But if Mary Elizabeth struggled to cope with the news...it didn't bode well for how the rest of the Babes would take it. "Has Isabel heard anything else about her show? Did she get any more sales from it?"
"Changing the subject won't keep me from asking questions."
"We'll get back to it, I'm sure," Tessa murmured. "Her new beau certainly seems taken with her."
MeMe shot Tessa a quelling glare before nodding. "He does. Michael speaks highly of Everett, too."
"Does that mean you haven't googled him?”
Mary Elizabeth laughed at the question and warily acknowledge Tessa’s dig with a shake of her head.
“Fine. You got me. No, I haven’t. Michael vouches for Everett. They’ve been friends for years, so I didn’t feel the need.”
“But you’re worried.”
“I...I see his interest in her, and I don’t want her to mess things up because she’s so determined to go her own way.”
“You still don’t think Isabel can make it as an artist?”
MeMe groaned and slumped back in the raised salon chair, taking two huge gulps of wine before answering.
“It’s not that she’s not talented. Iknowshe is. I see it. But her art is not everyone’s taste, and I hate to see her struggle so much just to make a few sales here and there that only give her hope for more but not a seemingly healthy income.”
“Maybe the right people just haven’t seen her paintings yet.”
“I know but she’s thirty-two,” Mary Elizabeth stated. “How much longer is she going to chase a dream like a child?”
“Oh, Mary Elizabeth. Be careful there, honey. That girl has only ever wanted to be an artist. If she hears you saying that...”
“I know. I don’t want to hurt her, but she needs to make a living, not just scrape by. What about the future?”
“That’s in God’s hands, don’t you think?” Tessa pointed out.
“Yes, but…I think even He wants us to do what we can to help ourselves.”
“She’s using her talent. I’d say that counts.”
Mary Elizabeth sat pensively a long moment.
“I'd hoped the last-minute invitation to the Las Vegas show would be a milestone and give her the boost she needs, but what if it gave her Everett instead? Hmm? Maybe it's time to refocus on her priorities."
"A man isn't a career, MeMe. The last thing she needs is to fall in love with the wrong man and have him derail her life."
That's what she'd done. She'd fallen. Hard. But the man she'd loved and the one who'd returned from Vietnam were two wholly different people. That man had devastated her and their son.
Mary Elizabeth continued to vent her concerns, knowing she was safe in doing so and it wouldn't be repeated. No mother wanted her child to barely exist. But Izzy was born an artist, and Tessa had a feeling the young woman would never give up so long as she breathed. "Just be careful,” she advised once Mary Elizabeth slowed her rant. “Your relationship with Izzy is already strained as it is. Telling her to give up her dream isn't going to make things better between the two of you."
Mary Elizabeth drained the last of her wine and held it out for a refill.
"I know. Just pray that she sees in Everett what I do. He could make her happy."
Tessa held the bottle over MeMe’s glass but hesitated a moment before pouring. "Happiness is subjective, MeMe. Your happiness isn't hers."
The chime on the back exit sounded, and Tessa knew the girls had left the kitchen by the calls of goodbye.
"How did you get to be so smart?"
A low chuckle left Tessa and she held up a finger. "That's easy. Forty years of listening to crazed mamas talk to me while in my chair about how their kids are behaving and then getting the updates on their next visits. You can't help but pick up a few parenting tips along the way having heard so many of the end results."