She held the phone to one ear as she squinted at the crown molding along the ten-foot ceiling and absently played with the silk fringe of a pillow, I havent talked to her, she repeated to her father, who was, and had been for the last month, trying to get hold of Mom. Are you telling me your mother hasnt called you in a whole goddamn month? Dad demanded in his typically subtle, kid-glove fashion. No, Im saying F havent talked to her since the last time you called me and interrogated me about it. Mom is in LA. Exactly where shed been for the last few months since Dads cancer had gone into remission and hed gotten impossible to deal with again. For all his jaw-boning about how his three daughters needed to learn to stand on their own two feet and appreciate the important things in life, he could certainly use a lesson or two in that very thing. Goddammit, I know shes in L.A.! he barked in her ear. I want to know if youve talked to her! No! Robin shouted back, drawing a look from her significant other, Jake Manning, who was at his drafting table, busy with their latest renovation project and trying very hard to tune Robin out.
