AllFreeNovel
Share Us
More immediately, Lyra was angry that Mom had flounced in like it was her house again, even though she didn’t live in it, and now she’d carried that sense of entitlement to the Bulls’ compound-in-progress and Gargo’s wake.
Since she was fifteen, Lyra had been the woman of the house, taking care of Pop and Reed. Making their meals, doing their laundry, keeping the house running. It was more than mere chores; it was taking care of herfamily. She was good at it. She’d picked up the broken pieces of family Mom had left behind, and she’d put them back together, almost singlehandedly. The house washers.
Sure, she’d lamented it sometimes, how she’d felt bound to that role, and yes, since Zach had entered her picture, she’d wondered how the future would proceed. She could hardly expect Zach to live in her childhood bedroom for the rest of his life, she knew that. Moreover, she didn’t want to live that way. There was a reason she’d been keeping a dream house fund, after all.
Zach had made all of these arguments, very carefully, in the past couple of days, trying to talk her down from her snit, or whispering comforting assurances as he held her while she cried. Everybody was making sense but her, she knew that.
It did not make her feel any less shitty to know she was being a shit.
But everybody involved was a grownup, right? They were all in charge of their own choices, including her. Mom and Pop would have to figure their own shit out, and Lyra could choose to stay out of it. If it didn’t work out between them, and somebody got hurt, she could choose new choices then.
Okay, then. Breathe. Breathe.
“You okay, honey?”
She opened her eyes to see Zach’s mother, Willa, standing there, looking concerned. Lyra liked Willa already. She had a warm, wry personality, and the kind of smile that made you sure she was decent the second you saw it. She was also very practical and direct, which was pretty much the opposite of her own mother. Even in looks, they were opposite. Where Mom was a sunbaked hippy, with long, dark hair, a reedy body, and a bell-bottom aesthetic, Willa was all blonde business: short hair, fair complexion, athletic build, dressed in jeans, t-shirts, and leather sneakers—or, today, in a simple black skirt, a pretty cobalt blue blouse, and black flats.
She’d known her only two days, but Lyra saw that Willa said what she was thinking, listened to what people told her, and did what needed doing. No flouncing.
Feeling guilty for comparing her mother to Zach’s at such disadvantage, Lyra shook those thoughts off and smiled. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
“You’ve been running ragged for days, and I’ve been looking for a chance to talk with you. What do you think about swiping a plate of those cheesecake tartlets and a bottle of wine and finding a quiet place where no one knows where we are?”
That sounded divine, but there was so much to do. She looked around the kitchen, at a whole lot of women she’d just met running in and out with trays full or empty, or filling those trays, or finding more ice, or ...
“Lyra. I’ve been doing this for almost thirty years. Trust me, things will keep going while you take a break. All these women know what they’re doing.”
Now she felt guilty because she was basically a kid trying to act like she should be in charge of all these much older women.
“Um ... okay. Yeah, a break would be nice.”
Smiling, Willa hooked her arm with Lyra’s and led her to the portable table they were using for food ready to go out to the main room. She grabbed a chilled bottle of wine with a twist-off top and handed it to Lyra, then swiped a Tupperware container of tartlets.
When they left the kitchen, Mom was headed to it. She stopped and gave Lyra and Willa a look: head cocked, her smile growing vague, a little line forming between her perfectly arched brows.
Lyra was petty enough to enjoy that look.
––––––––
~oOo~
––––––––
The quiet place theyfound was at the back of the garage. The garage was one of those military-like buildings with a rounded roof, like the whole building was half a cylinder laid on its side. It had a name, but she couldn’t think of it. Behind it was a lot of random crap—rusting barrels, broken pallets, a bunch of metal ... just crap. But also a rusty old metal garden glider. It had been on one end, leaning against the back of the building, but they managed to get it down so they could sit on it.
“This thing seems pretty solid,” Lyra mused after they’d gotten their impromptu picnic arranged. “I might ask the guys to clean it up so I can paint it and put it back to use.”
Willa chuckled as she handed the bottle of wine over for Lyra to take a drink. They’d forgotten glasses but both agreed they weren’t so fussy they couldn’t share the bottle.
“Why’s that funny?” she asked before she took her sip.
Still smiling, Willa shook her head subtly and turned her gaze to the desert that surrounded the compound. Off in the distance, the sunset had dusted the silhouettes of the mountains in rose gold.
“It’s not funny so much as ... pleasing, I guess.”
“I don’t understand.”
Taking a deep breath, Willa leaned back. “I’m not sure how you’ll take this. I’m not sure how I would have taken this if Rad’s mother had been alive when I met him and said something like it to me. But Zach’s always said he wouldn’t settle down until he found somebody like me. I always took it as, you know, just something a boy says to his mom. When he got older and still said it, I took it as kind of teasing. But I think he went and fell in love with a woman like me.” She left her survey of the sunset and turned to Lyra. “I hope that’s not offensive.”
