“But you and Ronnie found a way to work through that, right?”
“Ronnie and I have been together—and apart—and together again for a lot of years now. It has not been all smooth sailing, Karen. You know that.”
She paused while stirring the brownie batter, her expression sad. “When I found out about him cheating on me, even though he swore it was only once and a moment of total stupidity, I hated him. I didn’t trust him from here to the corner. I wanted him gone, and Helen, bless her heart, saw to it that he went. In retrospect that might not have been the best thing, especially for Annie.”
She shrugged. “But we found our way back to each other in the end. I knew when we were kids that he was the guy for me and even when I was the most furious, a part of me couldn’t stop loving him. I guess that’s what people mean when they talk about soul mates. Nothing really tears them apart, at least not for long.”
Karen nodded. “Is it possible to find your soul mate the second time around? I sure didn’t find him in Ray.”
“I think we all saw something special between you and Elliott right from the beginning,” Dana Sue said. “So, yeah, if I had to guess, I’d say he’s your soul mate. Doesn’t mean he’s perfect.” She gave Karen a pointed look. “Or that you are.”
Karen laughed. “Believe me, I get that. You know what’s amazing, though? Elliott seems to think I am.”
“Oh, boy!” Dana Sue said, laughing. “Then the man is definitely a keeper. Cut him all kinds of slack, you hear me.”
Karen heard what she was saying. She even knew Dana Sue was probably right. But she also knew if Elliott continued to leave her out of the important decision-making, especially if there were financial consequences involved, there was no way she’d be able to let it slide.
* * *
Elliott finished up with his last client of the day in late afternoon. He was anxious to pick the kids up from his mother’s, where they went after school, get them home and fed and then hang out and maybe have a nightcap with his wife. He already knew about the crisis at Sullivan’s, knew she’d be running late and would need something to unwind. After last night and their talk this morning, he’d resolved that instead of crashing as usual, he’d be there for her at the end of a long day. It was one more attempt to fix what was wrong between them.
When he arrived at his mother’s, though, he found his older sister sitting on the front stoop, her expression despondent as the kids—hers and his—ran around in the yard.
“Everything okay?” he asked Adelia, trying to gauge her mood.
“Fine.”
“Where’s Mama?”
“She went out, thank goodness. She was asking too many questions.” She said it with a pointed look at him.
“Ah, so no one’s supposed to notice that you look as if you just lost your best friend?” he suggested.
“Exactly.”
“That might go better for you if you managed to put a smile on your face,” he said lightly.
“Bite me,” she retorted. “Now that you’re here, I’ll take my kids and go.”
Frowning, he reached out and caught her hand. “Adelia, what’s wrong? Seriously.”
“Everything,” she retorted bitterly. “Seriously.”
Before he could pursue that, though, she called out to her children, loaded them into the car and drove away. Elliott stared after her. It wasn’t like Adelia to bite his head off. His other sisters might be moody from time to time, downright impossible at times, but Adelia had always had it together. She’d married Ernesto Hernandez right out of college, had their first child seven months later. The other three had come with barely ten months between them. He’d expected her to be worn out, but she seemed to glow with motherhood, at least until recently. Now she was starting to look every one of her forty-two years.
“Are we going home now?” Mack asked, sitting down beside him and interrupting his thoughts.
“We are,” Elliott said, getting to his feet, scooping up the seven-year-old and tossing him in the air until he giggled.
“Me, too,” Daisy pleaded, looking up at him with eyes as big as saucers and so much like her mother’s that it made him smile.
He grinned at her. “Young ladies don’t get tossed in the air,” he teased. “They’re sedate and quiet.”
“Not me,” she said impudently. “I’m going to be just like Selena.”
The reference to his oldest niece had him shuddering just a little. Selena, at twelve, was not only a tomboy on the verge of adolescence, but already showing a wild streak that was going to keep Adelia and Ernesto on their toes for some time to come.
“No,” he corrected. “You are going to be Daisy, your own unique, special person, little one. You do not need to copy anyone else.”
“But Selena’s really awesome,” Daisy protested. “She’s already got her first bra.”
Elliott might be able to handle the self-described cougars at the spa and their outrageous comments in relative stride, but he was pretty sure Daisy’s outspoken ways were going to be the death of him. “It’ll be a few years before you need to be thinking about bras, young lady.”
“But Selena says boys only like girls with big boobs,” she parroted, then regarded him with a perplexed expression. “What’s that mean, Elliott? Do you think she’s right?”
“It means Selena needs to get her priorities straight,” he said, resolving to mention just that to his sister. At the very least his niece needed to be more discreet in her conversations with Daisy, who was only nine, for heaven’s sake. She ought to be thinking about dolls, not boys and bras. He had a feeling that was only wishful thinking, unfortunately.
“Can we drive out to McDonald’s again tonight?” Mack pleaded, always eager to head for the fast-food place that had sprung up in the next town a few years back.
Elliott winced. He’d gotten into the bad habit of taking the kids there because it was easier than making a meal they both liked, even though he knew Karen hated them having fast food. It went against his code, as well, but sometimes best intentions got lost to expediency.
“Not tonight, buddy. We’re having spaghetti and salad.”
“But I hate salad,” Mack whined.
“And spaghetti will make me fat,” Daisy said. “Selena said so.”
“Selena doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Elliott said. “And you’ll like this salad, Mack. Your mom made it.”
Mack still didn’t look impressed, but he didn’t argue. And once they were home, he ate both the salad and the spaghetti as if he were starving. Daisy picked at both.
“May I be excused?” she asked eventually. “I have homework.”
“You can be excused, when you’ve finished your dinner,” Elliott said firmly.
“But—”
“You know the rules,” he said. “Mack, do you have homework?”
“Just spelling and math. I did it at Grandma Cruz’s house.”
Elliott had his doubts. “Could I see it, please?”
To his surprise, the math problems were completed and correct. He ran through the spelling words with Mack, who got every one of them right.
“Those were easy,” Daisy said snidely.
“Were not,” Mack said, clearly ready for a fight.