“You’d both be welcome,” Serenity said, sounding completely sincere. “You could even stay for the whole summer.”
Lorelei seemed hesitant, but when Serenity continued to encourage her, she finally smiled more brightly. “Another week or two probably wouldn’t hurt.”
Reagan couldn’t believe her ears. “Really?”
Lorelei bent to kiss the top of her daughter’s head. “Why not? I think having a little more time to myself would be a good thing, given...given my situation. Don’t you?”
“I do,” Serenity said. “As long as my parents aren’t planning to come up—and they’d tell me if they were—there’s no reason we can’t stay as long as we want. So...” She turned to Reagan. “Does that mean you’ll stay longer, too?”
Reagan’s mind raced. They could reschedule their flights. There might be some cost involved, but it shouldn’t be too much. What about her job situation, though? “Even if I quit at Edison & Curry, like I plan to, I’ll have to apply somewhere else.”
“Right away?” Serenity pressed.
“Not right away, I guess.” Reagan had always been conservative with her finances. Although it worried her to use her reserves, she figured she could survive without an income for several months, if necessary.
“When will you ever get another chance to stay in Tahoe?” Lorelei asked.
Reagan twisted around to look at her and Lucy. “That’s true. I could stay for a little longer, but I’d feel lazy or self-indulgent if I stayed the whole summer.”
Lorelei left Lucy playing her game on the couch and returned to the table. “Maybe you owe it to yourself to take a good long break. Maybe that would be just the thing. Think of what it would be like to spend three whole months here—what we could make of it.”
“And that is...” Reagan prompted.
“A perfect summer,” she answered.
A slight smile curved Serenity’s lips. “Wow. You could knock me over with a feather.”
“I can’t believe it myself,” Lorelei said with a self-conscious laugh. “But staying doesn’t have to be an ironclad commitment. If we aren’t getting along or enjoying ourselves, or your parents or other siblings want to use the cabin, we could leave earlier rather than later.”
“That’s true,” Finn said, obviously hoping to persuade them.
Serenity scooped some more guacamole onto her plate. “Then we’ll leave that open as a possibility and see how things go.”
* * *
reagan
“That was really enjoyable.” Reagan was the only one who wasn’t slightly tipsy as they walked back to Serenity’s cabin. After they’d eaten dinner, they’d stayed late and Serenity, Lorelei and Finn had finished off a third bottle of wine. Reagan wished she could’ve had a glass with them, but she didn’t regret one minute of the time they’d spent laughing and talking. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so relaxed or having more fun. For once, she hadn’t been trying to pull away early to get some work done, hadn’t been more concerned with emptying her inbox or the fact that she had to manage some sleep so she could beat everyone into the office in the morning.
It was a nice change to be relieved of the constant pressure. She’d always had something to do, ever since she was a child. First it was her school assignments and swim meets and debate team. Then it was tackling the working world and fighting her way up the corporate ladder.
Tonight reminded her that maybe there might be other things out there, things that would prove far more meaningful to her in the end.
She wondered why her driven and creative mother had never been concerned about balance. Maybe it was because she was so bad at it. She had only one gear and that was to push as hard as she could—always. And she expected her daughter to do the same. Rosalind had only been proud of Reagan when Reagan out-competed everyone else—set the record at her high school for the hundred-meter butterfly, raised the curve in English class or obtained an academic scholarship for college.
Reagan felt they’d both been missing out on the kinds of relationships that enriched everything else—even when it came to each other. Their conversations were so superficial. When was the last time they’d really talked? Really connected?
Maybe they never had. Her mother wasn’t an easy person to connect with. She was too stoic, driven and goal-oriented. And Reagan had turned out just like her. There’d been periods when Reagan had tried to remind herself to slow down, so she wouldn’t miss out on the best years of her life. But before she knew it she was once again canceling lunch with her friends, skipping their calls and even forgetting to eat dinner in pursuit of being the best in her chosen field.
Inevitably, she’d allowed her life to be narrowed down to one primary focus. Edison & Curry.
And Drew.
If nothing else, she hoped what’d happened would serve as a wake-up call that she had to do more than work twenty-four/seven. Maybe now that she had the support of two sisters, they’d remind her, act as a counterbalance.
But if she was going to have a baby, that would force the issue...
“Spending more time in Tahoe might help me gain a better perspective,” she said as Serenity let them in.
“So you’re really considering staying?” Serenity asked. “I wasn’t sure.”
What would it be like, Reagan wondered, to spend more than a week with Lorelei and Serenity? So far, everything hadn’t been completely smooth between them, but there were characteristics about each that made her like them, admire them or at least sympathize.
And if she was pregnant she’d have some tough decisions to make. She could see herself working that out better here than when she was back in New York, starting a new job and facing the prospect of telling her bosses that she’d soon need maternity leave.
“I am,” she said. “Preparing my resume and going through the application process feels like too steep a mountain to climb at the moment, anyway. Maybe I should step back and examine whether I want to continue in the direction I’m currently headed before I do anything else.”
“That’s how I feel,” Lorelei said. “I need to decide what I really want out of life. We’re all at a crossroads in one way or another. We missed out on growing up together, but maybe we were meant to find each other at this particular stage of our lives. Maybe everything will change from here on. Maybe we will all reinvent ourselves.”
That was an appealing thought. Reagan liked it. She was surprised it was Lorelei who was talking that way, though. She’d gotten the impression that Lorelei had also allowed her life to be distilled into only one focus—Mark. And her daughter, of course, who’d fallen asleep on Finn’s couch much earlier and was currently in her mother’s arms.