Page 27 of Toni and Addie Go Viral
Toni
Toni was still feeling self-conscious when she got off the plane at Dulles. The signings went great. The show would be fabulous—especially with Addie in the lead. She should be happy.
“Are you sure you don’t mind a houseguest?” Emily asked. “I can grab a hotel.”
“I have an empty guest room because of you, Em.” Toni glared at her. “If not for whatever magic you pulled on the publisher, I’d still be thinking I ought to rent it out, so it’s pretty much yours any time you want to visit.”
“Does that mean you’ll do me a favor?” Emily cajoled.
Toni strode toward the baggage carousel. It seemed silly to check a tiny bag, but Emily had been on the road longer and had checked a bag, so Toni checked hers, too. “Will I hate it?”
“Probably,” Emily chirped in her usual cheery way.
“Fine.” She waited as they walked the rest of the way to the baggage. She waited as Emily hummed at her side. Finally Toni grumbled, “Are you going to tell me what fresh hell you have planned?”
“I want to go with you to see Lil,” Emily said, as if there was any joy in going to see Toni’s mercurial mother.
Toni gawped at her for a long moment, until Emily pointed and said, “That’s my bag. Would you grab it?”
Mutely, Toni moved through the crowd. Why in the name of everything remotely reasonable did people crowd up to the carousel like they were starving ducks hoping for a handout?
She grabbed the glossy red bag, which weighed just this side of too much.
Of course, Toni’s perfectly bland black carry-on sized bag was nowhere in sight, so she rolled Emily’s to her.
“Why?”
Emily shrugged. “I want to check on her. She’s the reason you even shared your career-changing book with me. If not for her, I’d still be looking for that book that would put me on the map… because someone hadn’t even told me she wrote a book.”
Toni walked away to grab her bag.
When she came back to join Emily, who had dropped her own purse-like bag on top of the cherry red suitcase, Toni said, “I’ll need a drink after. I know I don’t usually drink more than one day in a week, but…”
“You are not an alcoholic if you have a drink twice in a week,” Emily said for what was easily the hundredth time in their friendship. She’d been there when Toni wrote out her list of rules way back in their teen years, so she was well aware of the motivations behind each and every one of them.
They were silent as they walked to the parking lot, where Toni had stashed her car for the weekend. She could have had car service, but sometimes Toni just wanted the solace of her own car, her own company, after a weekend of peopling.
“How far away did you park?” Emily grumbled, toting her bright red bag like it weighed more than it did.
“Seriously?” Toni took Emily’s bag and glanced at Emily’s feet. “If you had the sense to travel in reasonable shoes…”
“Tennis shoes and black skirts?” Emily made a pained expression. “Pass.”
“You could wear trousers. Jeans. Hell, you could wear leggings or joggers,” Toni continued, as if she wasn’t aware that Emily had a look that was akin to how she had looked the one time she’d stepped in something gross at the park.
“You are a monster,” Emily said with an exaggerated shudder. “These legs take too much work to look this good. I’m not going to cover them with joggers. ”
They looked at each other and laughed. Here with no witnesses, no work, no anything, they easily fell back into the silliness that got them through their teen years.
The fact that Emily was in New York—a short train ride away—was part of why Toni had taken the job in the Washington, DC area instead of another more prestigious position.
Emily was and would always be Toni’s family of the heart, and the Acela trip between Manhattan and the District was short enough that Vienna College won.
By the time they reached Toni’s car, Emily was a little wide-eyed. “Well, that’s not the car I was expecting.”
“It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?” Toni shoved their bags in the back of her brand-new bright red Jeep Wrangler. “I have payments. I was going to buy it outright, but… I financed it. I just couldn’t write a check that big.”
Emily put a hand on Toni’s shoulder. “Sweetie, it’s your money. You don’t owe anyone an explanation.”
“I just said I was going to save it all, but my old Ford had so many miles, and after it broke down last year, I started thinking about it. Then it had transmission issues a few months ago and… it cost less up-front to buy this than fix that and the suspension, and—”
“It’s very you.” Emily opened the passenger door. “Plus, it matches my luggage!”
Toni went around to her side. She ran a hand along the door quickly before opening it and climbing inside. “Fully manual.”
“Says the woman with control issues,” Emily replied, sotto voce.
“Not with Addie,” Toni confessed in the same quiet voice. She finally admitted the truth she’d been struggling with all day. “I could fall for her, Em.”
“Would that be so awful?” Emily asked.
But Toni put the Jeep in gear and headed out of the lot, pointedly not answering. There were two answers—yes, because Addie deserved someone who wanted a relationship, and yes, because just because it felt amazing to let down her walls for a night didn’t mean it would always be that way.
“Ask me after we visit Lil,” Toni finally said.
The memory care home was outside the city in Reston, but much like in New York, “outside the city” didn’t actually mean light traffic.
Toni navigated onto the 28, and then onto I-66 westbound.
It was on the late side for visiting, what with the time change from LA to DC, but that only meant that Lil would be in her room.
“She still stays up late, as if he’ll be home.” Toni stared out the window at traffic rather than glance at Emily. She shifted through each gear like the joy of driving the Jeep could help her escape her own panic and anger. “Even after everything, she loves the bastard.”
“Not all relationships are like theirs,” Emily said for what was likely the five hundredth time. “My parents are still stupidly in love.”
Toni slid into a parking spot a few minutes later.
The home was close enough to the airport that this was far from the first time she’d made this pit stop.
“I warn you: she may not know us. She may think I’m Aunt Patty.
She may think we’re friends of his come to warn her about him… or get money out of her for his debts.”
“I am familiar with her health,” Emily said gently.
A part of Toni hated anyone seeing her mom like this.
She and Lilian had a contentious relationship at the best of times, but that didn’t stop Toni from feeling protective.
This is Em, though. They walked to the front desk and checked in at the visitor log.
The woman at the desk, Doris, recognized Toni.
“Did you bring your girlfriend then?” she asked in a friendly voice.
“I’m afraid not. Childhood friend of the family,” Toni said. “She wants to visit Lil.”
“Lilian is in a mood tonight,” the receptionist said. “Threatened one of the nurses for coming around after her husband.”
“Perhaps we should switch that one out? Young and pretty was always his type.” Toni forced a smile. “Lord only knows why my mother forgave the man so often.”
“Well, won’t that be an awkward thing to phrase? ‘Only old bats on shift with Lil,’” she said with a chortle. “Thank goodness I’m not the one to tell them! I’ll mention it to the head gal, and she’ll have to find a more delicate phrasing than I would.”
She waved them through the locked doors that kept the memory care patients from roaming.
The hard reality was that the residents couldn’t be trusted not to wander off into danger.
That was one of the main reasons that memory care patients couldn’t live in the regular senior-living center—and why Lilian couldn’t live with Toni.
Half the time, Lil didn’t know what year it was, so trusting that she wouldn’t leave and end up in danger was impossible.
They checked in again with a nurse at a desk on the other side of the door.
If not for all the precautions, it might look like a cheerful dormitory.
Toni tried to see it as Em would, as she had the first time she toured it.
There was a dining hall, living room, a library, a game room, another sitting room, and then there were tiny dorm-style bedrooms.
“It’s very nice,” Emily said softly at her side.
“I wanted her to be happy… well, as happy as she can be,” Toni explained, feeling self-conscious over all of it. She shouldn’t, not with Em, but she was feeling emotional today.
Of all the facilities Toni toured, this felt the most cheerful—and the least like a prison.
“Lil’s in the dining room,” the nurse said. “She refuses to eat until her husband calls.”
“I’ll handle it.” Toni took a steadying breath and walked into the room. Her mother sat at a table alone. Tonight was not the best of nights, but at least Lil was semiaware.
“Patty!” She stood to greet Toni, pulling Toni into a hug. Lil’s cheeks were tear-damp as she said, “His hussy showed up here. I’m sorry I called you again, but I can’t let Antonia see me like this. You know how sensitive that girl is.”
Toni winced as her mother pulled back, noticed Emily, and instantly started to fuss with her hair. “Oh, look at me. I’m all in a state, and you bring your girlfriend around. What must you think of me?”
“I think you look lovely, Mrs. Darbyshire, absolutely lovely.” Emily accepted the hand Lil extended and shook it. “Patty says so many great things about you.”
Toni pulled a chair out for Emily. “Em.”
Lil frowned. “Antonia has a little friend with that same name. Cute little thing. Moved in a few blocks away.”
“Is that so?” Emily slid into the seat. “Is Antonia your daughter?”