Part 29 (2/2)

He looked at Poppy, then Momma, then the group that had a.s.sembled there. He shook his head. ”No charge,” he said. ”Enjoy it in good health.”

And just that quickly, the drama was done.

Epilogue.

Elinor didn't press blackmail charges against Momma, even when she learned it was Momma who'd planted the dastardly seed in the congressman's mind to tell Elinor that his wife's favorite color was lavender. Momma had cornered him coming out of the men's room in the lobby of the Fairmont and had told him it would be a good way to help warm Elinor up, that she was a good girl but sometimes could be shy.

Even Elinor laughed at that.

CJ declined a ride back to Mount Kasteel in Momma's stretch limo. She needed time alone, and Amtrak had always provided safe haven. Hopefully, she wouldn't run into Ray Williams.

Once at Union Station, she checked the board: A train left for New York nearly every half hour. One was leaving for Denver in twenty minutes.

Without hesitation, CJ went to the counter and traded in her ticket. The time had finally come to put Elinor and her issues away and pick up the pieces of her own life...to rewrite those few scenes that Cooper had mentioned.

When Alice got home, she threw out her computer. She was determined to learn to become herself, not Elinor. Hopefully she and Neal would love each other forever, but she was done tempting fate.

As for USA Sings, they were going en ma.s.se to the Philadelphia audition: Alice, Neal, Melissa, David, and the two boys. After the show, they'd join Lorna LeDuc and the others to celebrate. Alice had asked Felicity to join them, but she'd said she couldn't make it, no excuses, no explanations, just, ”Maybe next time,” and Alice had understood.

As it turned out, Momma had made Duane sign a pre-nup way back in Monte Carlo. She'd threatened to have Lucky shoot him if he told Poppy, and Lucky was so devoted, who would doubt his aim?

Still, it was a little insulting that Duane had struck first by sending Poppy a postcard from Reno on which he'd written that his first wife had been waiting and, wouldn't you know, she wanted him back.

Yolanda said the woman must have had mucho dinero that she was willing to share with the brothers and their ridiculo mine.

Momma said when things were done, they were done. She never told Poppy about Duane's empty suitcase, which she'd loaded with Ben Franklins on his way out of town-her idea, not his. Insurance, she considered it. A small price to keep him away.

To help pa.s.s the time until the divorce, Poppy and Momma went on a world tour, returning the silver trinkets in person. Most places said ”Keep them,” so Momma was happy. Manny took his vacation in October and met them for a week in Buenos Aires. Alice said that the Lord only knew what would happen with them, but it seemed he might be the man Poppy had always needed.

Because Manny was her brother and she loved him dearly, Yolanda closed up shop that same week and moved with Belita into his house in Brooklyn, because even though his kids would have been okay, a week was a very long parentless time. While she was there, Junior Diaz dropped by.

Holy cow, Yolanda thought. He was really, really nice. Why hadn't Manny told her he was so nice? Or had she just not been paying attention?

The best thing about life, Yolanda decided, was that people really could change, her included.

Elinor had no idea why Malcolm wanted to stay with her. But he said that he did. He said if it hadn't been for her strength, he would not have become the man he'd become; he would have hidden out in a laboratory, making hybrids of trees.

He also said that during the last few years he'd grown distant because she'd grown distant. He wondered if that often happened when people were married such a long time.

But he said they belonged together, that she was the mother of his children, after all, that she'd raised them and loved them, and, like most parents, had done the best that she could.

He told her he loved her.

She did not ask if he loved CJ, too. She just tried to start over again, vowed to try and become a better wife, a better mother to both of the children. She hoped it wasn't too late. She also resolved to be rid of the jealousy toward her sister, who, after all, had given her-given them-Jonas. Good Lord, what more could Elinor want?

The first thing Elinor did was help Janice prove her innocence about the issue with her job. Elinor still didn't understand what Janice actually did for a living, but she figured that believing in her daughter was the best thing she could contribute. It was all Janice had wanted when she'd appeared in Mount Kasteel in search of her father but had had the misfortune to discover her mother instead.

Thankfully, Janice forgave her mother for suspecting she'd blackmailed her.

”It was rea.s.suring that you knew I was alive,” Janice quipped, and Elinor cried, and Janice said she was sorry, that was uncalled for, then Elinor said that she was the one who truly was sorry, that most things she'd said and done to her daughter had been uncalled for.

Then Elinor was touched when she realized that, though years had pa.s.sed, Janice had remembered that Elinor favored scones when she was in a hotel out of town. It was the kind of detail Elinor would have remembered. How amusing to think that her daughter might be a little like she was! Of course, Janice challenged that once or twice, as Elinor started making preparations for Janice and Jack's wedding.

Remy-or rather, his driver-finally managed to call after the engagement party.

”Your appointment is scheduled for two o'clock tomorrow afternoon,” the voice said. ”You will be picked up at one forty-five.”

Elinor paused. ”Please let him know I am sorry, but I will no longer be needing his services.”

She did not hear from him again.

She went back to wearing cream-colored silk panties that would hopefully keep her out of any more trouble. But for all of her growth, and all her lessons learned, a small part of Elinor wished she had saved just a bit of his DNA...the way that, years ago, she'd saved the rake that she directed Manny to find in the gardener's shed at the lake cottage. It was still where she'd stashed it, still held a few strands of Poppy's red hair, evidence that backed up her story of self-defense. Poppy went to trial, but she did not go to jail, hallaleuigh.

Jonas got the job as theater manager at The Elway even before Cooper made a few phone calls to a few friends back on Broadway. They decided CJ would stay in Denver for the season, then they'd go together to Paris next spring. Cooper's golden retriever, Molly, would be Luna's house guest for the duration of their stay in Europe.

After a while, CJ told Cooper that she was Jonas's biological mother. She wondered about telling Jonas, too, but it would hurt Elinor, and it would confuse Jonas, and it would not change the past.

Besides, CJ reasoned, as she settled into her new studio at the foothills of the Rockies, some secrets-even love-are best left alone.

A+ AUTHOR INSIGHTS, EXTRAS, & MORE...

FROM ABBY DRAKE AND AVON A.

Perfect Little Ladies Reading Group Questions 1. Do you think Elinor should have told Malcolm her problem in the beginning?

2. Two hundred dollars seems like a lot of money for panties, lace or otherwise. What's the most extravagant item you've ever purchased for yourself?

3. Which of the five ladies (Yolanda included) did you feel most connected to? Why?

4. Which of the five ladies had the most solid, enviable relations.h.i.+p, past or present, with whom and why?

5. Which of the five ladies would you most want as a friend you could turn to even in the darkest or the weirdest of times?

6. Was CJ right to have done the things she'd done for Elinor? Would you have done them for your twin?

7. What about Poppy and Momma? Would you cover up things for your parent or child that you might not for your sibling?

8. Describe Alice's life in one word.

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