“Jory,” he said, and huffed. “That guy. How does the yard look?”
“Like someone did doughnuts with a big truck.”
“Ah, shit. Yeah, that was exactly what happened. He gets out of hand sometimes.”
“Speaking of hands, you could rub my back.”
He huffed more. “Could I?” But he did. “Our compromise is a short back rub, a short nap, then a long cleaning. Deal?”
I compromised by closing my eyes and enjoying the moment. This felt so good, I didn’t think I would ever want to get up off the couch.
∞
I waited for the rest of the day to hear from my sister, and when I didn’t, I finally called her instead. The phone rang so many times that I thought she wouldn’t answer, but finally she picked up. “Hi,” Ellie said, sounding bleary. “What time is it?”
“Well, it’s five PM in Michigan, so earlier in Nevada, right?” But not too early. She’d been conked out in the middle of the day.
“Oh, we must have fallen asleep after…we fell asleep,” she said, and giggled a little.
“Ok, right, sure. Sorry that I woke you up.”
I heard sheets rustle. “No, I’m glad you called. I wanted to talk to you.”
“El, did you seriously get married?” I asked her.
“We seriously did,” she answered. I could hear the big smile in her voice. “Teddy came down to visit this weekend and we went for a walk on the beach. He told me that the first time we went to the beach at Lake Michigan was when he started to fall in love with me. He told me…he told me lots of things, and he took out a ring and he asked me to marry him. It’s just beautiful,” she continued dreamily.
“That’s good, because you’ll probably have it for a while. Send me a picture!”
“I’m going to have it forever,” she said firmly. “And I’m sending a picture right now. Anyway, we started talking about getting married, and I said, ‘I want to marry you immediately. Let’s go do it.’ And we got a flight, and we did. We really did it,” she said, satisfied.
“Wait, you were the one who jumped into marrying him? Who are you?”
“Your sister, Ellie. In love,” she told me, and again, I heard the smile.
“I’m really, really happy for you,” I said, my voice getting thick.
She started to go on about their plans, about Teddy moving and them buying a house, about her getting to know his family better, about kids.
Kids.
“About that,” I started to say, and then stopped. Now wasn’t the time to jump in on her moment.
“What?”
“Nothing,” I said. “We can talk about it another time.”
“Oh, well, there was something I wanted to discuss with you, too,” Ellie told me, her words getting choppy. “I wanted to tell you that I’ve been talking to, um, to Warren Wilde.”
“What? Why would you talk to him?”
“Don’t get mad, ok? But he’s my dad. He’s our dad, I mean.”
“So what?” I challenged.
“He’s talking about moving out west and making big changes in his life, too. He’s really making an effort.”
I tried not to snort. “It’s been what, a few short months since he admitted that he slept with my mom? He lied about it for twenty-two long years.”
“I’ve been telling him that, and it’s not like I’m jumping in to forgive him, but he’s the only parent I have left,” she said. “I want us to have some kind of relationship. What about when Teddy and I have kids? He’ll be their grandfather!”
Warren was already going to be a grandfather, but he’d never have anything to do with my baby. “So?” I asked again.
“So, he’s been flying down to Florida and we’ve been seeing a therapist together. To work through things,” Ellie answered.
“‘Things’ like he had a second family that you didn’t know about? In other words, ‘things’ like me?”
“A lot of things!” she protested, and started to tell me about all the issues between herself and her father and how he was making amends to her and trying to change. How he was trying to take responsibility for his actions.
I didn’t want to hear it. “That’s all great, how Warren has accepted responsibility to you. He always did, though, didn’t he? His real daughter.”
“Camdyn, please.” She sounded exasperated. “Warren has always been crazy about you. He took care of you guys, too. You and Soleil came on all our family vacations, and he paid for you to go to private school and college. Besides all that, he loves you!”
“You think that flying us to Mexico proves that he loves me, or it makes up for him ruining Soleil’s life and lying to me for twenty-two years? Are you serious?”
She started in about Soleil, how I was wrong about her. “Don’t you remember grandma saying that it takes two to tango? Your mom slept with her sister’s husband! My mother!” she reminded me.
“She was probably drunk! You knew Soleil, and she didn’t think about consequences.”
“I don’t understand why you’re angry with him but not her,” my sister said. “Maybe Soleil was drunk but she deserves just as much blame. There’s no excuse for either one of them! She made a mistake just like Warren did.”
I took a breath to calm down before I spoke. “I was the mistake, Ellie. Try to remember that I was the mistake.”
“No,” she said quickly. “I meant—”
“I have to go,” I told her. “Congratulations, I really mean that, and I know you and Teddy will be very happy. I love you. Bye.” I hung up and realized that without Ellie, now I was totally alone.
I put my hand on my stomach. Not totally. I had my baby, and she had me.
Chapter 7
“César?”
I poked my head into his room. He was usually up much earlier than I was, in the gym or making some kind of smoothie that looked delicious but was
