“I’ve got a job offer. Principal of an elementary school.”
“Bobby! That’s great!” I leaned over, took his face in my hands and kissed him.
He didn’t kiss back.
I sat back. “Not so great? Isn’t being a principal what you’ve wanted?” I noticed there was paint under his short fingernails. White paint. Being a principal meant no more painting houses during the summer.
“It is.”
145
“But?” My stomach started to hurt again.
“It’s in Tampa.”
“Tampa?”
“Florida.”
“Oh.”
“I know.”
Kevin and I had once taken Riley to Disney World. It took us fourteen hours to drive there. Tampa had to be close to that.
Fourteen hours by car. Three by plane.
It would make dating tough.
I bit the inside of my cheek to stem the tingling in my nose, my eyes.
I would not cry.
This was something Bobby wanted.
Deserved.
“When do you leave?”
He reached across the table, took my hand. “That’s just it, Nina.”
“What is?”
“I guess that’s up to you.”
“Me? How?”
“There’s only one thing keeping me here.”
The tingling started again.
“And I need to know. Do I stay?” He squeezed my hand.
“Or do I go?”
Tam was asleep by the time I made it to the hospital. I set Sassy, her African violet, on her bedside table, and I swear the thing looked perkier immediately.
There was evidence my mother had been there, namely the French chocolates and the custom balloon that read “Get well,
The curtain around Brickhouse’s bed was pulled tight. It was just as well. I didn’t want to see her right now.
146
Heather Webber
On my way out of the Magic Sun, I’d grabbed a handful of fortune cookies. Not one of them told me what to do with Bobby, though I now had enough lottery numbers for the next month.
He’d kissed me good-bye, helped me into my car, and watched me drive away.
I’d told him I needed some time.
He hadn’t looked surprised. Just sad.
Which broke my heart.
It was a lot of pressure, and I decided after my fifth fortune cookie, that it wasn’t a fair question. To lay that all on me. To let me decide his fate. What if I said stay and then things didn’t work out between us? What if I said go and it was the worst mistake I’d ever made?
I sighed, patted Tam’s tummy, and turned to go. I hesitated as I walked to the door, feeling slightly guilty that I hadn’t even checked on Brickhouse.
Rolling my eyes at myself, I pulled back the curtain around the bed. No need for the guilt.
The bed was empty; Brickhouse was gone.
Monday morning. I popped open a sleep-filled eye, looked at the clock. Six-thirty.
