He hurried off with his list, but my daughter lingered by the counter.
“Do you think he’ll actually come?”
She was watching me the way she watched storms roll in off the coast.
“You know he might bring her. If he comes.”
“I know.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
I wasn’t.
I hadn’t been okay with anything since the afternoon I stood in our bedroom holding our six-month-old baby and heard Jordan say the words that unmade me.
“You know he might bring her. If he comes.”
“I’m with Percy now. We’ve been together for over a year. I don’t want to waste any more time on a woman who’s no longer attractive to me.”
I remembered how the baby had shifted against my shoulder.
I remembered how my knees had locked so I wouldn’t fall.
“Mom?”
I blinked back into the kitchen.
“A woman who’s no longer attractive to me.”
“I’m okay, honey. Really. Your brother deserves a perfect day, and I’m going to give it to him.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
