Seasons of Sugarcreek 03. Autumn's Promise by Shelley Shepard Gray

with her mom.
    While her mom never said a word about her absence, her father had. His voice had been stern as he’d cautioned her to stop feeling so sorry for herself.
    But even that talking-to hadn’t encouraged her to change her ways. Actually, if anything, it had only increased her desire to avoid her mom. Obviously they didn’t understand how hard it was for her to watch her mother plan for a baby.
    Her mother, on the other hand, had been doing everything but avoid her. She’d tried to talk to Lilly about her life. About her job at the Sugarcreek Inn. Even about how Charlie was doing at Bowling Green. Never once did she talk about how she was feeling. No, she’d continued to put Lilly’s needs first. In addition, her mom had been doing her best to hide everything about the pregnancy so Lilly wouldn’t be hurt.
    But Lilly had hardly bent at all. No, she’d done her best just to stay away and ignore her feelings, to talk about everything but what was most important to her mother.
    Funny how pretending nothing was wrong was continuing to be a family trait. Her parents had been champions at doing that when Lilly had been pregnant. And here, she’d done her best to act the same way during the last few weeks.
    “I bet your stomach will settle down soon,” Lilly ventured. “All the books say it does.”
    “I hope you’re right. The doctor said I need to gain a little bit of weight.” She shook her head wryly. “Imagine that! After all those years on Weight Watchers, now I’m supposed to be gaining weight! It’s hard to wrap my head around.”
    “I bet.” Lilly leaned against the gray marbled counter and watched her mom brush and curl her hair. Her mom had worn the same hairstyle for ages.
    So much was different…but still the same, too. When their eyes met again in the mirror, her mom inquired, “You okay?”
    “Oh, sure. I was, uh, just thinking how nice everything looks in here.”
    Smiling, her mom ran a finger along the wall. “I like it, too. I thought I’d never get all that dust out of the carpet, but now that everything’s back to normal, I think it was worth the mess.”
    Her parents had recently finished sprucing up their master bath. Boring eggshell white walls were now painted a deep grayish-blue. Shiny bright hardware had been switched to a burnished silver. Gray and blue and ivory towels hung from hooks and towel rods.
    And a beautiful watercolor of lilies hung above the bathtub.
    “Did I tell you that Cassidy came out here the other day?”
    Turning, her mother faced her in surprise. “No. What brought her?”
    “Me. She got tired of me not answering her phone calls.”
    “I wish you could have encouraged her to stay for dinner. I always liked Cassidy.”
    “Actually, she stopped by the inn. I was working, and she had to get back, so her coming over wouldn’t have been possible.” Lilly didn’t even know how to admit that she had been less than friendly, anyway.
    “Oh.”
    “I think I might go see her soon,” she blurted, wondering where in the world that had come from. “When we started talking, I realized that I should have called her or emailed her or something. We used to be really good friends.”
    “You know what? I think you’re right. It might do you some good to take a few days and go see all your friends. You deserve some days off.”
    “You wouldn’t mind if I went to go see her? Really?”
    “Of course not, dear. Lilly, I think we both know that the days of me telling you what to do are over,” she said dryly. As she bent down to close two drawers, her mom winced a bit. “I tell you what, I’ve got cramps on top of cramps!”
    Immediately, concern for her mother’s health overrode everything else. “Mom, you should go lay down. I had cramps right before I lost—”
    Before she could say anything more, her mom enfolded her in a hug. “Oh, no, honey. They’re in the muscles in my stomach—and everywhere else. It’s called being forty-four and