“Big-screen TV,” Paul said promptly.
Amber shook her head. “Kids are too attached to their screens. It destroys their creativity.” She looked over at Davey, who’d changed the TV channel and was watching SpongeBob. “I mean, I get it. We all need a break, however we can make it happen. The cottage should for sure have a TV. I just don’t think a screen should dominate a room for kids, especially kids who are trying to heal.”
“How about a screen inside a cupboard, as a compromise?” Paul suggested. “Like in hotel rooms.”
She lifted a shoulder. “Okay. I can accept that, if we can make the rest of the area so appealing that they forget to open the cupboard.”
They talked about ways to do that, including an art station, a foosball table and video games for teenagers, and shelves of board games the whole family could play.
Amber seemed so healthy and full of energy and life. It struck Paul that she’d be a great person to have a family with. She seemed like the type who’d always be up for a silly board game, who wouldn’t mind if the kids’ paint spattered onto the carpet or a carelessly thrown ball knocked over a glass of milk.
The way he was thinking about how pretty she was, the way he was imagining being in a family with her...some part of him was reemerging after a season underground, like the green shoots that showed up in a garden in spring.
He looked at her, head bent over the room sketch she was drawing, tip of her tongue in the corner of her mouth, slight fragrance of flowers emanating from her hair. His heart felt like it was physically reaching out of his chest, reaching for her. Longing racked him.
Maybe this could work.
Paul’s front door opened at the same time the doorbell rang, and his fantasies dissolved into tense muscles and a racing heart and sweaty palms. He stood, and it took him a minute to realize he didn’t have a gun to grab. He strode to the door as a cheery “yoo-hoo” came from outside.
“Hello, hello!” Georgiana said gaily as soon as he’d pulled the door all the way open. “Surprise!”
“Grammy! Grandpa!”
Paul put a hand on an end table to steady his suddenly sagging limbs. “Don’t burst in on me like that.” He pulled out the handkerchief he’d taken to carrying and wiped the sweat that had broken out on his forehead.
Georgiana stiffened at his tone. “He’s angry again,” she said over her shoulder.
“Not angry, just—”
“Daddy won’t play with me! Will you play with me?” Davey clung to Ferguson’s leg. “Can we go out in the jeep? And take Sarge?”
“We have an even better idea,” Ferguson said. “We’ve come to take you home with us for a couple of days! We can go to the car show and the toy store and the arcade by our house!”
“Yay!” Davey raised his hands in the air and hopped from one foot to the other. “When are we leaving? Can Sarge come?”
Paul pinched the bridge of his nose. “Wait. No.”
Georgiana’s whole face tightened. “What’s wrong?”
He held out a hand to Davey. “Why don’t you run to the kitchen and get your grandparents a couple of cookies from the snack drawer.” He wasn’t kidding himself that Ferguson and Georgiana wanted his stale animal crackers, but he wanted to get Davey out of the room so they could discuss this.
As soon as he was gone, Paul faced his in-laws. “You can’t just show up unannounced and take Davey.”
“He just said you won’t play with him,” Ferguson said reasonably. And then he and Georgiana sidled past Paul and into the open-plan living-dining room. They both seemed to see Amber at the same time.
They glanced at each other and went still.
Paul walked into the living room, too, and looked out the big picture window at the sparkling bay, the sailboats, the gulls, reaching for calm. “You need to call in advance,” he said quietly to Ferguson. “I can’t let you take him.”
“Now, now, we drove all the way out here.” Ferguson frowned. “Surely you’re not going to tell us to turn around and go home?”
Amber stood and came into the living room area. “Sounds like you have family things to discuss,” she said easily. “I’ll head out.”
“No need,” Paul said firmly. “We’d planned to work on Mary’s project together this morning, and that’s what we’ll do. That way, Mary can look at it tonight and make her final decision tomorrow.”
Amber bit her lip, and then they were all frozen in an awkward tableau. Davey broke it by running in and thrusting a package of animal crackers at Georgiana, who took it with two fingers as if it might be contaminated.
“Look,” Paul said to Ferguson and Georgiana. “You can stay and play with him for a few minutes. An hour, even. But I can’t drop my work, and you can’t take him along.”
“C’mon, Grandpa, let’s drive the jeep!” Davey tugged at Ferguson’s hand. The older man shrugged and let Davey lead him toward the back door.
“I’ll just be next door once you get things worked out,” Amber said. Obviously, she wasn’t going to listen to his plea and stay, and he couldn’t blame her.
Once Ferguson, Davey and Amber had left, Georgiana beckoned to the couch. “We need to talk.”
“Yes, we do,” Paul said, and sat down heavily. “You can’t pull stunts like this. I know you were upset that we didn’t come for Thanksgiving dinner—”
“It’s all part of your illness,” Georgiana said. “Isolating yourself from the family, and isolating your son. It’s not good, Paul.” She drew in a breath. “We think we can provide better care.”
Paul didn’t get it. “Better care for what? What does that mean?”
“Better care overall,” she said. “We’ve been talking to our lawyer.”
A roaring noise started in Paul’s ears. “What?”
Georgiana patted his arm. “We’re just exploring the idea, for now,”
