Page 87 of This Baby Business
“Thanks,” Mrs. Lane said accepting the bag. “And thank Levi for me again, too. I’ll take lots of photos of her today because I’m going back home next week.”
No. That wasn’t enough time to get these two to come to their senses. “Do you have to?”
She smiled then, kind and reassuring, and patted my hand. “Oh, I see what you mean. That’s kind of you, honey. But I’ve got a house to get ready to sell and so much to do. More than twenty years of marriage. I’ll probably need one of those big green metal trash bins.”
“But…but what about Mr. Lane?”
“What about him? If he wants to give up, that’s his business.”
“Maybe you should talk to him.”
She leaned back in her chair. “Talk? I’vetalkeduntil I ran out of words. He doesn’t want to hear mejibber jabberanymore, as he calls it so eloquently.”
“But twenty years. Don’t you…love him anymore?”
“Oh, honey. You’re so young. Well, ofcourseI love him. But sometimes that’s not enough.”
Since when?
“What if I talk to him?” I said.
“You?” Mrs. Lane seemed to consider it, then shook her head. “I can’t stop you from wasting your breath but if you have to, go ahead.”
“How do you know when it’s over? Really over?”
Most of my relationships had ended before they’d even started. But I’d never seen my parents even get close to the point where they’d give up on such an…investment.
“How do you know?” Mrs. Lane dropped her gaze to the table. “I think you know when you stop talking. When there’s nothing left to say because everything has already been said. And said. About eleven thousand times. I’m tired.”
“So it sounds like you need him to do some of the heavy lifting for a change.”
We’d finally gotten to the heart of the matter. Now all we needed was a solution.
“That pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?”
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Lane. I’ve got this.”
“I see you’re an eternal optimist. Just like your mother.”
I nodded, though that was far from the truth. Pessimism had clouded most of my life. It was just always easier to handle someone else’s problems. “I’ll talk to him.”
“If you can work your magic with that stubborn man, then more power to you. Twenty yearsisa long time. Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t looking forward to the dating. I looked into the seniors online matchmaking site, but I won’t put up my profile just yet.”
Crisis averted!Now for the next bit of news. I hoped that Mrs. Lane would understand and forgive this last part. Because I was a bit nervous about it. Sometimes good things did come to an end, and so it was with RockYourBaby.
“I also wanted to tell you something about RockYourBaby. It’s being sold. But don’t worry, it’s going to a good home.” I took a breath. “I just couldn’t do it anymore.”
Mrs. Lane nodded. “I saw the strain it’s taking on your relationship with Levi. And honey, please. You’ve got to let him help more. Don’t kill yourself every night doing all the cooking and cleaning.”
“That’s…yeah.”
“Maybe now you’ll be able to put all your efforts toward raising Grace.”
“I’m still going to work.” I’d never thought of herself as the stay-at-home-mom type. My mother had worked. My grandmother had worked.
“What are you going to do?”
Well, that was the fifty-thousand-dollar question, wasn’t it? I still had no idea. I wanted to continue to design and sew, because that was my heart. Or at least, it always had been. And even if I never went back to New York City, I’d find a way to make it work.
