She nodded.
“What about Brooke? Do you want me to call her?”
A shrug and then a reluctant nod.
“I told everyone in the studio that you had an unexpected trip to LA. Gabby said they have orders to keep them busy for at least a couple of weeks. She wasn’t sure after that. I’ll take care of it, one way or the other.”
“Thank you.”
“But I need to call Fred and May. They’ll start asking if they don’t hear from you soon.”
“Tell them I died.”
My silence was a gentle rebuke.
“Fine,” she said at last. “Tell them…”
“That you’re taking a break,” I finished.
She snorted at the irony.
“We’ll get through this.” I don’t know how, but at least we’re talking about it.
* * *
I returned home and found that Rich had been hard at work, cleaning.
“Most of it was in her studio,” he said. “The usual. Wine and liquor. No handles. She has— had expensive taste. I cleaned out the bar in the house, too. I hope you don’t mind that I poured it out.”
I felt a pang of loss, but it was selfish. Again. “Everything?”
“Everything. Sorry.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “I’m sorry I left it for you.”
“Nah. I’m fine as long as I don’t start.”
“Okay, cool.”
“The girls and I went through the house itself. We made a game of it. I told them we’d bake a dozen cookies for every bottle they found.”
I glanced at him sideways with a question.
“We won’t put the Girl Scouts out of business,” he said, “but it’ll take a few weekends to bake that much.”
“Yeah.”
“You’ll need to go through your bedroom. I don’t think you’ll find much—too easy for you to find by accident—but you might be surprised. Check her purses and even her shoes. Oh, and the top of the closet. She used to hide things there when she was a kid. She can’t reach that high, so she thinks no one else can either.”
“Got it,” I chuckled. “Anything else?”
“No. We didn’t find any pills or dope. Just alcohol.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Mmm. Have you decided what to tell the girls?”
“Not yet,” I said. “I’m open to suggestions, though.”
“Well, I think Laurie’s figured it out. I’m not surprised. I wasn’t thinking ahead when I cleaned the bar out. She saw me pouring everything down the drain. Then we searched the rest of the house, and she connected the dots.”
“It’s okay.”
“I don’t think she understands exactly what’s going on, but she’s pretty upset about it. She’s a quiet one, though. She just kinda shuts down.”
“Yeah. That’s her way of dealing with it. I wish I’d realized sooner.”
“It affects people in different ways,” Rich said. “My ex and I used to fight.”
I nodded, although I knew very little about his ex-wife. I’d only met her a couple of times, and he didn’t talk about her much. Christy and I had privately suspected it was a marriage of convenience more than anything—they both wanted to appease their families.
Rich drew me back with a chuckle. “Em’s a little Birdy, isn’t she?”
“Her looks, for sure,” I agreed.
“Her personality too. She’s a bossy little thing.”
“You can say that again.”
“Susie reminds me of me. Looks-wise, I mean. She’s a hundred percent you otherwise.” He grinned. “Like if you and I had a kid.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t hide a grin.
“Back to the original question,” Rich said. “What do you want to tell them?”
“For now, only that she’s sick, but she’s getting help.”
“It’s a disease,” he corrected calmly. “She’ll need to deal with it for the rest of her life. So will you. And… I don’t wanna tell you what to do, but the clinic should have a program for dependents. Families and children, I mean.”
“Yeah, they gave me a bunch of brochures. I haven’t had a chance to go through them yet.”
“Let me know what you decide, and I’ll back you up.”
“Thanks.”
We fell silent and gazed across the pool and into the gathering twilight. The lake was high enough that we could see it through the trees. It had rained heavily the day before.
“I think Mom was right,” Rich said at last. “This is where I’m supposed to be.”
He was in the mood to share, so I let him.
“I love being around the girls. And I like the area. Don’t get me wrong,” he added, “I love San Diego, but… too many memories. You know?”
“Mmm.”
“Maybe time for a change of scenery. Do you know anyone who needs a security consultant?”
“As a matter of fact, yeah, I do.”
“Who? You? Seriously?”
I nodded. “I designed a house for a jeweler, about a year ago. She wanted a bunch of home security. Not just alarms and cameras, but intrusion deterrents, a hidden safe, and a panic room.”
Rich nodded slowly as I spoke.
“I had to contract it out. Cost a small fortune, too. It ate up most of our profit on the job.”
“Hooyah.”
“We’re also bidding on an aerospace job in Denver. They do defense work, so half of the building is high security.”
“Want me to take a look?”
“Have you done that kind of thing before?”
“Security? Sure. We didn’t just shoot things, you know.”
“Mmm.”
“Although,” he mused, “I have more experience with physical security, especially breaching it. We didn’t worry too much about electronic security. Well, we did,” he amended, “but not the type of thing you need. We usually blew shit up and went in strong. The SMU guys did the sneak and peek jobs, the intrusion and intel-gathering.”
“Lemme guess,” I said, only mildly sarcastic, “SMU isn’t Southern Methodist University?”
“No. Special Missions. The kind of thing I still can’t talk about.”
“Gotcha.”
“I know a few guys, though.” He rolled his hand in a “move along” gesture.
“Right. So, you can get up to speed.”
“Yeah. Corporate security’s more about preventing theft and espionage. You normally don’t have to worry about guys like me with weapons and explosives.”
“No,” I chuckled.
“Still, my background should help with that kind of business in the future. What’s so funny?”
“It’s another quote,” I warned.
He sighed. “Go ahead.”
“I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
He snorted but didn’t deny it.
* * *
The girls and I flew out to Palm Springs a couple of weeks after they finished school for the year. I’d taken Rich’s suggestion and signed up for the clinic’s family program, which taught spouses and children how to cope with alcoholic family members. Susie was still too young, but Laurie and Emily were old enough.
Christy’s mother wanted to join us as well—she had two children who were alcoholics, after all—but Harold resisted. I privately suspected that he didn’t want to admit that he might have a drinking problem too. His attitude had always been “out of sight, out of mind.” And he wasn’t above playing the age and granddad cards, either.
“I’m too old to learn new tricks. Besides, who’s going to look after Susie?”
“I’m sure they have day care,” I said.
“Of course. But we never get to spend time with just her.”
We argued politely, but he had an excuse for everything. Anne eventually gave up. She and Harold could watch Susie while the rest of us were in class, although she gave him a look that didn’t bode well for his future drinking.
“See?” he said, a touch uncertainly. “I knew we’d find a solution.”
“Mmm. Yes, dear.”
I piled on. “Is this what they call a ‘fighting retreat’?”