Free Love Letters from Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball

major construction of any kind. And anything extra, they have to pay for.”
    When the phone started to ring again, Cici glanced at her watch.
    “No phone calls after nine,” she said.
    “Seven,” countered Bridget.
    “Six,” bid Lindsay.
    “Business hours are from nine to five,” decided Cici, and turned off the ringer on the telephone.
    With this, all three women gave a satisfied nod.
    “We just have to set boundaries.”
    “We can do this in our sleep,” Bridget assured them. “After all, look what we’ve already done.” She gestured expansively to include the house, the yard, the outbuildings.
    “Yeah,” agreed Lindsay, cheering. “We can do this in our sleep.”
    “Good thing,” observed Cici as the answering machine counter went up to thirteen, “because I have a feeling that’s going to be the only time we have left.”
    TO: [email protected]
    FROM: [email protected]
    SUBJECT: RE: Photographs from Home
     
     
    Hi Sergio—
     
     
    loved your last e-mail. You paint such beautiful pictures with your words I hardly needed the photographs. I can’t wait until I can see the stars in your sky, either!
    Your mother is gorgeous! I guess that’s how her son got to be so cute. :) I can’t imagine living in a house that was built when Leonardo da Vinci was alive. But I know what you mean about stones crumbling and cellars flooding. The house my mother bought with her friends is only a hundred years old, but it has ‘pieces falling off of it,’ as you put it, too! Here are some pictures took when I was home last month. The tall one with her arm around me is my mom, Cici (I made Aunt Lindsay take it so I could send it to you but I told her it was for my Facebook page. So I had to put it up in case she checked). You can see the grape vines in the background. Our vigneron (is that what you call it in Italian?), Dominic, says we can start harvesting the first grapes this fall if nothing disastrous happens. That means we can toast my graduation with our very first Beaujolais!
    But long before then (fingers crossed and IF I get the internship) I’ll be on my way to Italy. I don’t know how I can hold out for six more weeks!
    My roommate says I spend too much time on e-mail and not enough time studying (she’s SUCH an egghead; don’t you hate that?) and she’s probably right. How was your philosophy exam? I’ll have to cram all night if I’m going to squeak by on Business Admin in the morning.
    I live for your e-mails. I really do.
     
     
    Ciao—
    Lori
     
     
    P.S. Is that really your house? Is that really your mother? Is that really your picture? JUST KIDDING!
     
     
     
    TO: [email protected]
    FROM: [email protected]
    SUBJECT: Menu
     
     
    Bridget,
     
     
    Yes, I think we are on the same page—heavy hors d’oeuvres and finger foods, or what some might call a “grazing” menu.:) (Sheep, farm, grazing, get it?) I’m picturing “stations” set up all over that gorgeous lawn of yours, maybe with little canopies over each table, and filmy curtains tied back with big bows ... very Lawrence of Arabia, can you see it? I think we should have a protein from each group—fowl, beef, fish. You can get free-range turkeys, can’t you? And I really don’t understand the issue with shrimp. After all, Virginia does have the Chesapeake Bay! That’s local, isn’t it?
    But I’m sure whatever you come up with will be fine.
     
     
    XO
    Catherine
    TO: [email protected]
    FROM: [email protected]
    SUBJECT: No Shrimp!
     
     
    Bridget,
     
     
    told you, I am a vegetarian and that means NO shrimp. Besides, they are tacky and COMPLETELY overdone. Why can’t we have lobster?
     
     
    Traci
     
     
     
    TO: [email protected]
    FROM: [email protected]
    SUBJECT: RE: Menu #3
     
     
    Bridget,
     
     
    Another thought—Mediterranean is terribly in right now. Maybe we could do something Mediterranean with a farmhouse flair?
    Shrimp are very Mediterranean.