“Come on, Patricia.”
We climbed into the pool together.
The water was cold enough to make me gasp.
Emily immediately splashed us.
“Hey!”
“You took too long!”
Within minutes, I was laughing so hard that I’d forgotten who was watching.
That should have been the end of it.
But karma had one more surprise.
After lunch, one of the teenagers approached Vanessa with his phone.
“Can I show you something?”
Vanessa looked nervous.
“What?”
He turned the screen toward her.
It was one of the family photos we’d taken earlier.
Vanessa stared at it.
“What about it?”
“Emily asked me to take another one.”
Emily appeared beside him.
“With Grandma’s swimsuit.”
Vanessa looked at me.
I expected another awkward moment.
Instead, she nodded.
“She’s right.”
She stood and called everyone back toward the pool.
“Family picture.”
People gathered again.
This time, I stood in front without my towel.
Vanessa’s mother stood beside me in bright yellow.
Emily squeezed between us.
The teenagers lined up behind us.
Then Vanessa stepped into the picture.
She looked at me.
“Is this okay?”
It was a small question, but I understood what she meant.
“Yes.”
The photo was taken.
Then another.
In the third one, Emily made bunny ears behind my head.
That became everyone’s favorite.
Later, while people were eating dessert, I noticed Vanessa sitting alone at the patio table.
I sat across from her.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Finally, she said, “I really am sorry.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know why I said it.”
I considered that.
“I think you do.”
She looked at me.
“You thought getting older was something embarrassing.”
Vanessa glanced toward her mother, who was helping Emily finish a slice of watermelon.
“Maybe.”
“You’re going to get there, too, if you’re lucky.”
She smiled faintly.
“I suppose I will.”
“That’s the part people forget.”
I wasn’t interested in lecturing her.
I simply wanted her to understand why her words had mattered.
“When Emily heard you,” I said, “she didn’t just hear what you thought about me.”
Vanessa’s smile disappeared.
“She heard what you think happens to women when they age.”
She looked toward her daughter.
That was the consequence that finally reached her.
It wasn’t being embarrassed in front of relatives.
It wasn’t being corrected by Daniel or even having her own mother expose her hypocrisy.
Emily had heard her.
“I don’t want her thinking that,” Vanessa said quietly.
