Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 103050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
“Deacon…” She says it like I know I’m not being honest with myself.
“We’ve agreed to this arrangement. Why would things need to change?” Gabby and I both agreed that this was how things would be until Willow left home. She made that commitment. That’s why I gave Gabby a huge down payment on her townhouse, despite her having family money. I wanted everything to be set in stone. And it has been. Everything works perfectly as it is. It doesn’t need to change.
“Deacon, she’s at least going to want to spend every night with her husband.”
“Not necessarily.” Even to my own ears, I sound defensive.
“Maybe they’ll be happy to come to the townhouse with Willow.”
“I haven’t agreed to that. Ray can’t just move in.” As I say it, I realize I’m probably being a little naïve. But Gabby has to talk to me about stuff. She can’t just assume. We had an agreement. I’m not suddenly okay with that agreement being shredded just because Gabby’s decided to upend her life and get married.
“He’s going to be Gabby’s husband. Willow knows him and likes him.”
“What’s your point?”
“You hired the best investigators to check him out. If Gabby’s happy and Willow likes this guy, then you should be happy.”
I’m not happy.
I’m not happy at all.
I don’t want another man staying over in the house with Willow. It’s my house. I paid for it. I should get to decide who stays or doesn’t stay.
But Chloe’s right. I can’t imagine Gabby’s going to want to be separated from her husband three nights a week. “Maybe I can suggest that I do five nights with Willow and she does two. Two nights a week away from each other might be doable.”
“Deacon! She’s not going to want more time away from Willow. I don’t quite know how you ended up with every Saturday night as it is.”
We both let silence settle between us for a few beats.
“You know she might want to revisit this nesting arrangement you have going on,” she says.
Cold floods my veins as if the blood has stopped flowing. Maybe that’s why I’ve been in a shitty mood since I left the townhouse—because a part of me suspects Gabby is going to want to change everything.
“What do you mean, revisit it?”
“She might want to have Willow at her and her husband’s house. Like a more traditional separated couple.”
“But that’s not what we agreed,” I say, dark clouds gathering around my ribs, pushing and pulling.
“But she might want a change in your agreement. You need to prepare yourself.”
“But Willow needs stability. She needs the routine.”
“Right,” she says. “But she can have stability and routine in a different way. Ray’s not going to turn her into an army brat. Gabby and Ray aren’t Mom and Dad.”
“Shuttling between two homes? How is that fair on her?”
“She might like it,” Chloe says. “Two bedrooms. Plus, you’ll be more settled. You wouldn’t have to live in a hotel half the week.”
“I’m fine with things the way they are. More than fine.”
“But you’re not the only person who needs to be taken into account in this arrangement.”
“I’m putting Willow first.”
“Maybe,” Chloe says.
If anyone else had ever dared question my commitment to my daughter, I’d punch them and never speak to them again. Only Chloe could ever get away with it.
“You know I put Willow first.”
“I do know that. But I also think that what you think is best for Willow might not be best for Willow. And anyway, something else might be just as good.”
Nausea rises in my stomach. I can’t think about this anymore. It’s all too much. It’s never even occurred to me that Gabby might want to change our arrangement. It’s worked for years now.
“Not everyone reacts to change in the same way,” Chloe says, her voice softer now. “I never minded moving in the same way you did.” Chloe was the baby of the family. She was cossetted. Rightly so. She just didn’t bear the brunt of the changes the rest of us did when we moved to a different base, started a different school, had to make new friends. Or failed to make new friends. I still hear Penny’s sobs when I close my eyes at night. As the oldest sibling, she always found it the hardest to adjust to a new school and friend group. No one realized just how hard it was for her until it was too late.
But Chloe’s right. Gabby getting engaged changes everything about a situation that doesn’t need changing. A situation that works perfectly as it is.
And I’m angry about it. I’m not angry about the woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, who I spilled coffee over. I’m not even angry at Brian. He’s doing his job when he tells me I’m losing out on an opportunity to see ABC Inc. if I don’t go to the Silicon Valley conference.