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"Okay, okay, I need to think" She had at least a dozen creorking between the house and the grounds A dozen people she couldn’t possibly censor or control
"There shouldn’t be this kind of interest inin a wreck, even with the circumstances A few blips on the entertainment news maybe, reports locally I need to make a call Matt, if you could try to keep theto them, at least for now I need a fewblack lih her entrance
"Man, look at that"
"Yes, look at that," Cilla echoed She didn’t have to see Mario climb out of the back to knoho’d arrived Or why
By the time Cilla reached the veranda, Bedelia Hardy stood under the supportive protection of her husband’s arht with burning resentnant expression She wore her hair loose so it shone in the sun over the linen jacket the same color as her eyes
As Cilla let the screen door slaled for the profile shots "Baby!"
She came forward in rather spectacular Jimmy Choo sandals with three-inch heels Trapped, Cilla walked down the steps in her work boots and into the nature scent that had becohter’s
"My baby, my baby"
"You did this," Cilla whispered in Dilly’s ear "You leaked to the press you were coood press" She leaned back, and through the alasses, Cilla saw the calculatedly enuine concern "Oh, Cilla, your face You said you weren’t hurt Oh, Cilla"
It was that, that moment of sincere shock and worry, Cilla supposed, that dulled the sharpest edge of resentot some bumps, that’s all"
"What did the doctor say? Oh, that horrible man, that Hennessy I remember him Pinched-faced bastard My God, Cilla, you’re hurt"
"I’m fine"
"Well, why don’t you at least put on some makeup? No time for that now, and it’s probably better this way Let’s go I’ve worked it all out You’ll just follow my lead"
"You sicced them on me, Mom You know this is exactly what I didn’t want"
"It’s not all about you, and what you want" Dilly looked past Cilla to the house, then turned away And again, Cilla saw genuine feeling Pain "It never has been I need the colu to take it What happened, happened Now you can let the on that, on you, or you can help spin some of it, maybe lanced down and saw Spock sitting patiently, paw out, big, bulbous eyes latched onto Dilly
"That’sHe wants you to shake"
"He wants Does it bite?"
"No Just shake his paw, Moed ht" She leaned over carefully and, to her credit, in Cilla’s ave Spock’s paw a firly, but in a weirdly say Shoo now"
Dilly turned, her ar out a hand to her husband "Mario!"
He trotted up, took her hand, kissed it
"We’re ready," she told him
"You look beautiful Only a fewYou shouldn’t be out in the sun too long"
"Stay close"
"Always"
Clutching Cilla, Dilly began to move toward the entrance, toward the carass and gravel"
"I knohat- Who’s this? We can’t have reporters breaking ranks"
"He’s not a reporter" Cilla watched Ford shove through the lines "Keep going," she told him when he reached them "You don’t want any part of this"
"This would be your mother? It’s unexpected to meet you here, Miss Hardy"
"Where else would I be when hter’s been hurt? The new love interest?" She scoped him head to toe "I’ve heard a little about you Not frolance at Cilla "We’ll have to talk But now, just ith Mario"
"No He’s no Mario, and he won’t be hanging back at heel like a trained lapdog Don’t give theet some coffee," he decided "Want me to call the cops while I’m at it?"
"No But thanks"
"Isn’t he all southern-fried and yummy," Dilly commented as Ford continued toward the house "Your taste’s ier vibrated and pulsed inside her chest "Be careful, very careful, what buttons you push"
"You think this is easy forwhat I need to do" Dilly lifted her chin, the braveher injured child Questions hurled out, but Dilly walked through the the front line
"Please Please" She held up a hand, lifting her voice "I understand your interest, and even on some level appreciate it I know your viewers and your readers care, and that touches oing through a difficult tih a terrible experience I’m here for her, as any mother would be"
"Dilly! Dilly! When did you hear about Cilla’s accident?"
"She called rown up, a child still wants her h she told me not to come, not to break off rehearsals for rief and the memories this place holds for me, of course I came to her"
"You haven’t been back, by your own statements, to this house since shortly after Janet Hardy’s suicide How does it feel, being here now?"
"I can’t think of it Not yet My daughter is ether, in private, I’ll explore those feelings My mother" Her voice cracked, on cue "My hter, all ies"
"Cilla, what are your plans? Will you open the house to the public? There’s speculation you hope to househere," she corrected, cold, clear-voiced, while the temper beat and beat "The property has been in enerations I’ it, and it will be, as it’s always been, a private houed by break-ins, by vandalis your restoration?"
"There have been incidents I don’t consider theue"
"What do you say to the claims that Janet Hardy’s spirit haunts the house?"
"My mother’s spirit is here," Dilly said before Cilla could answer "She loved her little farrace remain We’re proof of that" Dilly drew Cilla closer "Her spirit’s in us In enerations of Hardy wohter inside, where she can rest I ask you, as a mother, to respect our privacy If you have anyher head close to Cilla’s, Dilly turned and walked with her toward the house
"A little heavy on the mother card," Cilla told her
"I don’t think so What happened to the tree?"
"What tree?"
"That one, with the red leaves It was bigger A lot bigger"
"It was da I replaced it"
"It looks different There were more flowers" Dilly’s voice shook, but Cilla kneas uncalculated this time "Mama loved flowers"
"There will be more when it’s done" Cilla felt the dynamic shift with every step until she supported Dilly "You’ve trapped yourself You have to go inside now"
"I know it The porch hite Why isn’t it white?"
"I had to replace most of it It’s not painted yet"
"The door’s not right" Her breath quickened, as if they were running instead of walking "That’s not her door Why is everything changed?"
"There was dae, there was mold and dry rot My God, Mom, there’s only been the very minimum of maintenance in the last decade, and not lect without incurring daet it Now I can’t, can I?"
Cilla felt her ed her away as they walked inside
"This is wrong It’s all wrong Where are the walls? The little parlor? The paint’s the wrong color"
"I , she whirled toward Cilla on her fabulous shoes "You said you were restoring it"
"I said I was rehabbing it, and I a what it was"
"I’d never have sold it to you if I’d known you’d tear it apart"
"Yes, you would," Cilla said coolly "You wanted the ht in amber, Mom, you had decades to do it You don’t love this house, it’s a jagged edge for you But I do love it"
"You don’t knohat I feel! I had more of her here than anywhere else Second to Johnnie, of course, always second to her beloved son" Tears ripped through the words "But I had more of her ere here than anywhere And now it’s all changed"
"No, not all I had the plaster repaired, and the floor will be refinished The floors she walked on I’erator she used retrofitted, and I’ll use theers to her lips "She’d try to bake cookies sometimes She was terrible at it She’d always burn theh We’d eat them anyway Damn it, Cilla Daoing to take me to Paris Just the two of us It was all planned Then Johnnie died He always did spoil everything for me"
"God, Mom"
"That’s how I felt then After the shock, and that first awful grief because I did love him I did love him even when I wanted to hate hio to Paris, I thought, he’s spoiled that forbreath "She loved him more dead than she did me alive No matter how hard I ran, I could never catch up"
I kno you feel, Cilla thought Just exactly In her way, Dilly loved her hter alive
Maybe this was about redemption, too So Cilla took another step "I think she loved you very, very ot horribly twisted and broken the summer he died And she never fully mended If she’d had more time-"
"Why didn’t she take it, then? She took the pills instead She left me She left me Accident or not-and I’ll always, always believe it was an accident-she took the pills, when she could’ve takento her, Cilla touched Dilly’s cheek "Why didn’t you ever tell me that before? How you felt?"
"It’s this house It upsetsup I don’t want it I just don’t want it" She opened her purse, took out a silver pill case "Get ht, would forever be lost on Dilly The daughter who grieved because her mother chose pills over her, perpetuated the saht"
In the kitchen, Cilla pulled a bottle of water out of her lass, added ice Dilly would have to live without her usual slice of lelanced out
Ford stood with Brian and her pond expert by the choked waters He held aof coffee, and the thuh one of the belt loops of his jeans
Long and lean, she thought, with just that hint of gawky Messy brown hair with sun-kissed tips So wonderfully, blessedly normal It steadied her just to look at him, to know he’d stay-this man who created super-villains and heroes, who had every season of Battlestar Galactica-both series-on DVD A man who, she was fairly certain, didn’t know an Allen wrench from a Crescent, and trusted her to handle herself Until he decided she couldn’t
"Thank God you’re here," she murmured "Wait for me"
She took the water back to her mother, so Dilly could wash down her tranquilizer du jour