“That was nice of her. I’m sorry I missed her.”
“Did you get all your chores done today?”
Donna turned her face so that Laurel couldn’t see her expression. “Yes. How’s Tyler?”
“He’s been sleeping since Beverly left. He’s still making almost miraculous progress, according to everyone here.”
“He’s a strong little boy. Like his daddy,” Donna murmured, laying a hand on Tyler’s sheet-covered leg.
“And his grandfather,” Laurel added lightly, picturing Carl’s solid strength.
Donna raised a hand to her throat. Her fingers trembled visibly as she toyed with the pearl necklace around her neck. Of course Donna wore pearls, Laurel thought wryly. Her hair was always perfect, her makeup was always immaculate, her shoes and purses always matched. It was as if she made a deliberate and concentrated effort to be the perfect “TV mom.” Yet now the facade seemed to be developing a few cracks.
Laurel couldn’t help wondering why it wa
s so important to Donna to play that impossibly perfect part. And she wondered what was going on behind the flawless mask now.
Maybe she should try to find out what was bothering her mother-in-law. After all, she was a trained social worker, skilled at dealing with other people’s problems. But maybe it wasn’t her place to pry into Donna’s concerns. Maybe Donna would resent her for even trying.
She settled for a tentative, “Is anything wrong, Donna? You seem…troubled.”
Donna dropped her hand and straightened her shoulders beneath her tasteful knit top. “Nothing I’m prepared to talk about at the moment.”
Well, that was clear enough. Laurel laced her hands in her lap and subsided into silence.
After a moment, Donna sighed. “I didn’t mean to sound curt. I suppose I’m just stressed.”
Deciding it would be better not to point out that they had all been under stress lately, Laurel merely nodded.
Donna seemed to feel the need to fill the taut silence that lay in the room after their exchange. Sitting on the very edge of the other chair, she cleared her throat a few times, then asked, “Did Beverly tell you she’s thinking about returning to nursing school?”
“Yes, she did. I think it’s a wonderful idea.”
“So do I. Especially since you won’t be needing her anymore now that you’ve quit your job.”
“I haven’t quit my job. I’m simply taking leave until Tyler’s well.” She had said the words so often she repeated them almost robotically.
Donna frowned. “You’re going back?”
“Donna, I’ve said all along I planned to return to work. I don’t know where you got the idea I wasn’t.”
“I…well, I just assumed—I mean, you let Beverly go, and Jackson seemed okay with that.”
“We let Beverly go because we can’t afford to keep paying her while I’m off work for the next couple of months. We didn’t think it was fair to keep her dangling without pay, so we told her she should be making other arrangements.”
“So Jackson really doesn’t mind that you’re going back to work?”
“He hasn’t said much about it, but I can’t imagine why he would mind. This is my decision.”
“I would think it’s more of a joint decision. As your husband, Jackson should have some say in the matter.”
Sometimes the things Donna said nearly made Laurel’s jaw drop. This was one of those times.
She shook her head, then spoke candidly, “I really don’t get you, Donna. You grew up under modern circumstances, but the world you seem to want to live in hasn’t existed in close to fifty years.”
Donna toyed with her pearls again. “I know, probably better than you do, exactly what the modern world is like, Laurel. I’ve seen entirely too much of it. Yet I tried to raise my son in a happy, loving household where he would be sheltered from some of the unpleasantness.
“I married a very traditional man who has supported me, looked after me, loved me more than I perhaps deserved. He loves Jackson with all his heart, and he agreed with me that it was best for Jackson to have a full-time parent in the home. I’ve been a room mother, PTA president, den mother, field trip chaperone. I’ve baked cookies and hosted sleepovers and sewn costumes and scrubbed grass stains from sports uniforms. I’m not sure I’d have found time to do all those things if I’d tried to work a full-time job.”