We Can Laugh Together Too (Walnut Grove Trilogy)

by Cindy Baker

  The party extended until after dark and when eventually it began breaking up, Livi eyed Matt speculatively. “Are you okay to drive?” she asked.

  He replied with a crooked grin. “I could say no, but actually I’m fine. It’s hours since we drank the champagne and all I’ve had since is a few Mountain Dews. No alcohol for ages.”

  With Chrissy close by, he gave both of them a chaste kiss on the cheek, then after making Livi promise to call him immediately after she spoke with her attorney the next day, he climbed into his SUV and departed following Doc Blair.

  ♠ ♠ ♠

  Thursday dawned overcast, which was particularly unusual for the time of year, and Livi hoped it wasn’t an omen for how things would go with her attorney. It was still much too early to call him so she passed the time walking the dogs, then reading the information Chrissy had received from the university. It was encouraging in its detail, and she found it wearing down most of her reservations. She realized that the way things were shaping up, she was going to be totally alone on the farm during the second half of July.

  Ultimately, with a cup of coffee before her, she picked up the phone and dialed her attorney; his rather prim receptionist answered and put her though. Initially she met with resistance; first he determined she was wrong, then he clearly resented her looking elsewhere for advice which ostensibly contradicted what he’d told her. But Livi was resolute, and in the end he was left with no option other than to speak to Ben Veiga’s insurance agent himself. She made him promise to call her back immediately he had done so.

  More than an hour passed before the phone rang, and Livi guessed he’d spent much of that time reviewing what to say in order to redeem his usual polished confidence, as clearly, she had shown it little regard. After a good deal of blustering, he admitted that he’d possibly been remiss in not seeking specialist advice before instructing her, and confessed that in addition to the insurance agent, he’d also consulted with a law professor with whom he was acquainted.

  Livi realized that, having made her point, it probably wasn’t in her best interests to antagonize the man further, so she hastily mollified him, telling him she understood completely and hoped he could now resolve the claim once and for all with a clear-cut rebuttal to Edward’s San Francisco attorney.

  She put the phone down smiling, and imagined how he would artfully draft a letter, casting himself as the font of this new-found knowledge. Good luck to him, the black cloud over her had lifted; her attorney’s ego didn’t concern her.

  Next she phoned Matt on his cell phone, but he was with a client so their conversation had to be brief. She assured him she’d convinced her attorney of her lack of culpability and agreed to see him immediately work finished.

  Livi’s final task was to inform Chrissy of her decision concerning her participation in the veterinary college’s outreach program. After the excitement of the previous evening, she was apparently sleeping in, but Livi knew that under the circumstances, she would welcome being woken.

  Chrissy threw her arms around her mother in delight. “Thank you Mom! I haven’t stopped thinking about this since Matt first told me. Don’t worry, I promise you won’t regret letting me go. And just imagine, I could go back there in a few years as a veterinary student.”

  Livi laughed. “That would be wonderful, but remember, it’s going to be your first two weeks away from home. Are you sure you can handle it?”

  “Positive!” A frown suddenly crossed her daughter’s face. “But with me gone you’ll be here all on your own, Matt will be gone too. Will you be okay?”

  “Of course I will. After all we’ve been through this year, it’ll be a piece of cake.”

  Chrissy swung her legs out of bed and snuggled close to Livi. “What gives with Matt Mom? He seems to mean a lot to you.”

  Livi caught her breath and stared down at her hands for a moment, gathering her thoughts. “Yes he does,” she said finally. “Oh, Chrissy, I didn’t plan for this to happen, believe me. Not a single day goes by without me thinking about your Dad, I still miss him badly. But Matt’s a good person too; he’ thoughtful and kind and generous. And he says he loves me.”

  Chrissy thought about this. “Do you love him?” she asked eventually.

  “Yes I do.” Livi decided there was no point in beating about the bush and neither was there anything to be gained from deceiving her daughter. “I have to confess I do love him. Over the past couple of months we’ve grown very close.”

  “I thought so. Katia’s noticed it too.” Chrissy twisted the hem of her tee-shirt in her hands. “Mom, don’t take this the wrong way – I see Matt as a friend, you won’t ever expect me to treat him as a replacement for Dad will you?”

  Livi put her arms around her and held her close. “Sweetheart, no-one will ever replace your Dad, not for you and not for me. I was talking to Matt about how your Dad and I always seemed to be laughing and he said, we’ll laugh too, but we’ll have different laughs for different reasons. He was right. If it’s any comfort to you, I was in denial for a long time, refusing to accept my feelings for him, but fate’s brought us together and he makes me extremely happy. I know I make him happy too, so please, can you accept that?”

  Chrissy’s face was solemn and when she spoke is was little more than a whisper. “Of course I can Mom. I didn’t expect you to never ever have a boyfriend again --” Livi smiled at her teenage terminology and made a mental note to inform Matt of his new title, “but now it’s happened, I need to get used to it. Actually, I’ve wanted to talk to you about it for a long time, especially after you went away for the weekend together, but until today, I never knew how to begin.”

  Livi hugged her again. “Don’t ever be frightened to talk to me. Just sit down and begin at the beginning, it’s always for the best.”

  ♠ ♠ ♠

  When Matt arrived after work, Chrissy had tactfully vanished with Katia. Livi took him into the kitchen, sat him down with a cold drink, and broke the news to him about her conversation with her daughter. As she spoke, a broad smile spread across his face.

  “Livi, that’s terrific. What a great kid she is. I know we still need to be discreet, but now at least I can give you a kiss and hold your hand in front of her.”

  “Well, I suppose that’s what my – in her words – ‘boyfriend’ would do,” she replied, smothering a laugh. “That’s what you are Matt, my boyfriend.”

  He chuckled and reached across the table to her. “I guess that makes you my ‘girlfriend’. Better start as we mean to continue then . . .”

  ♠ ♠ ♠

  He took her to a quiet restaurant just a few miles down the road where they both ordered a light meal. Livi listened attentively as Matt told her about his day, but he was clearly anxious to move on to her conversation with her attorney and its implications.

  “So what was your impression?” he asked. “Is he going to hang Edward out to dry?”

  Livi laughed. “I sincerely hope so – I must admit he took some convincing, half the battle was getting him to climb down off his high horse, but once he’d called Ben’s insurance agent and some law professor, he did acknowledge the error of his ways.”

  “Well, let’s hope you’ve heard the last of it; I have some news too. Last week I sent a letter to Michael Majors, the senior partner of the veterinary practice I still hold a not insubstantial financial stake in. It’s written into the partnership contract that I can’t sell my share of the business to a third party before first offering it to the other partners, and for nearly two years he’s been shining me on, telling me they were working on finding another veterinarian they thought they could work with, and who was willing to buy me out.

  “To cut a long story short, last week I decided to bring things to a head. I gave him an ultimatum, either they come up with a live buyer, or I take care of disposing of my share myself; I think they’ve had long enough, and I need that money to reinvest in a new partnership when I eventually find one. He phoned me today – just afte
r I spoke to you actually – and reading between the lines I don’t think they’d done much looking at all. All the partners are actually employees of the practice, that way they profit from various tax advantaged benefit plans, so without me there working, I’m not drawing a salary, yet my investment remains untouched.

  “I told him about a company I know in Fairfield Connecticut that will buy my share in a heartbeat and run it as a cold business investment – they call it collaboration, or . . .” he sketched quotation marks in the air with his fingers “. . . a management culture that produces deliverable business results.”

  He smiled at last. “I think the threat hit home.”

  Livi stared at him, lost for words. “And all the time I’ve been crying on your shoulder over my problems, you never mentioned a word to me about your own,” she stated meaningfully, clearly hurt and confused. “Matt, I can’t believe you’ve never brought this up before.”

  He grasped her hands. “Livi, no, you’re misunderstanding. I didn’t shut you out. I shared the problem about my temporary contract here, how I’m dreading it ending; we’ve both supported each other. I genuinely didn’t want to burden you with yet more of my difficulties until you’d resolved your own. Now you have, I’ve told you.”

  She wasn’t mollified. “No, you shouldn’t have kept it to yourself; it’s not as if we’ve never discussed you looking for a new partnership. What would have happened if you’d been offered one? Told them you’ll come up with the cash sometime in the future?”

  “Of course not. I would have no option but to take the steps I threatened Mike with today, and put them into action a lot faster. Sweetheart, I wasn’t hiding it from you, I just didn’t see how I needed to burden you with yet another problem, especially since it’s already been unresolved for nearly two years.”

  But Matt’s disclosure had broken Livi’s mood and it couldn’t easily be restored. He paid the bill and drove her back to the farm with very little else being said. At the top of the drive he switched off the engine and turned towards her. “Livi, sweetheart, please don’t let’s quarrel over this. I never meant to mislead you, it’s the last thing I’d ever knowingly do. You mean the world to me.” He reached across and stroked her shoulder.

  Livi nodded. “I know and I’m sorry if I over-reacted, but I guess I didn’t see it coming. I’ve poured out my heart to you and I assumed you’d been just as open with me. It was so unexpected, that’s all.”

  She glimpsed his smile in the darkness. “I promise it won’t happen again; my intentions were honorable, I swear.” His hand moved from her shoulder to her back and he gently pulled her towards him. She didn’t resist. “We’re still learning about each other,” he whispered into her hair, “I can’t think of anything else important you don’t know about me . . . although I don’t believe I’ve mentioned I suffer from equinophobia.”

  Despite her best efforts Livi couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “Idiot,” she said. “Okay, maybe we both were silly, let’s just forget it shall we.” She opened the door. “Come and check the horses with me.”

  Matt exited the vehicle. “Will it include a visit to the tack room?” he asked enigmatically with the twitch of an eyebrow.

  Livi glanced up at her daughter’s bedroom where a light shone through the uncurtained window. “No, Chrissy could be watching us. Hang on; I’ll let the dogs out.”

  ♠ ♠ ♠

  The weekend arrived quickly. In spite of his protests, Livi insisted Isidoro take both days off and spend it with his family, and they decided to visit with relatives in Southern California. Katia invited Chrissy to accompany them and she agreed readily. Matt received the news of these arrangements with a mischievous gleam in his eye.

  “So we get the best part of two entire days together? I’m first on-call on Saturday and second on Sunday, but we should still have plenty of time to ourselves – unless you have other plans of course.”

  Livi considered enigmatically. “No, nothing too important,” she replied solemnly, and then gave him a delighted kiss. “We’ll have a weekend to remember, just the two of us. It won’t be as glamorous as San Luis Obispo, but it will be just as special. That last bottle of champagne’s still in the fridge.”

  “I’ll bring some strawberries and cream and we’ll drink it in bed,” he promised.

  ♠ ♠ ♠

  After a great deal of soul searching, Livi concluded there was no way she could sleep with Matt in the bed she’d shared with Will for so many years, so she made up the big, comfortable spare bed in a room at the back of the house. When she told Matt of her decision, he smiled in relief and confessed he too had been having reservations at the prospect.

  Chrissy left with Katia and her parents early on Saturday morning and Matt arrived shortly afterwards bearing a big punnet of strawberries, a carton of thick cream and another bottle of champagne, all of which he dumped in the fridge. “Let the weekend begin,” he declared sweeping Livi into his arms.

  Despite their best intentions, they didn’t even make it upstairs, ending up making love on the couch in the snug. Livi marveled at his extraordinary tenderness; on the one hand it seemed he couldn’t get enough of her, yet he was gentle and considerate and his touch sensual and loving.

  Afterwards they showered together in the connecting bathroom and hand in hand went for a walk through the paddocks and beyond, into a contiguous area of oak, cottonwood and black walnut woodland, then chaparral where the land rose gradually toward the Santa Ynez Mountains. Before leaving, Livi made sure the two dogs were secure in the kitchen, as where they would be walking held a real danger of rattlesnakes for dogs snuffling through the undergrowth. “Even with my own tame vet on hand, I don’t want to risk them getting bitten,” she remarked, pocketing the backdoor key.

  Matt grabbed her and pulling her close, nibbled at her neck in mock attack. “Don’t make assumptions about me being tame,” he growled.

  The early summer hadn’t been quite as hot as was customary and the countryside was fecund and beautiful. Verbena, California milkweed, Mariposa lilies, and a whole array of other wild flowers still bloomed in abundance, especially in sheltered corners and in rocky shaley areas.

  Matt was entranced. “This is quite amazing,” he said as he drank in the vistas around him. “Absolutely stunning.” Livi touched his arm and pointed to where a coyote was trotting economically along the trail ahead of them. They watched silently until it veered abruptly to the right and vanished behind an outcrop of rock.

  “We get a lot of coyotes on the farm,” she said. “In the evening you see them drinking at the water outlets in the paddocks. Last summer we often had a mother and her pups come down from the hills. The entire farm’s posted, no-one’s allowed to trespass or shoot. It’s our little sanctuary.”

  “Just don’t get any chickens,” Matt chuckled, “not that your wily friends would complain.”

  They continued on the trail as it gently ascended; only stopping as it looped sharply and the going straightaway became much steeper. At that point they were able to enjoy an exceptionally lovely view across the Santa Ynez Valley. Below them stretched Walnut Grove with its white, double-fenced paddocks, red tiled house, horse barn and other ancillary buildings. They watched as the mailman stopped at the end of the drive and deposited mail into the mailbox.

  Their love-fest lasted more than thirty hours. Apart from their walk in the morning and brief forays to feed and check on the horses, they didn’t get dressed all day. It was a bittersweet time because it was constantly in the back of their minds how, the following weekend, Matt would be departing for Napa.

  They made love, drank champagne, ate strawberries and cream, and made love again. On one occasion Matt drizzled cream from Livi’s throat to her pubis, then slowly and sensuously licked it all away.

  The fates were on their side in that Matt’s phone never once rang; he could hardly believe their good fortune and checked it several times to be certain it was tuned on and charged up.

&nbs
p; Isidoro had told Livi he planned to be back at the ranch by late afternoon on Sunday, so she was careful to eliminate all evidence of the passionate time she and Matt had spent long before Chrissy arrived home.

  It was gone five when eventually they returned. Livi was dozing in the sun on a lounger, while Matt sat in a chair next to her reading the Sunday papers. She mustered enough energy to raise herself on her elbows and offer everyone drinks, but Isidoro declined, saying he needed to get back to his house. So Chrissy was decanted from the pickup truck and flopped down in an ungainly heap beside her mother. The two dogs descended upon her to welcome her home.

  “I’m so hot,” she complained. “We were stuck for ages in an accident by Ventura. Isidoro turned the engine off so there was no air conditioning. We all were baking.”

  “He did the right thing,” Livi said placatingly. “It’s an old truck and would probably have overheated just sitting with the engine running. Go and get a cold drink.”

  “Yeah, in a minute.” Chrissy fanned herself and shoved the dogs aside in an attempt to dodge their lolling tongues and panting breath. “Give me a break you two, you’re like a couple of fan heaters.”

  Matt stood up laughing and deposited the newspapers on the grass. “I’ll get you a drink. What d’you fancy, a soda or a glass of lemonade?”

  “A soda will be fine thanks,” she replied. “Boy, I wish we had a swimming pool. I could almost go jump in that fountain.”

  “Feel free. I don’t know about jumping, but it’s big enough for you to sit on the edge and dangle your feet in the water,” Livi observed.

  Chrissy didn’t need to be invited twice. By the time Matt returned with sodas all round, she was sitting on the low wall surrounding the fountain and the little pool it fed, swishing her feet through the water.

  They stayed outside until darkness began to fall. Matt helped gather up the accumulation of cans and plates and carry them into the kitchen, then said he should be leaving.

  Livi was despondent as she walked with him to his SUV. “I can’t believe how the weekend flew past,” she said. “It only seems a few minutes ago when you arrived, laden down with strawberries and cream.”