“You'll have to come into the city and have dinner with us, Dad.” Sabrina reminded him about the house they were seeing the next day.
“It sounds cute.”
“It might be, or could be a horror. You know how real estate agents are. They lie like dogs and have terrible taste.” He nodded, suddenly thinking how lonely he was going to be in the house when the girls left again.
“Maybe I should retire,” he said, looking depressed, and all three of his daughters responded at once.
“No, Dad!” And then they laughed. The last thing he needed was to strip his life down even more. He needed to keep busy, and do more now, instead of less. That much was clear. “You need to work, and see friends, and go out just the way you did with Mom.”
“Alone?” He looked horrified, as Sabrina sighed and Tammy glanced across the table at her. Now they had Annie to take care of and their dad.
“No, with friends,” Tammy said. “That's what Mom would want. She wouldn't want you sitting here alone, feeling sorry for yourself.” He didn't answer, and a little while later, he went upstairs to bed.
Chris went back to the city after dinner, so he could get to work on time the next day. Sabrina hated to see him leave, but she was grateful for all his love and help. He kissed her tenderly before he left, when Sabrina walked him out to his car.
“It's been a hell of a week,” she summed it up.
“Yes, it has. But I think everyone's going to be okay. You're lucky you have each other.” He kissed her again. “And you have me.”
“Thank God,” she sighed, and put her arms around his neck as he sat in the car. It was hard to believe that the accident had happened only eight days before. “Drive safely. I'm coming into the city tomorrow to see the house. But I won't stay long. I have to get back out here. Maybe I can leave Candy with Dad, and come in for a night this week.”
“That would be nice. See how it goes. I'll come on Friday, if you want me.” It suddenly felt like being married, with a husband who came out on weekends, while his wife stayed in the country with the kids. Only in this case the “kids” were her father and two sisters. Sabrina felt as though she had suddenly become everybody's mom, including her own. “Try and take it easy, Sabrina. Remember you can't do it all.” He had read her mind. “I'll call you when I get home.” She knew he would. Chris was solid, reliable, a person you could count on. He had proved that yet again in the past week. But it wasn't news to her. It was part of what she loved about him. Other than her father, Chris was the best man she had ever known.
“If you don't marry him, I will,” Tammy teased her when she walked back into the house. Beulah walked into a corner of the kitchen, glared at them miserably, and looked depressed. She was always sad when Chris left. “I want a guy like him. Normal, healthy, nice, helpful, good to my family, and he can cook. And a hunk. How did you get so lucky and I wind up with such jerks?”
“I don't live in L.A. Maybe that helps. Or I answered the right ad,” she teased.
“If I thought I'd find the right one in an ad, believe me, I'd try.”
“No, you wouldn't, and I wouldn't let you. Knowing your luck, you'd only get a serial killer in a personal ad. One of these days, Tam, the right guy will turn up.”
“Believe me, I'm not holding my breath. I'm not even sure I care anymore. I say I do, but I think I'm just used to bitching about it. Everybody does. I'm actually happy at home alone at night, with my doggie and total control of the remote. And I don't have to share my closets.”
“Now I'm worried about you. There is more to life than sole custody of the remote.”
“I can't remember what. God, I hate to leave,” she said with a sigh as they walked upstairs. It suddenly felt like the old days when they were kids. Candy had put music on, and it was too loud. Tammy was almost waiting for their mother to stick her head out of their bedroom and tell her to turn it down. “It's so weird here without Mom.” She said it in a whisper so her father didn't hear her as they walked past his room.
“Yes, it is,” Sabrina said. “It's going to be even weirder for Dad.” They both agreed.
“Do you think he'd ever get remarried?” Tammy asked her. She couldn't imagine it herself, but you never knew.
“Not in a million years,” Sabrina reassured her. “He was too in love with Mom to ever look at anyone else.”
“He's still young. I've gone out with men his age.”
“She'd be a tough act to follow, at any age. She was it for him.” And she had been for all of them too, as a mother.
“I don't think I could deal with the wicked stepmother thing,” Tammy confessed, and Sabrina laughed.
“I don't think we'll ever have to. Maybe he should come out to visit you sometime in L.A. Weekends are going to be lonely for him.”
“That's a nice idea,” Tammy said as she took out her suitcase to pack and Candy wandered in. The three sisters chatted as she packed her things, and it was after midnight when they all went to their rooms. Chris had called Sabrina by then. Their dogs were all asleep on their beds. Their father had gone to bed at ten. All was peaceful in the house, and as Sabrina got into bed, she told herself that if she closed her eyes, she could pretend that her mother was still there. In each of their beds, all three girls were thinking exactly the same thing. And even for an instant, as they drifted off to sleep, it was nice to pretend that nothing had changed, when in fact everything had, and would never be the same again.
Chapter 11
Tammy's airport shuttle came at exactly eight o'clock the next morning. She was up, dressed, and ready to leave when it arrived. Candy and their father came downstairs to say goodbye. Candy was wearing a cotton T-shirt and cut-off jeans. The T-shirt showed her breasts, as always, and as she stood outside waving goodbye, with her long blond hair tousled and sexy, every man in the shuttle stared at her with wide eyes.
She hugged Tammy, and Sabrina and their father did the same, and then Tammy got into the shuttle, with Juanita in her Birkin bag. They hated to see her leave. Two minutes later Candy and Sabrina got into the car to drive into town to see the house. They were in town by nine-thirty, and stopped by Sabrina's apartment, to pick up some more clothes, and mail.
Candy said she didn't need to go to hers. She seemed to have a limitless supply of see-through T-shirts with her. Sabrina felt as though she'd been gone for years. It felt strange to realize that the last time she had seen her apartment, her mother was alive and Annie wasn't blind. So much had changed in a short time. And she knew a lot more things would change now. Particularly if she moved. She wasn't attached to her apartment, so she didn't care so much about that. But living with Annie and Candy would be a big change for her. She had been on her own since college, nearly thirteen years. Moving in with her sisters would be a step backward in time for her. She would miss her independence. But it was for a good cause. And in a year Sabrina hoped Annie would be adjusted to her situation, and ready to live alone. Candy could then go back to her elegant penthouse, and Sabrina could get another apartment by herself. But for the next year, they all had to be good sports and pitch in to help Annie make the transition to the enormous challenges facing her. Challenges that were huge.
They left Sabrina's apartment at five minutes before ten, and as she parked her car on East Eighty-fourth Street, Tammy called on her cell phone. She said she was getting on the plane.