Page 44 of Born To Be My Baby

They both chuckled a little bit. The door opened and Sean walked in.

She stepped back, and he walked around the bed and set the tray of coffees and her pie on the rolling table to Mina's left.

She looked at the tray. All she saw for him was a cup of gelatin.

"Is that all you're going to eat?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I guess I'm just not that hungry right now. I'm going to sip my coffee first and we can have a conversation. And if I'm hungry in a little while, I'll nibble at my dessert. Otherwise, I can eat something when we get home. As a matter-of-fact, I'm sure there's still lasagna left over."

Gloria nodded. "There's a lot of lasagna left over. She made enough for an army."

Mina looked at her dad. "Who's she and why did she make you lasagna?"

Sean leaned forward and grinned at his daughter. "Jealous?"

"No, I'm not jealous."

Mina crossed her arms in front of her.

He chuckled. "Tony Baluca, my band manager, and his wife, Livia Baluca, who is also one of our backup singers, were at the house. Tony came and picked your mom and I up earlier today when she was discharged, and he brought us back to my place. You might remember, I don't have a vehicle anymore. Mine is laying in a heap somewhere. I guess I better find that out, too.

"Anyway, while Tony was picking us up, his wife, Livia, was at my house making enough lasagna to feed an entire army, and it was good, too. So we had lasagna and salad, and then we took a nap. I still have a little bit of lasagna belly here."

He patted his belly lightly, and Mina laughed. "I don't see a lasagna belly."

He grinned. "Well, I'm glad. As I'm middle-aged, I probably have to worry about that a little bit more, but when we're on the road, we work really hard. We sweat up a storm when we're on stage. Hot lights, singing hard, playing hard, and it's managed...helped me manage my weight. Now we're going to be off the road for a little while, and I'm going to have to be careful."

Mina smiled. "When do you go back on the road?"

She fidgeted with her fingers in her lap, and he watched. He knew she was trying to be casual, but she was nervous about the answer.

Luckily, the nurse walked in with a tray of food for her to eat. Sean picked up the tray he'd brought in and stood back. He moved around the bed to Gloria. She picked up her coffee cup and her pie, and he sat down on the chair he'd vacated earlier with the tray on his lap.

The nurse lifted the lid on Mina's food. "Do you need anything else before I go?"

Mina shook her head. "No, I think we're good. Thank you."

The nurse nodded, "Buzz me if you need me," and she left the room.

Mina had opted for chicken. The smell wafted over to Sean, and he had to hold his breath for a moment. The smell of food still wasn't pleasant on his stomach. He lifted his coffee cup, took a sip, and smelled the aroma occupying his nostrils. That was a little bit better.

Mina took a bite of her chicken, swallowed it, and said, "Okay, let's get this elephant in the room out the door. We need to have this conversation."

Sean swallowed. He set the tray with the little cup of gelatin on the floor under his chair, leaned back, and crossed his left ankle over his right knee, and looked at Mina. "Where do you want to start?"

Mina moved the food around on her plate with her fork. She said, "Right now, as it stands, do you have it in your heart to forgive Mom?"

Wow, that felt like a sock in the gut, didn't it? He took a deep breath, turned his head toward Gloria, and stared into her eyes for a few moments. His eyes began to water slightly. His bottom lip quivered.

He swallowed a few times to get himself under control. He said, "Gloria, I never stopped loving you. It's weird. So many years, so many years passed, but I just could not move on from you. So, I'll answer your question this way, Mina."

He turned his eyes toward her. "What I know is I want to forgive your mom, and I know I can. But I know there are going to be periods of time when anger is just going to fill me. And I think at those moments, I'm going to go take a walk and get my head on straight, maybe write a song or two, and then we'll come back and talk about it. Can you two live with that?"

34

Gloria sighed deeply and turned in her chair to face him. "I can live with that."

Mina then looked at her mom. "Mom? Do you want to forgive Dad?"

---