“You are melting my heart, little girl. Did you hear that? She called me Gah-ma.”
“Better than Bah-ma,” Renie answered.
“What brings you two here this morning? Not that you ever need a reason.”
“Billy is painting Willow’s bedroom and the house smells. I thought I should get her out of there.”
“Are you getting settled in okay?”
“Yeah, almost everything is finished, except her room.”
Billy and Renie had been busy furnishing the house. She felt as though all she did lately was wait for furniture or appliances to be delivered. They’d gone to Denver the week before and stocked up on kitchen stuff, bedding, towels—all the essential little stuff they could fit in the back of Billy’s truck.
“Have you talked to Paige lately?”
“Yep, I talked to her this morning?”
“Did she say anything about Blythe?”
“Yes.”
“She’s not coming, is she?”
“No, honey, she’s not.”
“I’ve been trying to get in touch with her, but she’s not responding.”
“She’s upset, Renie. Part of her feels stupid about how she pestered you about Billy. The other part of her is mad that you never told her how you felt. And then, you disappeared on her. She’s not just mad, she’s hurt.”
“Sounds familiar.”
Liv set the dish down she had in her hand, and motioned to Renie to come sit next to her.
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about, and now is as good a time as any.”
“Oh, no. If you’re about to tell me you’re mad at me too, I’m not up for it.”
“No, that isn’t it at all. Do you want to hear what I have to say?”
“As long as you don’t yell at me.”
“Oh, honey. I never yell at you.”
“You scold me.”
“I won’t do that either. Well, maybe a little, but in a good way.”
“Great.”
Willow toddled over and climbed up on Renie’s lap. “You love me don’t you, Willow? You’ll protect me from Gah-ma.”
“Gah-ma,” Willow said, looking at Liv, who pulled her phone out of her pocket and handed it to Willow to play with.
“Don’t do that, she’ll want to play with everyone’s phone now.”
Liv pointed to herself. “Gah-mas get to do whatever they want. That’s the beauty of it. No rules for gah-mas.”
“Okay, let’s get this over with. Scold away.”