“You’ll have to pay a price to get Michael. A big price.”
Danny shrugged. “Whatever.”
“Starlette wants your interest in your last oil well. Your entire interest.”
Danny rocked on his feet. He didn’t even want to calculate what twelve feet of pay sand was worth at $60- a-barrel oil. Whatever financial security he had, that was it. “Okay,” he said. “Done.”
Marilyn put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “I already said yes for you.”
He laughed ruefully. “I guess you know me.”
“A potential client once told me that he’d heard divorce was expensive. I said it was-very expensive. When he asked why, I quoted another client back to him: ‘Because it’s worth it.’ ”
Danny was still trying to anchor himself in time and space. “When do I get Michael?”
“Starlette’s loading him on a Continental flight in about an hour. You can pick him up at the Baton Rouge airport at six fifty-three p.m.”
Danny decided right then to rent a plane; the distance was short, but Michael loved to fly with his dad. “I don’t know what to say. You’ve changed my life, Marilyn. And you’ve saved my son’s life.”
“Come with me,” she said, smiling strangely. “I have one more thing to do for you.”
She took his hand and led him into her office, past the male receptionist, then up a flight of stairs to a door at the end of a narrow hall. “This is my VIP dining room. I had some food brought in, because I figured we’d be hungry after our meeting.”
She opened the door.
Laurel was standing behind a table laden with boxes from the Indian restaurant a couple of blocks away. She was wearing a bright blue skirt and a white linen top, and she looked like nothing so much as the lovely teacher who had welcomed Michael with a smile two years ago. Danny had only seen her in black since Warren’s death, and then only from a distance. The change almost took his breath away. He looked back to thank Marilyn, but all he saw was a closing door.
“I heard,” Laurel said. “About Michael.”
Danny nodded. “I can’t really believe it.”
“You see? The worst didn’t happen.”
“No.”
Laurel’s face was still pale, and she had lost seven or eight pounds she could ill afford. Danny saw darkness under the makeup beneath her eyes.
“Are the kids in school?” he asked.
“Only a few more days.”
“Have you made any plans for the summer?”
She looked away. “I was thinking of getting out of town for a while. I can’t take all this gossip. Grant and Beth have had a really hard time at school.”
“You probably should,” Danny said, trying to mask his disappointment.
“I guess you’re going to be busy with the divorce?”
“I don’t know. With Michael more than that, I imagine.”
Laurel nodded, then gestured at the bags on the table. “Are you hungry?”
“I couldn’t hold anything down.”
She smiled as if at a fond memory. “Me either.”
“I miss you, Laurel. Bad. I’ve been worried about you.”
Her smile cracked, and she put up her hand to cover her eyes. He started to go to her, but she waved him back. “It’s been hard,” she said. “I have a lot of guilt about what happened.”
“I don’t feel too good about it myself.”
She dropped her hand, revealing bloodshot eyes. “I don’t know where to go, Danny. Do I get in the car and drive to the beach? Take the kids to Disney World? There’s this huge hole in our lives now, and I don’t know how to fill it.”
He cleared his throat. “I have an idea.”
“What?”
“Go down to the travel agency and buy three plane tickets for Disney World. Forget the Internet. Tell everybody you know that you’re leaving town. Pack up the SUV where all the neighbors can see you. When it gets dark, load up the kids and drive out to Deerfield Road. We’ll close the gate and shut out the world. There’s fifty acres for everybody to get to know each other in. I can move out to the cabin by the pond, and you guys can take the house. We’ll fish, cook out, let your dog chase the four-wheeler, whatever. If the kids get bored, I’ll rent a plane and fly us anywhere they want to go. Even Disney World. Nobody will know where you are or what you’re doing. And you can have all the time you need to get over things.”
He thought he saw hope in her eyes, but he wasn’t sure.
“Do you think…,” she said, faltering. “Would it be all right, considering the kids? Or would it just be selfish?”
He walked around the table but stopped a foot away from her. “There’s something I haven’t told you. I didn’t think you were ready to hear it.”
She drew back, obviously afraid of learning yet another nightmarish fact about her husband’s death. “Do I need to know this?”
“You do. Before Warren died, he asked me if I would take care of you and the kids.”
She looked back at him in disbelief. “Don’t lie to make it easier for me.”
“I swear by all that’s holy. He asked me to take care of you. He was a good man in the end. He wasn’t thinking of himself.”
Fresh tears flowed from Laurel’s eyes. Then she collapsed against his chest and began to sob. He stroked her hair and held her gently, letting her cry it out.
“What do you think?” he asked at length. “About that fake vacation?”
She nodded into his chest.
“When?” he asked.
“Tomorrow.” She pulled back and looked up at him with guarded hope. “Will you take care of us?” Before he could answer, she took his hand and placed it on her abdomen. “All of us?”
Danny felt the heat of her body through the linen. Memories of all the days he had thought he would die young flooded through him, bringing an awareness of years granted that seemed a pure grace, given those he had seen stolen from men much younger than he. “I will,” he said. “Till there’s no life left in me.”
She closed her eyes and leaned on his shoulder. “That better be a long time from now.”
He squeezed her tight, knowing only one thing with certainty: that every moment was a gift.
