Mom did try to make herself useful in the kitchen but Angela and I successfully shooed her out, so she settled by taking a seat at the kitchen counter so we could talk while cooking. Mom seemed really accepting of Angela, and the two chatted amiably with no discernible friction.

Meanwhile, Emmy played on her acoustic guitar out on the balcony for Tiffany, Grace and Rosalie. Lacy came over about an hour later, bearing the candied yams that she had promised would blow our minds. I introduced her to my mom, explaining that she was the neighbor next door.

“I’m going to be really sorry to see you guys go,” Lacy said after she’d taken a spot next to Mom at the counter.

“You know Wonderland isn’t very far, and you’re always welcome to come over,” I said, pouring her some of the white wine from our recent wine tour.

“I know, and I do need to get out more,” Lacy said with a sigh. “I find it all too easy to just stay home these days.”

I had my hands full when a knock came on the door, so I asked Mom to get it.

“Andy? Andy Temple?” Mom gasped, stunned at the new arrivals.

“Mrs Farmer!” Andy said, awkwardly offering Mom a hug, which she accepted.

“My God, look at you! You’re all grown up!” Mom said, still agog.

“Mrs Farmer, this is Jenna, my fiancée,” Andy said. “Jenna, this is Leah’s mom.”

“Please, call me Sandra,” Mom said, taking Jenna’s hand.

Jenna and Andy deposited their contributions on the kitchen counter, then Andy took a seat at the counter while Jenna went out to the balcony to meet the three girls.

“God, Andy, just look at you,” Mom said again. “You look great. Actually, you know what? You look so much like your father, just bigger- and younger, of course, but I mean, I remember your dad from when he was about the age you are now, so…” she trailed off, realizing she was babbling.

“So there must be a story here,” Mom said when she regained her footing. “You and Lee were practically two peas in a pod when you were little, but just seemed to drift apart with middle school. But here you are.”

“Yeah, it’s funny how life works, isn’t it?” Andy said, before he went on to explain how we’d reconnected.

Jenna came in and leaned against Andy’s back, sliding her hands down his shoulders and onto his chest. “Hey, Mr Love Chunk,” she said. “You should come out and meet Leah and Emmy’s kid.”

“Grace, right?” he asked.

“How could you possibly have known that?” Jenna asked, floored.

“The secret Fallbrook intel network,” he said. “It works in mysterious ways.”

“Well, come out and meet her. Also, I bet you haven’t seen Leah’s sister since she was a baby, right?”

With that, Jenna dragged him out to say his hellos.

“You know, we were all convinced when you two were kids you were going to get married eventually,” Mom said.

“Me? Marry Andy?” I asked. “Eww! That would be like marrying my brother or something!” I protested.

“They were like this,” Mom explained to Lacy, holding up her hand with two fingers upraised together. “You never saw one without the other.”

“You know what’s funny?” Lacy asked, sipping her wine. “The first time I met Andy and Jenna, I just assumed he was Leah’s cousin or something. They seemed like family more than just friends.”

“Andy’s dad and Leah’s father served together in the Marines, so Andy’s mom, Kat, and I did a lot of cross-babysitting. He was over at our place as often as he was at his own house, and vice versa. The two kids were inseparable.”

“Angela and Jenna have become really good friends,” I said. “It’s really good to have him back in my life, and Jenna is wonderful, too.”

“Lacy,” Mom said to our neighbor, changing the subject. “Did you use to be in a TV show back in the Eighties?”

“Yeah, that was me. The middle kid,” Lacy said with a sigh.

“Forgive me if I’m stepping on toes,” Mom said, “But I loved that show.”

“I don’t want to seem ungrateful,” Lacy said, “But it’s gotten pretty tiresome to only be remembered for that one thing.”

“I thought I’d read that you quit acting after Donington Park ended. I’d always thought you were the best actor of all the kids on the show, so I never really understood it,” Mom said, curious but trying not to be rude or drag up old feelings.

“Thanks, that’s nice to hear,” Lacy said with a genuine smile. “The thing is, I had been working pretty much non-stop from the time I was eleven until I turned nineteen. I basically had no normal childhood, you know? I was just burned out. I think all us kids were, but Jack had so much debt that he had to keep working, and Chrissie, well, her habits were expensive, you know? She wound up doing a lot of really shitty straight-to-video stuff before finally ODing. When she got out of the hospital, she just wanted nothing to do with the scene at all. Last I heard, she was raising a bunch of kids in Idaho or someplace like that. But me, well, I just wanted to take a break for a while, and then the while became longer and longer and people stopped asking me to even audition, you know?”

“Would you get back into it, if something came up?” Mom asked, fascinated.

“I don’t know,” Lacy said with a sigh. “Maybe.”

Just then Tiffany came into the kitchen at warp speed, spotted the vegetable platter and scooped a bunch of radishes into her mouth before zooming out again.

We all had stopped what we were doing to watch that little blonde streak of energy shoot by before resuming out conversations or tasks.

“I couldn’t imagine raising kids,” Lacy said. “Much less two, as a single mother. That takes a level of energy and commitment I couldn’t even imagine.”

“Yeah, it does,” Mom replied, watching Tiffany out on the balcony with Emmy and everybody else. “But you know what? It’s also, at the same time, the strongest argument ever for rising to the occasion and doing what needs to be done. I never had any time to feel sorry for myself- I had two daughters who needed me to be there for them.”

Dinner was a huge success, everybody chatting and having a great time. The turkey was a bit dry, but isn’t it always? The stuffing Angela had made was a big hit. When Lacy asked about it, Angela cheekily replied that it was her grandmother’s Thanksgiving stuffing recipe and she couldn’t share the secret. It took Lacy a few seconds, but when she realized that they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Colombia she had a good laugh.

“You had me there for a moment,” she said, still chuckling. Most of the table had laughed at the joke, but Tiffany and Rosalie just looked around, confused.

While Grace, Rosalie and Mom cleaned up after dinner, the rest of us found ourselves out on the balcony, the fire going for atmosphere more than warmth.

“I guess I understand it, but man, I’d really hate to give up this view, you guys,” Jenna said, leaning on the railing, looking towards the skyscrapers downtown.

“Yeah, I’m gonna miss this balcony,” I agreed. “But the new house is going to have a lot more room, and of course, the studio.”

“I still have to pinch myself to convince myself that I am not dreaming when I see the studio,” Emmy said. “It is more like a dream than I would have believed possible.”

“Emmy said it’s almost move-in ready,” Lacy commented. “I’m going to miss you three.”

“I expect you to come to visit,” Emmy said, pointing at Lacy. “And I will certainly come back here to visit you.”

“I’ll visit, I promise,” Lacy said, holding up two fingers in the Boy Scouts salute.

“I wanna visit, too,” Tiffany said.

“Of course you shall visit,” Emmy replied. “In fact, we have one bedroom that is just for you, so you can stay in your own room when you come over.”

“Really?” Tiffany asked, her eyes wide.

“Really,” Emmy confirmed. “In fact, it is painted the same colors as your room in Fallbrook.”

“That’s awesome!” Tiffany said, getting up to give Emmy a hug. Maybe the fiftieth of the evening, by my rough guess.

Eventually Lacy, Jenna, and Andy left and Rosalie and Grace went to their room. We’d cleared out Angela’s old room so Tiffany and Mom could stay the night, and Emmy had tucked Tiffany in, singing her to sleep the way she had all those years ago. After Tiff fell asleep, Emmy and Angela went to bed while I stayed out on the balcony with Mom.

I poured Mom another glass of white and mixed myself another Old Fashioned, not ready to head to bed yet.

“Angela seems really nice,” Mom said when we settled down on the couch together. “But I have to ask- how old is she?”

Chuckling, I said, “I get that question a lot. She’s actually older than Emmy or me. She graduated college in Bogotá the same year I graduated from Fallbrook.” Taking another sip, I added, “She has a really young face, doesn’t she?”

“She’s really pretty,” Mom agreed. “And she seems really into both you and Emmy.”

“Yeah, and we are both really crazy about her, too,” I said, thinking back to that night in Chicago. “It’s funny- I didn’t see it coming at all, but Em, you know, she’s just way more attuned to people than I am. When Angela said that she wanted to be a part of our lives, you know, Emmy was right there, but it took me by surprise.”

“So, um, Angela initiated it?”

“Yeah, she did,” I said. “I told you about how her old boyfriend got busted and we helped her out, right? Well, I guess she got to know us, and saw what Emmy and I had together, and realized that she wanted to be a part of that. At first, both Emmy and I were worried that Angela was in love with our lifestyle as much as with us as people, you know? But it soon became obvious that although she might have been attracted by, well, our money and all that goes with it, that wasn’t what was important. Angela had actually fallen in love with Emmy and me both as individuals, and with the relationship we have.”

“You two are amazingly appealing,” Mom admitted. “And I could see how all this,” she said, waving to indicate the condo, the view, and everything, “Could have its own appeal.”

“Well, you have to remember, she already lived in this building,” I said, a touch defensively. “So it’s not like we pulled her up from the gutter or anything.”

“I didn’t mean that, Lee,” Mom said, her voice softening. “I just meant that you two are so… perfect, you know? and you have a perfect home, and lead lives that most people could only dream of.”

“I guess,” I grudgingly admitted. “But anyway, when Angela said that she wanted to be with us, Emmy was right there and said that she wanted that, too.”

“Emmy did?” Mom asked, surprised.

“Yeah. Like I said, she saw it coming, but I sure didn’t. I mean, I’d really come to like Angela by that point and felt really comfortable with her, but I don’t think I was at the ‘let’s have a relationship’ stage, but Emmy was. She told me that she wanted Angela to be part of our lives. A menage à trois, she called it.”

“A relationship of three people,” Mom said, understanding. She took a sip of her wine and pondered for a bit, then asked, “Does Angela know about Emmy’s, um, condition?”

“Yeah, she does,” I answered, not bothering to say that she’d found out just a few days before.

“What does Angela think about that?”

“Well, she was pretty wrecked when she found out that one of the people she’s in love with only has a few more years,” I said, trying to keep my own emotions in check.

“What’s going to happen with you and Angela when Emmy, um…” Mom asked.

“To be absolutely blunt about it, I think that Emmy is happy that we have Angela, so I’ll have somebody when she’s gone,” I said, leaning back and staring into the fire. “I think Emmy has made a lot of plans for after, if you know what I mean. And I think this is one of them.” Recognizing how it sounded, I added, “That isn’t to say that Emmy actually planned all this. I think that she saw the situation developing and nudged things along, since it fit in well with her long-term plans.”

“I think I understand what you mean,” Mom said. “I don’t want this to sound like a criticism, since it certainly isn’t, but Emmy has always seemed to me like somebody with a plan, an agenda, you know. She never does anything without a reason.”

I started to protest, but Mom held up her hand. “Like I said, it’s not a criticism. In fact, I think it’s one of her most admirable traits. She thinks things out. Most people don’t do that at all, but Emmy does. She knows what she wants, and does what she can to make it happen. I can certainly imagine that when the situation with Angela developed, she saw how perfect it could be for both her and you in the long term.”

“Yeah, you’re more right than you maybe know,” I said.

With that, conversation turned to lighter topics, such as how Mom’s classes were going that semester, how Tiffany was doing in school, and so on.

“It was a real surprise to see Andy tonight,” Mom said. “He’s looking really good. His dad was always a good-looking guy, and Andy looks so much like him, just, well, bigger.”

“Andy’s playing for the Rams, did you know that?” I asked.

“Yeah, I gathered that,” Mom replied.

“He and Jenna just bought a house in Sherman Oaks. It’s really nice. I think they plan on starting a family fairly soon.”

Chuckling, Mom said, “Kat and I were so convinced you two would end up together, you know? I’m going to have to look her up and give her a call. I haven’t seen her in a few years- not since you guys were in high school.”

“It was Emmy who brought us back together,” I said, sipping my drink. “And I’m really glad she did. Getting to know him again has been really… healing, I guess,” I said.

“Oh, Lee,” Mom said, taking my hand in hers. “I knew you were hurting so much, but there just wasn’t anything I could do. I felt like a real failure as a mother. I just didn’t know what to do for you.”

I didn’t have anything to say to that, so I just held Mom’s hand, idly wondering when she’d gotten so small.

When I slipped into bed, Emmy snuggled up into me, so I held her close as we spooned.

“I love you,” she said softly.

“I know,” I replied, but I think the joke was lost, since she’d already fallen back asleep.