Unfinished Business

the scattered pots and canned goods. “It looks like she kept you busy.”
    “She was fine,” Vanessa managed. “She ate about half a box of crackers.”
    “I thought she’d gained a couple pounds. Hi, Brady. Good timing.” His one-word comment had her rolling her eyes. “I meant I’m glad you’re here. Look who I ran into outside.” She turned just as Ham and Loretta walked in, arm in arm. “Don’t they look great?” Joanie wanted to know. “So tanned. I know tans aren’t supposed to be healthy, but they look so good.”
    “Welcome back.” Vanessa smiled, but stayed where she was. “Did you have a good time?”
    “It was wonderful.” Loretta set a huge straw bag down on the table. There was warm color on her cheeks, on her bare arms. And, Vanessa noted, that same quiet happiness in her eyes. “It has to be the most beautiful place on earth, all that white sand and clear water. We even went snorkeling.”
    “Never seen so many fish,” Ham said as he dropped yet another straw bag on the table.
    “Ha!” Loretta gave him a telling look. “He was looking at all those pretty legs under water. Some of those women down there wear next to nothing.” Then she grinned. “The men, too. I stopped looking the other way after the first day or two.”
    “Hour or two,” Ham corrected.
    She only laughed and dug into her bag. “Look here, Lara. We brought you a puppet.” She dangled the colorful dancer from its strings.
    “Among a few dozen other things,” Ham put in. “Wait until you see the pictures. I even rented one of those underwater cameras and got shots of the, ah, fish.”
    “It’s going to take us weeks to unpack it all. I can’t even think about it.” With a sigh, Loretta sat down at the table. “Oh, and the silver jewelry. I suppose I went a little wild with it.”
    “Very wild,” Ham added with a wink.
    “I want you both to pick out the pieces you like best,” she said to Vanessa and Joanie. “Once we find them. Brady, is that lemonade?”
    “Right the first time.” He poured her a glass. “Welcome home.”
    “Wait until you see your sombrero.”
    “My sombrero?”
    “It’s red and silver—about ten feet across.” She grinned over at Ham. “I couldn’t talk him out of it. Oh, it’s good to be home.” She glanced at the counter. “What’s all this?”
    “I was…” Vanessa sent a helpless look at the mess she’d made. “I was going to try to fix some dinner. I…I thought you might not want to fuss with cooking your first night back.”
    “Good old American food.” Ham took the puppet to dangle it for the giggling Lara. “Nothing would hit the spot better right now.”
    “I haven’t exactly—”
    Catching her drift, Joanie moved over to the counter. “Looks like you were just getting started. Why don’t I give you a hand?”
    Vanessa stepped back, bumped into Brady, then moved away again. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
    She hurried out and took the stairs at a dash. In her room, she sat on the bed and wondered if she was losing her mind. Surely it was a close thing when a tuna casserole nearly brought her to tears.
    “Van.” Loretta stood with her hand on the knob. “May I come in a minute?”
    “I was coming back down. I just—” She started to rise, then sat again. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to spoil your homecoming.”

    “You haven’t. You couldn’t.” After a moment, she took a chance. Closing the door, she walked over to sit on the bed beside her daughter. “I could tell you were upset when we came in. I thought it was just because…well, because of me.”
    “No. No, not entirely.”
    “Would you like to talk about it?”
    She hesitated so long that Loretta was afraid she wouldn’t speak at all.
    “It’s Brady. No, it’s me,” Vanessa corrected, impatient with herself. “He wants me to marry him, and I can’t. There are so many reasons, and he can’t understand. Won’t understand. I can’t cook a meal or do laundry or any of the things that Joanie just breezes right through.”
    “Joanie’s a wonderful woman,” Loretta said carefully. “But she’s different from you.”
    “I’m the one who’s different, from Joanie, from you, from everyone.”
    Lightly, afraid to go too far, Loretta touched her hair. “It’s not a crime or an abnormality not to know how to cook.”
    “I know.” But that only made her feel more foolish. “It’s simply that I wanted to feel self-sufficient and ended up feeling