Vonnie put her hands on her hips and waltzed right up. “Hey, you! You got a baby in there?” She pointed to Clare’s belly.
“What are you doing in my house?” She looked at the little girl.
“Not your house.” Vonnie said.
“Yes it is.”
The little girl whipped her long blonde hair off her shoulders. “I don’t argue with people who don’t know what they talkin’ about.” She headed past her.
“Excuse me, where are you going?” Clare demanded.
“Potty.”
“Go back wherever you came from and use your own.”
“Nope.” Vonnie continued her course. “Usin’ this one.”
“You!” Clare pushed herself off the couch. “Come back here.”
“There you are.” Tippy appeared.
Clare whipped her head around to face her. “Doesn’t anyone have any respect for privacy around here?”
“Clare, I’ve been looking for you.” Tippy ignored the insult.
“Key, please.” Clare held out her hand. When Tippy didn’t respond, she demanded. “Now!”
“What key?”
“Your key to this house.”
“Honey, I don’t have a key.”
“I know I left no doors unlocked.” She crossed her arms and tapped her foot.
“I have a code. I just punch it in and voila.” Tippy crossed her arms and smiled. “Do you have a code?”
Clare’s face fell. “That will change. I’ll be making a lot of changes around here.”
“No you won’t.” Tippy smiled. “Have a seat Clare, before we start dinner you and I are gonna have a chat.”
“I don’t think so, and I’m sure the staff will take care of dinner.”
“What staff?”
Clare waved her hand in the air. “I’m going to be doing interviews later today. I’m waiting on the decorators to show up. They’re late. I’ve half a mind to fire them, but they’re the best…rude, but the best.”
“Clare, have a seat so we can talk.”
“Go home.” Clare turned to leave the room.
Tippy smiled as she barked. “Move a muscle and I’ll break your skinny little legs.”
“How dare you!” Clare whirled around and spit pretty good for a woman in her third trimester.
“I just talked with Ian. He wanted to know if I knew anything about decorators, and clothing stores and temp agencies that were calling him verifying the orders being placed in his name.” Tippy batted her eyes. “Try calling anyone in town, Clare. You’ve been blackballed as a crank.”
“Ian wouldn’t dare…”
“Sit down and shut up.” Tippy pointed to the couch. Tippy sat on the couch and patted the spot next to her.
Clare shot her a dirty look and took a seat as far to the end as she could, just as Ronnie entered the living room.
“Excuse me for interrupting. Hi, Granny!” Ronnie kissed Tippy.
“That woman is not your grandmother.” Clare sniped.
Ronnie smiled. “Yes she is.” Before she could say another word. “Papa just called, he wants me to ask if you need anything specific from the grocery store. It’s Monday, he has therapy so you’ve got a little time to make a list of what you might need.”
“I’ll be doing the shopping from now on.” Clare smiled and held out her hand. “Just give me your credit card.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am.” Ronnie said sweetly but firmly. “This is one of the chores I get allowance for. The charges to my card are gone over with a fine tooth comb by Papa and Ripley. Unless Papa tells me personally otherwise, nothing has changed.” He handed her a small notebook and a pen. “You have fifteen minutes or do without.”
“Now see here, young man…” Clare’s nostrils flared.
“Fifteen minutes.” He walked off, paying no attention to her.
“I will not be…”
“Clare…” Tippy smiled. “Shut up.”
“Look, Tippy, Ian may have let you people run him over, but I’m in charge now and I will not…”
“Let’s get something straight. You are not in charge here, as Ronnie pointed out very sweetly, nothing has changed and until we all hear otherwise personally from Ian every thing, and I mean every thing stays as it was.”
“We’ll just see about that.”
“Clare, honey you don’t seem to realize that the world you’re in doesn’t revolve around you. You’ve stepped into a family. Now you’ve made some demands, and granted you’ve got some…well let’s just say there are a lot of things to be considered, but bottom line, you got no pull around here. Either you stop fighting and start trying to find your place in the family or you’re gonna find your butt, pregnant or not, right back out the door.”
“I am pregnant with Ian’s baby.”
“Yes, so it seems.” Tippy smiled. “And we are all trying very hard to be happy about that. Now let’s all just calm down, relax and try to get along. Let’s just start from scratch shall we?”
“I have no intention of…”
“Let’s just start from scratch or I punch your lights out? How ‘bout that?”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
Tippy batted her eyes and leaned closer. “Try me.”
Clare looked at Tippy. “You would wouldn’t you?”
“In a heartbeat.” Tippy picked up the notebook. “I’d start makin’ m’grocery list. Since we’re starting from scratch I’ll warn you now, you don’t want to mess with Ronnie. He doesn’t warn you in advance.”
As Clare began to write a few things in the notebook, Tippy leaned back. “Now I talked with Ian, too. Tomorrow the girls and I are going to take you shopping. It’s a regular Tuesday thing with us, and Ian, as a favor, has asked that we invite you. I thought we might look for things for the baby. That’ll be a first for us.”
“For the baby?” Clare looked up and smiled.
“Yes. We’re going to need a nursery aren’t we? Of course, we spend a lot of the day pampering ourselves. We’re the women of the family. We deserve to pamper ourselves at least once a week. Oooh! I’ll have to call Ormond. He gives the best pedicures. I just loved pedicures when I was pregnant.”
“I’ve never had one.”
“Darlin’ are you in for a treat.” Tippy grinned. “Let me call right now and get him to work one more into the schedule.”
As Tippy hit the speed dial, Vonnie came stomping back into the living room. She scampered to Tippy and gave her a kiss, then scooted around the couch giving a wide birth and deadly stare to Clare, who ignored her, happily making her grocery list.
Just before she scampered out, Vonnie leaned over and whispered into Clare’s ear. “I don’t like you.”
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