Jill tossed her blond hair. “Isn’t that typical. I’m gone for an entire year, then I walk through the door and right away, you have more important things to do.”
Melissa’s mother could summon tears. They filled her eyes, and watery evidence of emotion spilled down her sun-flecked cheeks. Melissa inhaled for five beats and exhaled for eight.
“Sorry, Mom – you’re right. The menu can wait. Let’s go have some tea. Beck’s living here again, in the spare room, but he’s out in the fields right now, harvesting.”
“I’ll see him soon enough. I’m so happy to be with my girls.”
They went to the kitchen. Jill enthused about Guatemalan companion planting and the crucial role of the small family farm. Daphne listened, beguiled, cradling her chin in her fists, asking pertinent questions and hanging
