“We have to,” Pete said.
“Today was a clear indication that she needs more than you can give her, Daria. I know you don’t want to hear that, but you have to face it. Her judgment is very poor. She needs a supervised living situation. You can see that now, can’t you? Daria?”
Daria closed her eyes.
“She’s staying with me.”
Pete sighed.
“I know why you want her to be placed somewhere,” Daria said.
“If she were in some … supervised-living situation, as you call it, then I’d be free to move to Raleigh with you.” Pete had been offered an administrative position with a large construction company in Raleigh, a job he really wanted, and he’d been begging Daria to come with him.
But when she’d agreed to marry him, she never thought it would mean leaving the Outer Banks. Leaving Shelly. She could not imagine Shelly ever being able to live on her own, but this supervised-living situation Pete kept pushing was out of the question. Those last few weeks, she’d been feeling torn down the middle between her sister and the man she wanted to marry. She could not move to Raleigh without Shelly, and Shelly would never leave the Outer Banks, the only place in the world she felt secure and safe.
“Well,” Pete said, “that would be a bonus. But I’m really thinking about what’s best for Shelly.”
“So am I,” Daria said.
Pete tried again.
“So what would happen,” he said, “if I agreed to have Shelly live with us, and” — “She would never move to Raleigh.”
“I know, I know,” Pete said.
“But speaking hypothetically, let’s say I did agree to have her live with us and then you and I had children.
After this incident today, I would never be comfortable leaving Shelly alone with our kids. “
That was ridiculous, Daria thought. Shelly was no danger to anyone.
Yet after what had happened that afternoon, how could she argue with him?
“Look, Daria,” Pete said with another sigh.
“I hadn’t wanted to make this into an ultimatum, but the more I think about this, and especially after today, the more I feel the need to press the issue. I really want that job in Raleigh. And I really want to marry you. But if you won’t move to Raleigh with me—and without Shelly—well, then, I don’t see how this is going to work out.”
She was quiet for a moment.
“Are you saying… you’d end our relationship over this? After nearly six years of us being together?”
“I don’t see what other option there is,” Pete said.
“The only choice you’re offering me is to live in the Sea Shanty, or at least somewhere in the Outer Banks, with you and Shelly. I want to marry you, Daria.
Not Shelly. And I need that job in Raleigh. I can’t keep up this pace, physically, forever. I want that admin job
When he put it that way, she felt unreasonable in her demands on him.
Yet, unreasonable or not, she could not do what he wanted her to. For the second time that day, her throat felt tight with unshed tears.
“I love you,” she said.
“But I can’t do what you’re asking of me.”
“Christ, Daria!” Pete suddenly exploded.
“You live your life for Shelly,” he said.
“Her needs always—always—come first. You never put my needs—you never put your own needs—ahead of hers.”
“Pete” — “It’s about time I faced that fact,” he said. She heard the anger in his voice.
“Iwish you luck, Daria,” he said.
“Good luck with the rest of your life.”
The line went dead, and it was a moment before Daria placed the receiver back in its cradle. She wondered why she didn’t feel like crying now, why she felt this odd sense of relief. She was so, so tired of arguing with Pete over Shelly.
“Daria?” Shelly opened Daria’s bedroom door a crack.
“Are you awake?”
she whispered.
“Come in,” Daria said, sitting up.
“I can’t sleep,” Shelly said. She walked into the room, dressed in a nightshirt, her hair loose around her shoulders.
“Neither can I.” Daria moved over to make room for her sister on the queen-size bed.
