Free A Family Affair: Summer: Truth in Lies, Book 3 by Mary Campisi

dropped the suitcase and hugged her mother. She’d always craved the rare moments when Olivia Carrick showed her nurturing side and this was one of them. All too soon, Olivia pulled away and said in her usual no-nonsense voice, “Well, let’s not make a spectacle of ourselves on the front stoop unless you want your picture in tomorrow’s paper.”
    And that was that. It had taken years for Tess to understand her mother’s reluctance or inability to show affection—the touchy-feely kind. Fear was the cause. The woman could fight city council and tell The Bleeding Hearts Society when they were butting in where they had no business, but she was petrified to show her emotions. Tess finally understood that fear, had learned the reality of it since leaving. Guarding emotions was safe. It didn’t hurt and closed down the pain. Sadly, it also reduced the joy.
    “Mom, you’ve lost weight.” The extra middle padding Olivia had carried since JJ’s birth was noticeably gone. Was it a sign of the illness, maybe cancer, eating through her body?
    “A lot can happen in four months,” her mother said, sliding just the tiniest hint of accusation into her words. “And it’s amazing what happens when you cut out the midnight candy bars.”
    She said it with the nonchalance that might make Tess believe her, had she not heard differently from Ramona Casherdon. “You don’t need to lose weight. I thought you were fine.” Tell me about it. Please .
    Olivia responded in typic al fashion. “What woman is ever happy with her weight? Even you, toothpick that you are, could probably point out an ounce or two you’d like to shave.”
    “True.” She’d try another angle. “So, just cutting out a candy bar at night did that?” Tess gestured to her mother’s flattened middle.
    Her mother smiled. “ A king -sized candy bar. It was the heartburn that stopped me, though, not the weight. When you can’t sleep because of it, you start looking at what you’re putting in your mouth and when. Candy bars at midnight with my favorite book sounds wonderful, but it was an idiotic combination, and oh, the discomfort.”  She shrugged. “Of course, it took Doc Gentry to lay it all out for me so I could see the logic of it. Sometimes it takes another pair of eyes to state what’s staring right at us. Don’t you think so?”
    “Sure. Yes.” What was she talking about? They made their way to the living room, which looked exactly as it always had with the exception of the piano that her mother had moved from the sitting room and placed alongside the wall where Thomas Carrick’s Barcalounger used to be. Memories bombarded Tess: her father’s extra-long body stretched out on the chair, roast chicken and dumplings on Sunday afternoon, and Olivia Carrick’s signature apple crumble. JJ’s chin hairs sprouting like a chia pet. His skinny arms, his heavy metal T-shirts. His laughter. Cash standing in the doorway, talking to her father, watching every step she took and then later telling her what he—
    “I’ve always loved this piano.” Olivia’s voice dipped, cut off Tess’s wandering thoughts, and not a second too soon.
    “Do you still play?” She fingered the keys. Riki had been the only one to inherit her mother’s talent for the piano. Maybe Tess should take up the piano again. A gift to her mother.
    “Every night.”
    “Maybe I’ll give it another try. What do you think?”
    “What I think is you’re trying to please me and have no interest in the piano.” She raised a brow and said, “That’s the problem with a lot of us. We’re so busy trying to please those we care about, that we lose track of what’s important to us .” She sounded like she might be talking about herself, but how could that be when she’d loved teaching? “And if you love selling lipstick around the world—” she swept a hand in the air “—then sell away.”
    I won’t be selling lipstick anymore, at least not for six months . She was not