My mother kissed my cheek. “But more than that, we are happy to have you back, and we don’t want you all alone in California.”
“Too many hippies. One might snatch you again,” my father said.
I was about to argue that my ex wasn’t a hippy but I gave up. Not worth it.
“We’re going to go home for a few days, but we’ll be back. You are planning on staying?”
“I’m going to try, Mother.”
She hugged me then they were gone. Leaving me alone with Danny and Ellie.
I looked between the two of them. “What should we have for dinner?”
“If you say meatloaf,” Ellie grumbled, peaking over the sofa again.
“I was thinking about takeout.”
She perked up more. “I’m listening.”
“Why don’t I make dinner?” Danny offered.
Ellie turned towards Danny and considered him. “Do you make meatloaf?”
Danny side-eyed me and I gave a subtle shake of my head.
“No, never.”
“Can’t be worse than his cooking.”
“Fair enough. At least I’m getting a chance.” Danny was smiling and I was glad to see Ellie didn’t hate him.
Another load off. Only one last hurdle, but it was the biggest one.
“Should we run to the store?”
“You go, I’m going to call my ex.”
Twelve
AVERY
“Do you want to call Mommy with me?”
Ellie sat in a tower of blocks she’d built before popping to her feet and sending them all flying across the room. “Does Mommy want to talk to a monster?”
“I guess we’ll see.”
I was surprised when Fiona answered the video call. We’d only talked once at Christmas since I’d been here.
“My angel!”
“I’m not an angel, I'm a monster.”
Fiona side-eyed me through the cell and I shrugged. “Who turned you into a monster?”
“Who else is going to haunt the woods?” Ellie looked at her like she was stupid and I snorted.
“Well, I’ve missed you my monster. Are you having a good time with Daddy?”
“I have grandparents!” Ellie shrieked. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to hear for at least thirty seconds.
“You’ve had Grandpa Michael and Grandma Mindy always, honey.”
“They’re boring. All they want to do is drink mimosas and play tennis.” Ellie looked at the ceiling like she was forty and couldn’t deal with the world anymore.
“She’s not wrong,” I added.
“No, she’s not,” Fiona muttered.
“How’s work been?” I asked, trying to segue myself into the conversation.
“Busy. They keep giving me more and more responsibility. I’m nearly drowning in it. I ended up working from my parent's house on Christmas Eve.” She did the straight finger brush of hair away from her face, something I’ve only ever seen rich girls do. Like they were taught these tricks at boarding school. “My parents were sad Ellie wasn’t there, but then they opened the scotch and forgot. I told them they’ve had her for seven years, it was time to share.”
“Are they still not taking the divorce well?” I asked.
“My mother told me it’s normal to hate your husband from years ten to twenty, then to let them sleep around, to ‘get it out of their system’ and roundabout twenty-five years in, you realize you don’t have anyone else, so you might as well get along.” Her painted red lips pulled as she made a face.
“Lord, I can’t imagine.”
“Me either,” she tipped her head forward, there was more sadness in that single gesture than I’d seen in months.
She and Ellie chatted for a few minutes until Ellie abruptly left mid-sentence saying she left the oven on. Fiona looked at me for clarification and I shrugged, right back to that perfected ‘don’t ask me, I’m only the parent’ look.
“No clue.”
“You seem happier…”
“I think I am.” I smiled, knowing Danny would be on his way with food, that I’d get to spend the evening with the two people I loved most in the world.
“You want to be back there don’t you?”
My head jerked up. “Am I so transparent?”
“I think I knew from the beginning I was only stealing you away for a little while.” A tiny crease formed between her brows. She hated it too. All the Botox in the world wouldn’t smooth it out.
“I was happy in San Francisco.”
“I think you were pretending and going through the motions. You slid into my life, but you never had your own.” Fiona smiled softly. “This seems different.”
I could have argued that she told me for years to stay away from Arrowood and my parents. That she didn’t want to have a relationship with them. But I kept quiet. Maybe it was her fear I’d come back here and not want to leave that made her say those things. Insecurity brought out a lot of demons in people. And what did it matter anyway? We were divorced. All the fighting in the world wouldn’t change it, and I wouldn’t want to change it now.
There was a reason our road had ended, the anger over it all bled out of me.
“Does that mean you aren’t opposed to me moving here?”
“I want you to be happy. I realize we can’t be happy anymore, but if moving home will make you happy, I’m not going to fight you. I know I’ve been horrible, kind of a deadbeat parent for the last couple of months, but I’ve had my own shit to work through too, Avery. I’m up for a promotion at work and if I get it I’ll be in and out of the NYC office as well as the Seattle office, so I’ll be traveling a lot, but I’ll have more time off. I could come there some weekends. This could be the best thing for all of us.”
I was flabbergasted. Had I been standing I would have fallen over.
I grabbed the table steadying myself. Had pain clouded my opinion so much? We’d both probably made mistakes which likely led to the deterioration of our marriage and she hadn’t screwed me over in the divorce, so there was that maybe the friends all siding with her was a natural consequence of her money and nothing to do with anything she wanted. It was a reach, but I was tired of all the hurt and loneliness. Peace was needed.
Even if she wanted to go back to her single socialite life, who was I to fault her that? If we were doing what was best for Ellie. I didn’t care what she did outside of us. When it came down to it, her leaving me had made way for me to find my way back to Danny, and I was happier than I’d been in a long time.
“When is your next weekend off? Why don’t you come here and I can show you around, you can see where she’d be going to school?”
Fiona tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and nodded. “Let me check.” She flipped through her planner. “In two weeks? What do you think?”
“Perfect. I’ll book you a room.”
“Thank you, Avery.” She smiled and right then I knew we were going to be alright.
All of us.
I ended the call then Danny firmly collected me in his arms and kissed my forehead. I hadn’t realized he’d come in.