of the chair and took a seat. Was something wrong with Justin? No, that wouldn’t have been a subject for a girl meeting. Girl meetings were for things where everyone needed the strength of the others to get through it. But her mind drew a blank as to what else it could be.
Zoe grabbed her hand, and Claudia shot her sister a grateful look. Whatever it was, they could get through it together, just like everything else.
May tapped her fingers together under her nose, scooted back and forth on the chair, and cleared her throat.
“Come on. I can take it, whatever it is. You can tell me.” Claudia braced herself for the news. It had been bad enough when May’s father had a heart attack a month ago, requiring the most recent girl meeting. Claudia and her former father-in-law, Roger Drake, hadn’t ever been close, but it was still sad to see her son’s grandfather in the hospital.
“I just wanted to warn you...”
Claudia leaned forward in her chair, taking her sister with her. “Yes?”
“Well, I just wanted to warn you that...”
“I’m not going to survive this if you only say one new word every time.”
May made eye contact with Zoe, who tightened her grip on Claudia’s hand. “I just wanted to warn you that Brad and I are going to have a visitor for the next week or so.”
“Ooo-kaayy.” Claudia drew out the word, feeling her stomach sink. No visitor of May’s would ever be a problem for her except one. And that one person was the only one who would necessitate an emergency girl meeting.
“Peter is on his way home.” May’s words tumbled out over each other.
Yep, that was the one.
“What the hell?” Zoe took the words right out of her mouth again.
“Yeah, what in the world is that all about?” Claudia gripped Zoe’s hand until her sister winced. “Sorry,” she said, letting her go, trying to settle back into hard plastic.
“No, that’s all right. It’s a shock to me, too.”
“Explain, May. Why didn’t we know about this earlier?” Claudia tried to get comfortable in the chair and failed miserably.
May dropped her head into her hands and shook her hair. Her speech was muffled by her hands when she said, “Dad called him after the heart attack, and Peter is coming to help with the house. I didn’t know exactly when he was coming, and I didn’t want to alarm you, in case he backed out.” She tried a smile, but it failed, as far as Claudia was concerned. “Also, I thought if I gave you less time, you wouldn’t have a chance to make excuses to not come to my house when I invite you this Sunday.”
Claudia rocked back. She couldn’t process it all. “Your father called Peter to come help with the house? Your father—the man who wouldn’t even tell Peter that his son was born, because it was finals week—is going to pull him away from his precious work to help with the house you already run by yourself? And Peter’s coming back to town?” Life just didn’t get any worse than this. The bad chair at her back didn’t help the bad news, either.
“Yes, to both, and you’ll see Peter Sunday at the lunch for my dad.”
“No, I won’t.” Apparently it could.
“Please.” May broke out the sad eyes, but Claudia was determined to ignore them.
“I really do not want to be in the same room with...Peter...if I don’t have to.” She’d almost said “the bastard,” but that wouldn’t help things, as this bastard was May’s brother. It was no secret how Claudia felt about the man who’d walked out on her before their son was born. Sure, for the most part it had all worked out for the best. Life with Peter would have been worse than what she’d managed on her own. But that didn’t mean she wanted to have contact with the man who hadn’t even bothered to send his kid a card since his third birthday.
“You have to go,” May said, finally lifting her head from her hand and piercing Claudia with a look. “I’ve known you for a lot of years, but you don’t owe my father or my family anything, Claude, I get that. But I’m going to have to pull the friendship card and ask you to please be there.” The puppy-dog eyes were used shamelessly. “You can even bring Zoe. My dad has some weird notion that he has to distribute his worldly possessions now, while he’s still