She opened her mouth, then closed it. She just couldn’t break his heart. Not yet, anyway.
“Yeah?” he urged.
“Nothing, I just…I love you, that’s all.”
“I love you, too, Mer.” Eli stood and walked over, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “You’re everything I ever hoped you’d be.”
“Thanks,” she whispered, barely managing the word.
He left the room a moment later, whistling as he walked down the hallway.
She sat there and didn’t move until she heard Atlas’s tiny mew from the monitor, then headed off to answer his call.
She was a great architect. And a lousy daughter. But what kind of mother could she be? Right now, she wasn’t sure and maybe the best thing to do was to hide away, give the baby up for adoption, and never face her father’s disappointment.
July 29, 1992
Summer House – Living Room
Rainy and loud, like God is mad about something
It’s official: the men have left the premises—estrogen is taking over.
Dad’s in Atlanta for architecture business meetings (read: avoiding Florida in July), and Uncle Artie took Peter and Eli for a “men only” (puh-lease) fishing trip with his friend Seamus.
Which meant last night was just the girls. And what did the moms decide to do with this sacred, testosterone-free window of opportunity?
They threw aTri-Delt Melt, theofficial name of their sorority party night.
And, honestly, I might be ready to pledge. It was SO MUCH FUN.
So, it was me, Tessa, Kate, and Crista sitting on beach towels in the living room while Aunt Jo Ellen and Mom acted like they were college girls again. That was until Mom discovered her first gray hair! She freaked out and Aunt Jo Ellen plucked it right out of her head with her bare hands and announced “it shall be banned herewith!” and singed that sucker on the stove!
They broke into “Delta Tunes” which is apparently the destruction of songs from their era. My favorite was “TheseBoots are Made for Rushing” because I’ve heard the real (ridiculous) song. I know new words now:
You keep sayin’ you don’t want to pledge now
But baby that’s not how it’s done
One of these days these Delts are gonna rush all over you…
Something like that. Runner up: “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Tri-Delt Co-ed.” Mom sang every note like a hyena.
Anyway, then we had pizza and Coke (pretty sure that’s not what Mom and Aunt JE were drinking) and it was time for Tri-Delt Awards Night!
With great fanfare, Tessa was voted “Most Likely to Be a Pageant Queen” and Kate was “Most Likely to Stage a Coup.” They named Crista “Most Likely to Win an Oscar” and I was—I love this—“Most Likely to Bring About World Peace”!
It went a little downhill then, with a Delta Dare Game, Secret Sister Nicknames (when we learned that Jo Ellen was “Boom Boom” for reasons NO ONE will tell us, and Mom was Macrame Mags because—get this—she ran a bootleg plant hanger business from her college dorm room). Who knew?
Anyway, we ended the night with Tessa’s boombox out and somehow she found a song called “I’m a Believer” that brought the moms to their feet screaming about “Micky” and “Davy” and how Michael was the sleeper of this jungle of monkeys.
After that, they let us stay up late, play our own music (minus Jo Ellen’s “no Nirvana after 9 p.m.” rule), and turned the entire living room into spa night.
There was a lineup of Wet n Wild nail polish on the coffee table (the color names were borderline criminal so I went with Electric Grape #47), and we all did each other’s nails.
Mom and Jo told us secrets about all their sorority sisters, including the fact that someone named Ruth Ann Bingham dropped out of school and ran off with a guy on a motorcycle but ended up married to a multi-millionaire who invented the snap-top ketchup lid!
I’ll never look at a bottle of Heinz 57 the same!
