Page 139 of Own the Eights Maybe Baby
Lorraine Vanderdinkle smoothed that same blond lock of hair that never required smoothing. “I can be sentimental from time to time, can’t I, Howard?”
“She can, especially for the spa. It’s herSankalpa.”
“The spa is yourSankalpa?” Bobby asked.
Her mother lifted her chin. “It would probably come out sooner or later, but yes, after my time spent enhancing my spiritual skills, mySankalpacame to me in a dream.”
“And,” Hector pressed.
“My innermost desire is to spend the day in the lap of luxury, and that’s when I knew.”
“Knew what?” Jordan asked.
Her mother glanced over her shoulder at Howard, then leaned in. “That this psychic energist business was for the birds,” she whispered as the group chuckled.
“But it wasn’t just the spa, was it?” Howard asked with a knowing twist to his lips.
Her mother’s expression softened. “I wasn’t alone in my Sankalpa vision. In my dream, you were with me at the spa. I’d suggested you choose a pink polish for your manicure. But you dismissed my comment and chose a rose shade instead.”
Georgie brushed a tear from her cheek. “That sounds like us.”
Her mother chuckled. “It does indeed.”
“I know what makes me happy. Thanks to you, Mom, I know how to fight for what I want,” she said, her voice thick with emotion.
Her mother nodded. “You certainly do.”
Despite the country club crowd hanging on every word of their brunch bonding session, a profound sense of certainty held them cocooned inside this moment where the connection between mother and daughter, no matter how strained, could never be broken.
“We’re so glad to see you and Georgie getting along so well,” Maureen said, popping the bubble and bringing them back from that place only mothers and daughters reside.
“We sure are,” Denny agreed.
Georgie glanced around. They’d become a giant spectacle.
“Mom, do you think we should leave? I didn’t mean to bring an entourage on my brunch crashing.”
Teary-eyed, Lorraine shook her head, then waved over the country club manager. “Gustavo, we’ll need the gazebo set up immediately. I’ve got an impromptu baby shower to host for my daughter—which is where it should have been to begin with, but…”
“Mom…” Georgie began, but her mother kept going.
“But…I’m grateful everyone’s here now,” she added, dropping the socialite pretenses.
Howard jumped up, whipped off his sport coat, and made little okay signs with his fingers.
“Should we chant?”
“No!” she and her mother replied at the same time.
“Georgie, could you look this way? This is great stuff!” Barry called, still rolling.
She turned to Jordan as her mother went about throwing together part two of the baby shower.
“Why didn’t you say anything and let me know everyone was here?” she asked.
Jordan gave her that cocky pantie-melter of a grin. “And ruin the moment? Only an asshat would do that.”
“Then, we’re lucky that you’re not just any asshat but the emperor of them all,” she replied.
