“It was the same with me,” Marie said. “I assumed that first text was a fluke. I decided to ignore it, and then they started coming every day like clockwork.”
“Have you answered her back?” Hillary asked, in what sounded like a challenge.
With a guilty look, Marie said, “Yes, once.”
“What did you say?” Carrie seemed intrigued. Everyone knew how strongly Hillary and Marie had objected to anything having to do with their stepmother.
Marie lifted one shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. “She sent a joke and it was really funny. I laughed out loud. I sent a text back that said: Funny. It was only that one time.”
Carrie looked to Julia. “What do you think, Aunt Julia?”
It was a logical question, knowing the antagonism between Laura and Julia. It appeared Carrie knew more than she was letting on, although Julia didn’t know how.
“Why should I mind? I’m the one who encouraged Laura to reach out.”
Her words dropped like a deadweight onto the middle of the table.
“What?” Hillary and Marie cried simultaneously.
Julia set her small teacup down and nodded, as if it was no big deal for her to be talking to the woman they all considered a world-class home wrecker. With her daughters staring at her with openmouthed disbelief, she began to explain.
“A couple weeks ago, Laura asked to meet me. It was shortly after that fiasco with your father,” Julia explained, looking to Hillary. “I debated if I should go or not, and was inclined to refuse, until I realized I couldn’t ask you to practice forgiveness if I didn’t do it myself. Unsure what to think, I agreed.”
Julia could see the girls were fascinated, and so she continued. “Laura was as nervous as I was. Yes, there’s bad blood between us, and I’ll admit it was difficult for her to ask for this meeting.”
“That woman isn’t short on chutzpah,” Marie murmured, using a word her father often used.
Julia talked about the awkwardness of that first meeting and what had transpired since. She watched as this news had the same effect on her daughters as it’d had on her. “Laura offered to do anything she could to help mend Eddie’s relations with you girls and promised to stay away from the wedding.”
“Dad won’t be there without her,” Hillary said, with a hard shake of her head.
“Which I mentioned,” Julia added. “I also asked why she had never reached out to either of you. Perhaps if she’d tried at some point it would have helped.”
“What did she say?” Marie asked with open curiosity.
Julia was pleased by her daughter’s interest. “Laura admitted she was afraid of being rejected.”
“Well, yeah,” Carrie said, with more than a hint of defiance. “She should be afraid.”
Hillary frowned. “You were the one who suggested she start with those text messages, weren’t you, Mom?”
Julia sighed before she answered. “I know you think I probably should have refused to help her. The thing is, Laura didn’t have a clue where to begin. She has sons, not daughters, and was at a complete loss. I helped her compose the first few texts.”
“Are you like bosom buddies now?” Hillary asked.
“Not exactly. We’ve met and talked a few times and made a few plans to bring everyone together.”
The stunned looks on their faces were almost comical. It was a good thing the server arrived when he did. He wrote down their orders, which broke the hypnotized gaze the girls had aimed in Julia’s direction.
“Did I hear you right?” Hillary asked. “Dad, Laura, and those wretched sons of hers were all at Heath’s place at the same time?”
“In the same condo?” Marie asked.
“In the same room?” This came from Hillary.
“Yes.”
“Was there blood?”
Julia laughed. “No. When Michael and Adam saw that Laura and I had set aside our differences, they asked for time to think it through. Since then I heard from Michael—”
“You did?” Carrie exclaimed. “What did he say?”
Julia was confused. “You know about this?”
“I do…long story, continue, what did he say?”
“Both Heath’s sons have agreed to give me a chance.”
Marie huffed. “That was big of them, giving you a chance and all.”
“Given the circumstances, it was,” Julia said, refusing to discount Michael and Adam’s willingness to look beyond past hurts and slights.