Charlotte pushed the doorbell once more, not wanting to use her key and scare her mother or have her think Russell had returned. Annie had never changed her locks and never would. She lived in an eternal state of limbo.
Finally the door to the old house swung open wide and her mother stood in her housecoat. “Charlotte!”
“Morning, Mom.” She drew her mother into a huge hug before entering.
The house smelled stuffy, as if the windows hadn’t been cracked open to enjoy the early spring weather, and her mother looked as if she planned to spend her one weekday off work inside. Again.
“Don’t you have to be at the store?” Annie asked.
Charlotte glanced at her watch. “I do, but Beth can open for me. As a matter of fact, Beth can handle things until later.” An inspired idea struck Charlotte. She’d wanted a day out, and now she had the perfect idea for them both. “Get dressed,” she told her mother. “We’re going to have a mother-daughter morning.” While she spoke, she prodded her mother up the stairs and into her bedroom. “I’ll bet Lu Anne can fit us in for hair and nails. We’ll buy outfits for tonight’s St. Patrick’s Day dance, and then we’ll go to Norman’s for lunch. My treat.”
Her mother glanced around the darkened room. “Well, I wasn’t planning on going tonight, and as for leaving the house today …” She trailed off.
“No excuses.” Charlotte snapped up the shades, letting light in. “We’re going to have fun and enjoy.” She folded her arms across her chest. “And I’m not taking no for an answer, so get dressed.”
While Charlotte wondered what she’d have done if Roman stormed her fortresses this way, to her surprise, her mother blinked and complied, sans argument. Half an hour later, they sat in Lu Anne’s Locks, a salon owned by another mother-daughter team. Lu Anne handled the blue-haired ladies’ style and sets, while her daughter, Pam, took care of the funky teens and more style-conscious women.
After Lu Anne’s, they ended up in Norman’s for lunch, then tackled shopping. Charlotte couldn’t recall the last time she’d actually gotten her mother out of the house and was glad she’d made the time.
She picked a few dresses for her mother off the rack and after Annie grudgingly tried them on, they agreed on one. “It looks gorgeous on you. With the new hairstyle and the makeup, this dress brings out the green in your eyes.”
“I don’t see why tonight’s so important to you.”
“Other than the fact that it’s an annual Little League fund-raiser? Because getting out of the house is important. Hey, you might even run into Dennis Sterling. I know for a fact he’s interested, Mom. He hangs around the library much more than even a veterinarian needs to.”
Annie shrugged. “I don’t go out with other men. I’m married, Charlotte.”
Charlotte sucked in a frustrated breath. “Mom, don’t you think it’s time to move on? Just a little? And even if you don’t agree, what would it hurt to test the waters? You might even enjoy it.” And when Russell deigned to show up again, which he always did, it would do the man good to see her mother was no longer sitting around waiting for him to make his grand entrance.
“He loves me. He loves you too. If you gave him a chance …”
“A chance to do what? Come home, say hello in one breath and good-bye in another?”
Annie held the dresses close to her, as if the layers of material could protect her from Charlotte’s words. Charlotte winced. She didn’t need to see her mother’s retreat to know she’d been too hard on her. As soon as the words had left her mouth, she regretted her harsh comment and tone. She placed a soothing hand on her mother’s arm, not knowing what else to say.
Annie broke the silence first. “People have different ways of showing love, Charlotte.”
And her father showed his lack of the emotion with every departure he made. “Mom, I don’t want to hurt you and I don’t want to argue.” How many times had she had some version of this conversation with her mother? She’d lost count.
But each time she thought she’d gotten close to a breakthrough, her errant father would waltz into town once more. It was like the man had radar, Charlotte thought. He obviously didn’t want Annie, but he didn’t want her to get over him, either. As a result, her mother lived her life in limbo. By choice, Charlotte reminded herself. Which was why her own decisions had to be the clear-cut opposite of her mother’s.
Annie held out the dress, acknowledging everything but her daughter’s words, giving Charlotte a chance to appraise her mother anew. The new hairstyle and color covered the gray and the makeover lit her features. She looked as if she’d lost ten years.
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“You look … beautiful.” An adjective Charlotte rarely used to describe her mother, if only because Annie so rarely took pains with her appearance.
But looking at her now, Charlotte recalled the wedding photo on her mother’s dresser. Russell and Annie hadn’t had a lavish wedding, but her mother had still been dressed in a traditional white gown—and with the glow of youth and love, her mother hadn’t just been beautiful. She’d been exquisite. And from the light in her eyes, she’d been deliriously happy too. She could be happy again, Charlotte thought. If she chose to, which made the situation that much more frustrating.
Charlotte blamed her mother for her refusal to get help as much as she blamed her father for his disappearing act. But Annie was the more fragile of the two and Charlotte loved her mother. She touched Annie’s hair. “You’re really beautiful, Mom.”
Annie waved away the compliment, but to Charlotte’s surprise, her mother reached out and touched her cheek in return. “You’re beautiful too, Charlotte. Inside and out.”
It was rare for Annie to come out of her fog long enough to see the world around her. The compliment was so unlike her mother, a lump formed in Charlotte’s throat and she found herself at a temporary loss for words. “I look like you,” she said when she’d recovered.
Annie merely smiled, and fingered the soft ruffles on the dress with obvious longing. Her mother was wavering.
“Come to the dance, Mom.”
“Tell you what. I’ll go to the dance if you’ll drop the discussion about your father.”
Charlotte knew when to grab and run. A night out was progress. Who cared what Annie’s reasons were? “Okay.” She held up her hands in submission. “What do you say we pay for these things and head back to my store? We’ll pick out some undergarments, finish our ladies’ day out, and then I’ll take you home.”
At the word home, her mother’s eyes lit up and Charlotte made a mental note to put a call in to Dr. Fallon. There had to be more driving Annie’s need for home, and maybe Dr. Fallon could talk to her mother.
By the time they walked into the Attic, Charlotte was determined to show her mother another half an hour of fun outside of the house. And from the expression on Beth’s face when Charlotte ordered her to pull out their most skimpy, eclectic undergarments, her assistant was only too happy to oblige.
Charlotte hung a BACK SOON sign on the front door and turned to her mother and friend. “Fashion show, anyone? Come on, Mom. You can pick out anything you want. Release the inner you to go with the new outer you. What do you say?”