Chapter January #2
The night before, Poppy strolled into Ivy’s bedroom and read her diary. Then she proceeded to find Sienna in the living room (while holding the red faux leather book tucked against her chest) and asked, “Mommy, what does virginity mean and why would someone want to lose theirs?”
Ivy, who was within earshot, appeared out of nowhere. “Oh my God! You read my diary?!”
Poppy looked up at her. “You left it on your night table. And my teacher said I should start reading books for older kids, since I’m such an advanced reader. So I thought I’d give this a try.”
Ivy yanked the book out of her little sister’s hands with enough force to cause her to lose her balance. Then she lowered her face to hers and screamed, “YOU CAN’T READ OTHER PEOPLE’S DIARIES, YOU IDIOT!!”
And that was it. The night was ruined. Ivy shouting, Sienna scolding Ivy for screaming at her sister then yelling at Poppy that she was never to read someone’s diary again, Poppy bawling, Sienna demanding to know what she wrote about her virginity.
This was followed by Ivy crying and Sienna screaming at her that she sure as hell wasn’t going to leave her alone all weekend so she could get herself pregnant and Poppy asking how a girl could get herself pregnant and Sienna telling her to never mind!
You don’t need to know everything already. You’re only seven!
And now, they only had two minutes until they had to be on the road.
Parker appeared in the doorway, his overnight bag slung on his shoulder.
He was wearing that same cold expression he’d worn ever since she ordered their silence about his half-brother.
It gutted her every time she saw it, and she ached to shout that she wasn’t the one who made the mess, she was the one left to clean it all up, and besides she was doing this for him!
The fact that she hadn’t yelled all this at him yet was a mini-miracle. “Hey, Mom, shouldn’t we get going?’
“Yes, please find Poppy and get in the car. We’ll be right there.”
“’Kay.” He turned and walked away, and she sighed, knowing it would be another dreadfully quiet car ride to and from San Diego.
She turned back to Ivy. “Please. I am begging you. Hurry up and get in the car. If you don’t, I’ll be forced to call your father to come get you girls, and I’ll have to explain that the reason is because I’ve lost control over my family, and please, Ivy, please don’t make me do that.
Okay? Woman to woman, I can’t fail at the only thing I’ve ever done in life.
And I certainly don’t need your father—the living legend—to know I’m failing miserably at my only job. ”
Ivy’s shoulders dropped. “You’re not failing.”
Tearing up, Sienna said, “I am. Everyone is so upset all the time. Parker barely says a word, Poppy’s acting up every chance she gets, and you’re… wanting to have sex with some stupid boy who wears windbreaker tracksuits and has his tips frosted!”
“God, Mom, you’re so shallow!” Ivy spat out.
She reached out and gently put her hands on Ivy’s face. “No, well, maybe. But I just want your first time to be special. With a good guy who you could see yourself spending your life with. When you’re an adult. Is that too much to ask?”
“Yes.”
“Mom!” Poppy yelled. “You’re going to make Parker late for his match!”
“Get in the car!!!!” Sienna hollered back. Turning to Ivy, she said, “Okay, we can talk about this later. But please hurry up. My life is falling apart here, Ivy. Come on, help a lady out.”
“Oh, fine,” Ivy answered, grabbing a pair of sweatpants off the hanger and stuffing them into the bag. “But I’m still mad at you. And Dad. And Poppy.”
“Be as angry as you want. Just do it in the car.”
ZANE
“No, it’s actually the third time they’ve stayed here,” Zane told his mother, June, pressing the phone to his ear with his shoulder while he unloaded the groceries.
She called when he was carrying the bags in from the car, and, in an effort to be a better son, he made the catastrophic mistake of answering.
“Are you sure? I thought they only stayed over the one time.”
June was about as disappointed in her son as any parent could be.
She loved Sienna like a daughter, so when he had called her with the news that they were separating, June was despondent.
That was the word she had used—despondent.
Not upset, not angry, not shocked. Despondent.
June McCreight, who lived in an airy patio home in a luxury retirement village in Palm Springs (that Zane paid for), had a word-of-the-day calendar to keep her mind sharp, and had an ever-expanding vocabulary.
She said all the things he knew she would when he told her.
What do you mean you’re taking a little break?
That’s not how marriage works. When your father lost his job, we stuck it out, Zane, even though it was very hard and Ned Castillo from down the block had a thing for me.
You remember Mr. Castillo, don’t you? He was the city manager.
He had a terrible comb-over, but he drove a Caddy and made a heck of a rack of lamb.
I could’ve jumped ship right into his big manly arms, but I stayed with your father even though he was a grump…
Their weekly phone calls since that day had improved, but only marginally.
Zane tried to keep it focused on the kids—Poppy is already reading at a third-grade level.
Ivy’s shopping for her prom dress. Parker’s judo is going great, but it’s a lot for Sienna to juggle with school and dance and soon baseball will be starting.
But inevitably, June would bring it right back to his marriage.
Of course it’s a lot to juggle, Zane. It always has been.
If you’d noticed sooner, maybe you’d still be living with your family.
She also started each call armed with advice, much of it provided second-hand from the other people of ‘the village,’ none of whom were famous, which meant they didn’t understand Zane’s life at all.
Although Vincent Hughes (who had been happily married since 1952) used to be a weatherman in Missouri so he knew what it was like to have women throw themselves at him.
Was their problem because women were always tossing their panties on stage?
Horrible behavior. Rude. Unsanitary. When women were after Vincent, he’d simply look at his wedding band and tell those women he was married to the love of his life, so no thank you.
And believe him, he had his share of gorgeous ladies proposition him over the years.
June was in constant problem-solving mode, trying to help her son salvage the scattered pieces of his marriage to her favorite daughter-in-law. (Sienna was also her only daughter-in-law, but that didn’t make her less beloved.)
“They stayed over twice. Once during their Christmas break and once last month.”
“Is Parker coming this time?”
“No, he’s going to a judo tournament in San Diego with Sienna. That’s why the girls are coming here.”
“Have you seen him yet?”
“When I picked up the girls and dropped them off. He still won’t talk to me though,” Zane answered, his throat getting that awful thick feeling again. He cleared it away and put the carton of orange juice in the fridge.
“Well, that’s certainly distressing.” Another word-of-the-day. “He must really be hurting.”
“Yeah, and he’s really hurting me,” he said, immediately hating that he dared to whine about a mess he got himself into. “Not that I blame him, of course. I just miss his voice.”
“I can relate to that.” June, who was anything but subtle, meant that she had to suffer the fate of going months between calls from her son when he was on tour. When he didn’t immediately start groveling, she continued. “What are you going to do with the girls all weekend?”
“I rented some movies for tonight, and I’ll make popcorn and milkshakes.
Hopefully Ivy will want to write some songs with me after I get Poppy to bed.
She seems to like that,” he said, a wave of desperation coming over him.
“I thought tomorrow or Sunday we could go to Disneyland or Universal, but Ivy has a lot of homework so I imagine I’ll have to get her to buckle down at some point or Sienna will be pissed at me. ”
“That might not work. According to the Weather Channel, you’re supposed to get rain all weekend.”
“Then we’ll go to the mall or something. Whatever we do, I’ll make sure they have an amazing time.”
“Smart. That way they can go back to Sienna and sing your praises.”
“That’s not why I’m doing it, Mom.” That was exactly why he was doing it.
His mom made that little hmph sound that meant he was full of beans (as she’d say). “Well, I hope they’ll do it anyway. Have you and Sienna spoken lately?”
“Not much. She’s keeping it strictly to stuff about the kids.”
“That’s not a good sign.”
“I’m aware of that, Mom,” he answered, opening the box that contained a new blender.
“Is she letting you move back home next month? You do remember your lease is coming up.”
“Of course I do, but I don’t know what’s going to happen. She hasn’t made a decision yet.”
“I was hoping she’d let you move back home.”
Not as much as Zane was. “Same, but she said she wasn’t ready yet, which I’m taking as a good sign.”
His mom clucked her teeth, then said, “I suppose so. Not ready yet is better than ‘it’s never going to happen, bucko.’”
“Yup. And at this point, I’ll take what I can get.”
“You don’t have much choice.”
Zane set his jaw and scowled, glad his mother wasn’t in the same room to see it. He hated not having much choice in anything, especially his marriage. Instead of letting that thought escape his brain, he went with a mature response. “I need to be patient.”
“But the longer you’re out, the less chance you’ll have to get back in.”
“Well, I do have one Hail Mary play left,” he told her. “I’m going to ask her to come to the concert. The kids too.”