Rainy Day Friends Read online

“Which I well know, as I pushed all seven and a half pounds of you out of my vagina. I did what I could, but as I’ve told you, I’m bad with babies.”

  “And children.”

  “And children.”

  “And teenagers.”

  Her mom rolled her eyes and went to the bottle of wine on the counter between a strawberry pie and a cheesecake. “To be fair, you were a horrid teenager. But I’m good at adults. Which I’m assuming you’ve finally become.” She handed Lanie a glass and gently knocked their two together in a toast. “To the both of us being adults at the same time.”

  Lanie tossed back her wine and reached for the bottle.

  “That’s a very expensive Napa Valley cabernet,” she said. “You don’t want to drink it too fast.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Well, then, darling, next time warn me that you’re having a moment and I’ll drop by the store for a boxed wine.”

  Lanie took her second glass in hand and reminded herself she’d come here to see about actually getting along for a change. After Lanie had moved out at eighteen and gone off to college, things had gotten better between her and her parents. They all checked in with each other via a phone call once a month. Very civilized. When Lanie had gotten married just before her twenty-fifth birthday, her parents had come to Santa Barbara for the festivities. Since then, they’d met for some of the holidays but not all. More civility.

  But instead of appeasing Lanie and making her feel good, it left her yearning for more.

  So here she was. Looking for that more. Only she had no idea how to get it. She perused the counter and picked up the cheesecake. She grabbed a fork from the utensil drawer and headed to the table.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Having a moment, apparently.” Lanie sat and dug in. “Oh my God,” she moaned around a huge bite. “This is amazing.”

  “Did you just compliment something I did?”

  Lanie paused, the fork halfway to her mouth as she licked some of the cheesy goodness off her lips, considering something she’d never considered before.

  Was she equally at fault for this strained relationship? On the one hand, she couldn’t be blamed for her mom not wanting to be a mom during Lanie’s growing-up years. But now that she was grown up, had she perpetuated the crappy communication out of resentment and festering emotional wounds?

  One hundred percent.

  She took another bite and swallowed before answering. “Yes,” she said. “I just complimented you. And here’s another one. Thanks for letting me in to eat and drink you out of house and home.”

  Her mother looked surprised but recovered quickly. “You’re welcome. And I’d say anytime, but I think I’ll wait until the end of this visit to make sure.”

  Lanie choked out a laugh, but remembering her shitty day, it turned into a sob so she carefully pushed away the cheesecake and set her forehead to the table.

  Silence from her mom.

  After a moment, the bottle of wine appeared in front of her face and the cheesecake was nudged close again.

  A peace offering.

  Lanie felt her eyes sting, but she ruthlessly beat back the tears. “I’m not falling apart or anything.”

  “Well, that’s good, as one, us Jacobses don’t do falling apart, and two, I’ve got a meeting in fifteen minutes.”

  This got another choked laugh out of Lanie. She lifted her head and grabbed the wine bottle and drank right from it.

  “I’m going to assume someone’s dying,” her mom said, sounding more than a little pained. “Because otherwise certainly you would be civilized enough to use the glass.”

  “No one’s dying.” Lanie took another long pull of wine. Finally, it was starting to warm her up from the inside out. About time. “He’s already dead. Though there are days when I wish I could kill him all over again.”

  “If you’ll recall, I told you not to marry him.”

  Lanie shook her head with a mirthless laugh. “Aw, there it is. The ‘I told you so.’”

  “Well, I did tell you so. What happened?”

  Lanie hesitated. She’d spoken to her mom quite a few times on the phone since they’d seen each other at Kyle’s funeral, but Lanie hadn’t told her about the wife addiction. Maybe opening up and trying for a real relationship had to start with her, she thought, and drew in a deep breath. “A bunch of his other wives keep knocking.”

  Her mom stared at her for a full beat. “Are you drunk?”

  “Yes.” Lanie sighed. “And he was cheating on me. He married at least four other women. One of them says he had a ring of hers and she wants it back.”

  “Tell her to take a fucking hike.”

  Lanie choked on the unfortunate sip of wine she’d just taken. “Did you just say fuck?”

  “Yes.”

  “You never say fuck.”

  “No?” her mother asked. “Well, I think it a lot. For instance, fuck using a glass. This situation calls for drastic measures.” Taking the bottle of wine back from Lanie, she lifted it to her lips for a long pull. “Don’t give in to this woman.”

  “Her name’s River, and she’s like, twelve.”

  Her mom looked horrified. “He was a pedophile too?”

  “I mean she looks twelve. She’s legal, barely. She just turned twenty-one.” Lanie sighed. “She also looks like an angel, one that’s about to pop.”

  Her mom sat straight up like a hot poker had been rammed up her spine. “She’s pregnant?”

  “Yes.”

  Her mom stared at her for a long beat and then closed her eyes. “Well, damn.”

  “What?”

  “I’m going to say two words to you that I’ve never said before and don’t intend to ever say again. I’m sorry.”

  Lanie nearly fell off her chair. “Why are you sorry?”

  “Because I have to revise my statement. She’s young, alone, pregnant, and came to you for help. You, when you’re most likely the very last person on the earth she wanted to need anything from. My God.” Her mom rubbed her forehead like her head hurt. “Do you have any idea how desperate and terrifying that is?”

  Lanie stared at her. “Why do I get the feeling we’re not talking about River anymore?”

  Her mom finished off the bottle of wine and swiped her mouth with her arm, the most undignified thing Lanie had ever seen her do in her life. If she’d burped the alphabet, Lanie couldn’t have been more surprised.

  “We need more wine,” her mom said.

  “Actually, I don’t think that’s what we need at all,” Lanie said carefully, because yes, her mind was a little muddled, but not so muddled as to not realize they’d just acknowledged the elephant in the room.

  The big, fat, huge pink elephant, who might be a little drunk to boot. “I feel like I’m missing a piece of my own puzzle here,” Lanie said. “A big piece too, like one of the corners or something.”

  “I was nineteen when I got married,” her mom said. “And I thought I knew everything there was to know about love. I didn’t, by the way, and neither did your father. I caught him boffing my best friend up against my refrigerator and immediately retaliated with my own torrid affair with the mailman. I was the only one stupid enough to get pregnant.”

  Lanie stared at her, shocked to finally learn the truth of this story. Her story. “But . . . Dad cheated first.”

  “Two wrongs don’t make a right, Lanie.”

  “No kidding, but it seems to me you’re the one who paid the most.” Lanie shook her head. “And you stayed married.”

  “We worked through it. Bottom line, we’d both been young and stupid, but after about a year of hating each other, we realized we still also loved each other.”

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me?” Lanie asked.

  “Oh, come on,” she said with a rough laugh. “That kind of baggage doesn’t fit into the overhead, you know what I mean?”

  “Not even a little bit,” Lanie said.

  “I didn’t want your pity!”