Chapter 3
When Mallory heard her dad arrive home from the store, she went immediately to go help him unload the groceries. His face lit up when he saw her walking down the driveway towards his car.
“My baby girl!” David threw his arms open wide to embrace her.
“Your mom told me you were in town. It’s so good to see you!
” Mallory leaned into the hug and closed her eyes, enjoying this moment of parental support.
She hadn’t realized before that moment just how badly she’d needed a hug from her father. “How are you?”
“Better now,” she said as they pulled apart. She followed him to the open trunk and saw it overflowing with bags. “Whoa, are we planning a feast?”
“I got all your favorites,” announced, grinning. “And some of Sasha’s favorites as well. Have you had a chance to meet our new friend yet?”
“I have.”
“And?” He raised a brow. “What do you think?”
Mallory smiled and grabbed two armfuls of bags. “We can talk about it later. Maybe over a beer?”
He gave her an inquisitive look but nodded.
“Sure. You know I can never say no to a beer.” They finished unloading the car and then David got a few things prepared for dinner.
They chatted about nothing really as he chopped veggies and let the chicken thaw.
He checked his watch and said, “I think we’ve got about thirty minutes before I can do anything with the chicken. How about that beer?”
“Yes please.”
He took two bottles out of the fridge and they brought them out onto the deck. David sat down in the rocking chair while Mallory made herself comfortable on the lounge chair. She took a sip of the fresh, cold beer, and sighed with relief. “Mm, that’s good. Just what I needed.”
“Same here.”
A comfortable silence fell over the two of them as they sat.
A few birds cooed nearby and the wind rustled through the trees, but it was actually a pretty warm night for that time of year.
Mallory knew the silence wouldn’t last forever, and still, she wasn’t prepared when her father looked at her and said, “So, you want to talk about it?”
“About what?”
“About Sasha and the baby. I’m sure you have thoughts.”
“Oh. That.” She took another big swig. “Well, I don’t want to bombard you with questions, but I have to say, I’m a little uncomfortable with how few details mom was able to give me. She couldn’t even remember the name of the shelter where Sasha was staying before.”
“Your mom’s never been great with details.”
“Which is why I’m now talking to you about it,” Mallory pointed out. “Because knowing you, there’s a binder somewhere in this house that you’ve put together with all the information I’m looking for.”
He laughed. “Usually, that would be a safe assumption, but not this time. This has been all your mother’s doing.
It was her idea and I just let her run with it.
She cut back to only teaching one class and went looking for other things to add purpose to her life, so it was kind of perfect when she got the call from the shelter. ”
“What?” She scoffed. “You don’t have any more information than mom does?”
He shook his head. “I would guess I have less information than your mother does.”
“You can’t be serious. You just let her bring a stranger into the house without doing due diligence? Dad, I’m sorry, but you have to hear how insane that sounds. It’s irresponsible. What if she’s, I don’t know, a criminal or something? A serial killer!”
He gave her a look. “Does she seem like a serial killer?”
“Criminals come in all shapes and sizes!”
“She’s not dangerous,” he assured his daughter. “She’s very sweet and so is her baby. I’m telling you, you’ve got nothing to worry about. If she wanted to scam us or steal away in the night with all our valuables, she’s had plenty of opportunities to do so the past two weeks.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better at all.”
“It should!” He chuckled. “She’s harmless, Mallory, I’m telling you.
If you’ve got a lot of questions, that’s fine, but I think you should ask yourself what the most logical explanation is for her being here.
Does it seem more likely that she’s a criminal mastermind pretending to be a single mother from a shelter?
Or, is it more likely that she’s a woman down on her luck and your mother overlooked some of the semantics. ”
“Well, when you put it like that,” grumbled Mallory.
“I’m not trying to dismiss your concerns, honey,” he said.
“But I think we all just need to trust your mom on this one. She just wants to help people. She cares so much about this community, and I think she was starting to feel the loneliness of being an empty nester. Sasha coming to live here with her baby has been a win for everyone.”
Mallory let those words sink in. She hadn’t even considered the idea that her mother had been feeling lonely.
A pang of guilt twisted in her stomach and she tried to wash it away with more beer.
“So what you’re saying is that Sasha is a joy to have around and she brings so much love and light into this house, unlike me, who comes barging in without anything to offer? ”
He snorted into his beer. “I didn’t say anything of the sort, and don’t you dare twist my words around to make yourself feel bad. You have every right to be here as Sasha does.”
“That’s not—” She shook her head. “I know I can always come back here. You and mom have made that clear time and time again. It just feels a lot more pathetic this time around. For… obvious reasons.”
He sighed and was quiet for a moment. “Remember what I used to tell you kids when you were younger? About comparing yourselves to others and how it only ever makes everyone feel worse?”
“... Vaguely.”
“Well, it’s as true today as it was back then,” he insisted.
“Don’t play the ‘who deserves such and such more’ game with Sasha.
It’s a waste of time and it doesn’t do anyone any good.
The fact is, I’m glad to have you home. It’s been a while since you’ve come to visit and I’ve been missing my bad movie partner. ”
She smiled. “You still haven’t convinced mom to watch those stupid shark movies with you?”
“No, she thinks they are idiotic.”
“That’s the point!”
He put his hands up. “You don’t have to tell me.
The good news is that I’ve saved up a few so that we can watch them together.
Maybe when your siblings get into town, we can convince them to watch one with us as well.
Taylor used to watch those dumb action movies when he was a teenager. These have a similar feel to them.”
“Ha, I would love to see the look on Taylor’s face when we make him sit down to watch Attack of the 100-Foot Shark .
Although it would be really good payback for that depressing documentary he tricked us into watching last time we were all together.
It’s not that I don’t care about penguins, it’s just that I didn’t exactly want to spend Christmas morning learning about the melting ice caps and crying over starving polar bears. ”
David made a face. “Oh yeah, that was a little dark. We’ll definitely have to make sure he doesn’t pull anything like that this year. Not with Sasha around.”
“Speaking of, mom let slip that Ariel and Taylor also didn’t know she was staying here. She said she was going to tell them before Thanksgiving, but that seems like a long time to wait if you ask me. What’s that about?”
“If it were up to me, we would’ve told all you kids before Sasha even came to live here.
But she was worried you would—well, that you would jump to the exact conclusions you already jumped to.
That we were being scammed or something.
Now that I’ve heard your reaction, I should probably apologize to your mom for thinking she wasn’t giving you kids enough credit. ”
“Hey!” Mallory glared at him. “I think my reaction is perfectly reasonable! If anything, you and mom are the ones acting weird.”
“Maybe,” he admitted. “But it’ll be fine. She’s assured me she will tell everyone before Thanksgiving.”
“Not to sound difficult, but I think she needs to tell them sooner. I’d bet that Ariel and Taylor are going to be calling a lot the next two weeks, getting all their travel plans in order, and they’re going to know something is up if she tries to keep this from them.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Yeah, that’s actually a good point. I hadn’t thought of that. I know your mom isn’t comfortable with outright lying to you guys either.”
“Great! We’re on the same page then. I’m going to let mom know that she has to spill the beans in the next day or two.”
“Oh yeah? You’re going to demand that she does?”
“It’s not a demand…” Mallory muttered. “More of an ultimatum. I need her to tell my siblings soon, or else I’m going to tell them.
” When she caught her dad looking at her with a judgmental eye, she frowned back at him.
“What? It’s not like she told me I had to keep it a secret!
Besides, it’s only fair that we give them enough time to process this information and find other accommodations if they want to. ”
“I think Ariel and her family are already going to stay elsewhere. The kids are getting too old to share a room.”
“Taylor and Erica might want to go to a hotel as well. You know how they always end up working over the holiday, and if there’s a baby crying in the next room, they aren’t going to be able to talk on the phone to all their clients.
” She shrugged. “I just think it will be a lot weirder if mom waits to tell them. Then it’s really going to seem like she was hiding something, and the chances of Taylor and Ariel turning that suspension onto Sasha feels pretty high to me. ”
Her dad finished off his last sip of beer and smacked his lips together. “I suppose you’re right, even though I know you’re only saying all of that because you want to justify your choice to tell them yourself.”
“Two things can be true at once.”
This got a smile from him. “Do whatever you want about your siblings.” He rocked back in the chair and took a deep breath.
“But just do me a favor and give Sasha the benefit of the doubt. She’s been through a lot, and she’s really one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.
The baby is really sweet too. Hardly ever cries. ”
Mallory thought about it for a second, but knew she had no reason not to be nice to this woman.
“Yeah alright,” she said eventually. “I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.
But I’m going to ask her a few questions at dinner tonight.
Nothing intrusive, mind you. I just want to see if she can tell me more about the shelter.
Even just knowing the name would make me feel a lot better at this point. ”
“As long as you don’t give her the third degree.”
She grinned at him. “Me? Never. I’ll be a perfect angel like I always am.”