your losses here. You're smart enough. Tell her I said knock them dead, break a leg. And I mean it. But that's all I've got."

He shook his head as a man might over a sulking child. He walked away in his excellent shoes, and got into the big city car with Ken to drive away.

Ford wandered over, stared off at the barn while Spock rubbed himself against Cilla's legs. "That red's going to look good."

"Yeah. You're not going to ask what that was about?"

"I got the gist. They want, you don't. They pushed, you didn't budge. They pissed you off, which is fine. But in the end it made you sad. And that's not. So I don't care about them or what they want. I say fuck 'em, and that red looks good going on that barn."

It made her smile. "You're good to have around, Ford." She leaned down, ruffled Spock. "Both of you. Back in L.A., I'd have paid several hundred dollars for this kind of therapy."

"We'll bill you. Meanwhile, why don't you show me what's going on around here today?"

"Let's go bug the tile guy. It's my favorite so far." She took Ford's hand and walked into the house.

Part Two. REHAB Chapter Fourteen

When Cilla showed Dobby the design she wanted for the medallions, he scratched his chin. And she saw his lips twitching at the corners.

"Shamrocks," she said.

"I've had me a few beers on Saint Patrick's Day in my time. I know they're shamrocks."

"I played around with other symbols. More formal, or more subtle, more elaborate. But I thought, screw that, I like shamrocks. They're simple and they're lucky. I think Janet would've gotten a kick out of them."

"I expect she would. She seemed to like the simple when she was around here."

"Can you do it?"

"I expect I can."

"I'll want three." The idea made her giddy as a girl. "Three's lucky, too. One for the dining room, one for the master bedroom, and one in here, in the living room. Three circles of shamrocks for each. I'm not looking for uniformity but more symmetry. I'll leave it to you," she said when he nodded.

"It's good working on this place. Takes me back."

They sat at a makeshift table, plywood over a pair of sawhorses. She'd brought him a glass of tea, and they drank together while Jack finished up the last of the plaster repairs.

"You'd see her around, when she came out to stay here?"

"Now and again. She always had a word. Give you that smile and a hello, how are you."

"Dobby, in that last couple of years, when she came out, was there any talk about her being... friendly with a local man?"

"You mean being sweet on one?"

Sweet on, Cilla thought. What a pretty way to put it. "Yes, that's what I mean."

The lines and folds on his face deepened with thought. "Can't say so. After she died, and all those reporters came around, some of them liked to say so. But they said all kinds of things, and most weren't in the same neighborhood as the truth."

"Well, I have some information that makes me think she was sweet on someone. Very sweet. Can you think of anyone she spent time with in that last year, year and a half? She came out fairly often during that period."

"She did," he agreed. "Talk was, after her boy died, the talk was she was going to sell the place. Didn't want to come here no more. But she didn't sell. Didn't have the parties or the people, either. Never brought the girl out again-that'd be your mother-that I saw or heard about. The best I can recall, she came alone. If anybody had wind of her seeing a man from around here, their jaws would've been working."

"Weren't so many people around to jaw back then," Jack commented as he set his trowel. "I mean to say there weren't so many houses around the farm here. Isn't that right, Grandpa?"

"That'd be true. Weren't houses on the fields across the road back then. Started planting them back twenty-five years