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"What friend?"

"Carrie, I think"

"You think?" Rachel had been afraid of this Bruce had ceded all control to Jolene Rachel had always insisted on knohere Jolene was going and who she’d be with before she left the house, and Jolene had hated that

"It’s either Carrie or Lucy Why? What’s the big deal?"

"The big deal is that your daughter needs supervision Jolene is at a vulnerable age She needs boundaries"

"I told her she had to be hooing to be sick "A thirteen-year-old should be ho before then Have you lost your mind?"

"Can we talk about this later?" Bruce said after a strained ht be best"

"Shall I meet you at DD’s at six?"

"I’ll be there" Then, because she felt the urge to talk to Jolene, the urge to try yet again, she asked Bruce to put her stepdaughter on the line

It was a couple of ot on the phone "What?" she deood care of your father," Rachel said, thinking that if she began with a coo more smoothly

"I told you before--we don’t need you here"

"And you’re right, you don’t" That obviously wasn’t what Jolene had expected "Your father and I are going out for dinner on Friday night"

"Great," she h, are you?"

"No"

"Good, because it’s been really nice around here without you"

Rachel didn’t doubt that was true--in Jolene’s mind, if not Bruce’s Rachel responded with silence

"Dad and I are as close as ever"

Rachel decided to ignore that, too "I wanted to tell you I felt the baby move today"

For the first time since she’d picked up the phone, Jolene didn’t have anything derogatory to say

Rachel continued "The doctor says the baby--"

"Do you know yet if it’s a boy or girl?"

"Your father askedNo, I didn’t want to be told I’d rather be surprised"

"Oh" Jolene seemed disappointed

"Do you want a baby brother?"

She hesitated "I guess"

"A sister would be nice, too," Rachel said "Someone you could be friends with later on I alanted a sister"

"I did, too When I was little"

"Either way, this baby is going to be happy to have a big sister," Rachel said "It was nice chatting with you, Jolene Maybe we can do it again, okay?"

"We can talk," Jolene whispered, "as long as you don’t move back"

Sixteen

"Oh, Mom," Tanni whispered as she stepped into her mother’s bedroom "You look so beautiful"

Shirley blushed "Oh, Tanni, do I?" She was about to be married and felt

A s hat both she and Larry wanted Just fareed to be her maid of honor and Miranda would serve as her one and only brides would take place in the small chapel at the Catholic church, with Father Donahue presiding Larry and his children had flown in froet married in this two-day ait another three months until he returned from his travels

To Larry, the three , since they’d already made up their ain; she’d certainly never expected to Meeting Larry had overturned all her preconceived ideas about living the rest of her life as a

As Larry said, they were ether

That was al schedule, they’d have this forty-eight-hour period, and then he was off to New York for teeks, followed by a European tour Naturally Larry wanted her to go with him, and she would’ve loved it

But unfortunately, it wasn’t possible Shirley couldn’t pull Tanni out of school or take off for weeks at a tihter to fend for herself She also had several co on and couldn’t abandon what she’d been contracted to complete Above all, she was Tanni’sher father had been a terrible blow to her teenage daughter, and Shirley wasn’t going to subject Tanni to anotherto cope

The plan was that they’d have their wedding Friday afternoon, honeyone for nearly eleven weeks

The ceremony was lovely, and both families went to dinner afterward She was relieved to see hoell her children and Larry’s got along They joked and teased as if they’d known one another all their lives

Larry clasped her hand beneath the dinner table "Are you ready to get out of here?" he said in a low voice