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“I think so. I hope so. The wounds my family suffered are real. They may be scabbed over, but they’re not entirely healed. It takes time.”
“You have time.”
Genevieve thought about her birthday rushing toward her like an F5 tornado. “Time is our most valuable commodity, and we waste so much of it when we are young. I wish my children would recognize that and not repeat my mistakes.”
“What sort of mistakes?”
A kaleidoscope of scenes from her past flashed through Genevieve’s mind, and the sting of tears came with them. Adozen responses to her sister’s question hung on her tongue. She voiced the one uppermost in her mind. “I don’t want to be old with an empty life, Helen.”
“Well, thank you very much,” Helen said with a sniff.
“Oh, don’t be that way. You know what I mean.”
“I don’t think I do.”
“Well, we were talking about men and dating, for one thing. Not sisters. I have the best sister in the universe. She’salwaysthere for me. If I don’t say often enough just how much I love her, how important she is to me, and how I’d be lost without her, then I am a wretched human being.”
“You are a wretched human being.”
Genevieve leaned over and rested her head on her sister’s shoulder. “I love you, too.”
They passed a few moments in silence and watched as Drew struggled to lift the second snowball and place it on top of the first, assisted by his four-year-old sister. Then Helen said, “This seems to be a good time for me to bring up something I’ve wanted to mention to you.”
“That sounds a bit ominous.”
“Not ominous. On topic, I think. But frank.”
“When are you not frank, Helen?”
“So sue me,” she said with a shrug. Then she drew a deep breath, met her sister’s eyes, and exhaled in a rush. “You’re doing it again.”
Genevieve blinked. “Doing what again?”
“You’re losing yourself in Prenticeworld.”
Genevieve’s defenses flared. “What do you mean?”
“Where the hell is Vivie? She’s disappeared.”
“Don’t make fun of me,” Genevieve snapped. “That nickname was just a phase.” She’d tried calling herself Vivie when she’d first moved to Colorado, but it hadn’t fit.
“Well, call yourself what you want, butthatGenevieve was a lot of fun. That Genevieve was focused on reinvention and revitalization. That Genevieve went snowmobiling and danced across an Alpine meadow. This Genevieve…” Helen’s voice trailed off.
“What?” Genevieve said testily.
Helen lifted her nose into the air. With lemon in her tone, she said, “Babysits.”
Genevieve folded her arms. “I don’t babysit. I have nana playdates with my grands. What’s wrong with that? I’ve been waiting for eight years to be able to go and have special times with them.”
“Nothing’s wrong with it. I know how much you love Emma and Drew and enjoy spending time with them. But…”
“But what?”
“Do you know how often you’ve turned down an invitation from friends and family because you had to babysit? You skipped the bridge club’s Telluride ski-and-spa trip.”
“I took the children to see the Eternity Springs hot-air balloon festival that day.”
“You totally blew off the Friends of the Museum winter gala.”
