“I don’t want strangers in my house.”
“They aren’t strangers. I’ll send the girls who clean my place. You can trust them.”
“I don’t know…”
“Who do you think cleaned the place before you moved in? Come on. You’ve got to relax.”
I groaned. “Okay, but they’re not allowed to do my laundry.”
“Why not?”
“My dirty underwear is in there,” I whispered.
“Why are you whispering?” she asked in amusement.
“I don’t know.”
“Okay, they won’t touch the laundry. But everything else?”
It did sound appealing.
“I’m not very good at letting people help me.”
“I wasn’t good at it either,” she said. “But I had to learn. Especially when Scarlett came along. I didn’t have a choice. It doesn’t make you less of a person to accept help from the tribe.”
I sighed. “Okay, Mia. You wore me down. I’ll be there in half an hour.”
* * *
“Isn’t this better than cleaning?” Mia asked from the recliner next to mine.
“Way better,” I agreed.
All the Old Ladies, even Linden—who was more of a workaholic than I was, took up the other recliners. Our feet were soaking in scented water and in a few minutes, I’d be getting an epic foot rub.
“This is glorious,” Linden said, leaning back in her recliner and sighing.
“How was your massage?” Allison asked me.
“My muscles are like jelly,” I replied.
Joni’s eyes were closed, and her hands were resting on her belly. Her chest was rising and falling in a steady rhythm, clearly asleep.
“She’s going through a phase where she can’t sleep at night,” Darcy explained. “She fell asleep on my couch the other day. She was sitting up.”
I chuckled.
“How are you sleeping?” Darcy asked.
“Like the dead.” I snorted. “I’m running around like a maniac during the day, so…”
My phone buzzed in my purse, and I reached for it.
“No,” Mia groaned. “You were supposed to turn your phone off so you could get a reprieve.”
“I know, I know,” I said. “But everything is crazy right now, and I just—”
My phone kept going off, so I leaned over, shot an apologetic smile to the technician, and pulled out my cell.