Opening the screen door, she left the porch and walked down the steps to the ‘backyard’, a large bare patch of earth defined by the house, a stand of old apple trees off to the left, the dilapidated garage to the right, and the equally run-down barn a good fifty yards away. Over near the barn she caught sight of her husband, speaking to his daughter. He still looked like an Ivy League professor, she thought, with his greying hair receding upwards slowly, his brown eyes intense. But he had a smile to melt your heart, one that made him look like a little boy. Then Gloria noticed that her stepdaughter, Gabrielle, was in the midst of a rare but intense pout, and debated turning around and leaving them alone. She knew that Phil had just informed Gabbie she couldn’t have her horse for the summer.
Gabbie stood with arms crossed tight against her chest, weight shifted to her left leg, a pose typical of teenage girls that Gloria and other actresses over twenty-five had to dislocate joints to imitate. For a moment Gloria was caught in open admiration of her stepdaughter. When Gloria and Phil had married, his career was in high gear, and Gabbie had been with her maternal grandmother, attending a private school in Arizona, seeing her father and his new wife only at Christmas, at Easter, and for two weeks in the summer. Since her grandmother had died, Gabbie had come to live with them. Gloria liked Gabbie, but they had never been able to communicate easily, and these days Gloria saw a beautiful young woman taking the place of a moody young girl. Gloria felt an unexpected stab of guilt and worry that she and Gabbie might never get closer. She put aside her momentary uneasiness and approached them.
Phil said, ‘Look, honey, it will only take a week or two more, then the barn will be fixed and we can see about leasing some horses. Then you and the boys can go riding whenever you want.’
Gabbie tossed her long dark hair, and her brown eyes narrowed. Gloria was struck by Gabbie’s resemblance to her mother, Corinne. ‘I still don’t see why we can’t ship Bumper out from home, Father.’ She said ‘Father’ in that polysyllabic way young girls have of communicating hopelessness over ever being understood. ‘You let the boys bring that retarded dog and you brought Ernie. Look, if it’s the money, I’ll pay for it. Why do we have to rent some stupid farmer’s horses when Bumper’s back in California with no one to ride him?’
Gloria decided to take a hand and entered the conversation as she closed on them. ‘You know it’s not money. Ned Barlow called and said he had a jumper panic aboard a flight last week, and they had to put him down before he could endanger the crew and riders, and he almost lost a second horse as well. The insurance company’s shut him down until he resolves that mess. And it’s a week into June and Ned also said it would be four or five weeks before he could get a reliable driver and good trailer to bring Bumper here, then nearly a week to move him, with all the stops he’d have to make. By the time he got here, it would be almost time for you to head back to UCLA. You’d have to ship him right back so he’d be there to ride when you’re at school. Want me to go on? Look, Gabbie, Ned’ll see Bump’s worked and cared for. He’ll be fine and ready for you when you get back.’
‘Oooh,’ answered Gabbie, a raw sound of pure aggravation, ‘I don’t know why you had to drag me out here to this farm! I could have spent the summer with Ducky Summers. Her parents said it was all right.’
‘Stop whining,’ Phil snapped, his expression showing at once he regretted his tone. Like her mother, Gabbie instinctively knew how to nettle him with hardly an effort. The difference was that Gabbie rarely did, while Corinne had with regularity. ‘Look, honey, I’m sorry. But I don’t like Ducky and her fancy friends. They’re kids with too much money and time on their hands, and not an ounce of common sense in the whole lot. And Ducky’s mom and dad are off somewhere in Europe.’ He cast a knowing glance at his wife. ‘I doubt they have a hint who’s sleeping at their house these days.’
‘Look, I know Ducky’s an airhead and has a new boyfriend every twenty minutes, but I can take care of myself.’
‘I know you can, hon,’ answered Phil, ‘but until you’ve graduated, you’ll have to put up with a father’s prerogatives.’ He reached out and touched her cheek. ‘All too soon some young guy’s going to steal you away, Gabbie. We’ve never had a lot of time together. I thought we could make it a family summer.’
Gabbie sighed in resignation and allowed her father a slight hug, but it was clear she wasn’t pleased. Gloria decided to change the subject. ‘I could use a hand, you guys. The moving elves are out on strike and those boxes aren’t going to unload themselves.’
Phil smiled at his wife and nodded as Gabbie gave out a beleaguered sound and plodded towards the house. When she was up the steps to the porch, Phil said, ‘I’m probably selling her short, but I had visions of having to fly back to bail her out of jail on a drug bust.’
‘Or to arrange for her first abortion?’ queried Gloria.
‘That too, I suppose. I mean, she’s old enough.’
Gloria shrugged. ‘For several years, sport. I hadn’t when I was her age, but I was raised with the fear of God put in me by the nuns at St Genevieve’s.’
‘Well, I just hope she has some sense about it. I expect it’s too late for a father-daughter talk.’
‘From the way she fills her jeans, I’d say it was about six or seven years too late. Besides, it’s none of our business, unless she asks for advice.’
Phil laughed, a not altogether comfortable sound. ‘Yes, I’d guess so.’
‘Sympathies, old son. Instant parent of teenager was tough. But you’ve done a good job the last two years.’
‘It’s no easier for you,’ he countered.
She grinned up at him. ‘Bets. I’m not her mother, and I remember what it was to be a teenage girl. Look, Gabbie’s not going to be the only one around here throwing temper tantrums if I don’t get some help with those boxes. After combative twins, that clown in a dog suit, and a smug alley cat, it comes down to you, me, and Miss Equestrian of Encino.’
Phil’s face clouded over a little. His dark brown eyes showed a flicker of concern as he said, ‘Having second thoughts about the move?’
Gloria hesitated, wondering if she should share her doubts with Phil. She decided the homesickness would pass once they settled in and made new friends, so she said, ‘No, not really. Just about unpacking.’ She changed the subject. ‘I had a call from Tommy about an hour ago.’
‘And what does Superagent allow? Another movie offer?’ he asked jokingly.
‘No.’ She poked him in the ribs. Tommy Raymond had been her agent when Gloria worked off-Broadway and in Hollywood. She had quit acting when she and Phil married, but over the years Tommy had stayed in touch, and she counted him among her few close friends in the business. ‘He called to say Janet White is opening a play on Broadway in the fall. They’re reviving Long Day’s Journey.’
‘Getting the itch again?’
She smiled. ‘Not since the last play I was in bombed in Hartford.’ Phil laughed. She had never caught on in New York or Hollywood, where she and Phil had met. Phil had taken to calling her ‘the Oscar winner’, and it had become a family joke. She didn’t regret her choice, as she had little desire for fame, but she did occasionally miss the theatre, the challenge of the work and the camaraderie of other actors. ‘Anyway, we’re invited to the opening.’
‘Rented tux and all, I suppose.’
She laughed. ‘I suppose. Assuming Janet can survive the out-of-town run.’ Tugging on her husband’s arm, she said, ‘Come along, handsome. Give me a hand, and once we get things under control, you can run out to McDonald’s or the Colonel’s for dinner, and when the kids are in bed, I’ll