Chapter Six #2
“It’s fine. If I didn’t laugh, I’d cry. We lost my mom to Alzheimer’s, but I never thought it would happen to my dad. He was always the one in control. I don’t know if it’s Alzheimer’s but you know, dementia. It’s hard to see.”
His phone buzzed but he ignored it. He didn’t want to be rude when she’d just shared something so personal.
“I’m sorry about your dad, I mean the dementia and all.
” He didn’t know what else to say. She was open in a way he wasn’t used to.
Sophie had never lifted the lid on what she was feeling.
When he was in college, the mystery excited him.
A beautiful woman, the tantalizing possibility of unseen depths.
He spent years trying to fathom her, tease out what she was withholding, but eventually realized what he’d mistaken for introspection was just self-absorption. It was always about her.
“Isn’t there some kind of medication to slow it down?”
“Not really, and he’s still at the point where he doesn’t want to admit he has a problem. He’s still sharp enough to give me a hard time. That hasn’t changed.”
When his phone buzzed again he looked at it.
Sophie. His stomach tightened. What the hell did she want? He shoved the phone back in his pocket. She only ever called when she wanted something. It couldn’t be good.
“Everything okay?” Cassie said.
“Excuse me,” he said. “I have to make a call.” He shouldered off through the crowd, his mind churning.
He should take a breath and call her tomorrow.
He knew better than to plunge unprepared into a conversation with Sophie.
But if he didn’t call her back he would spin all night, inventing anxious scenarios about what she was up to.
He ducked out a side door, a small measure of calm returning in the cool of the evening.
Dusk had fallen and a late bird dipped into the trees at the edge of the parking lot.
He headed without plan to the enveloping quiet of the wood, away from the lit busyness of the building.
Even after all this time, no one could wind him up him like Sophie.
She picked up on the first ring, which increased his uneasiness. “I saw you called,” he said. It often took Lilah a week to get her, but suddenly she wanted to talk.
“Hiya,” she said. “It’s been a while. Everything good there?” Her chummy voice, which used to make him feel like she was letting him in on a delicious secret, now just annoyed him.
“We’re fine, Lilah’s fine.” It pissed him off all over again how she could go so long without calling her daughter.
“It’s so beautiful here right now. We had snow last week but it’s melting. Brad and I are going to do some backpacking in a couple of weeks.”
“Listen, I’m at a meeting. What do you need?”
“Oh okay. Well this is exciting! One of my pieces was accepted into the Stowe Art Festival, and it’s up for a nice cash prize.
” She waited for him to congratulate her but when he didn’t she kept going.
“Anyway, I figured I’d fly out and collect the prize and see my mom while I’m there.
And I thought, you know what, I’ll swing by Connecticut for a day or two on the way. ”
The sky was almost purple black now. He couldn’t make out individual trees, just the swallowing denseness of the woods. It took him a second to realize what she was saying. “You’re coming here?”
“I haven’t seen Lilah in a while.”
“Four years.”
“Has it been that long? It feels like she came out a couple of years ago.”
“When she was eight. Now she’s twelve. You can’t even be bothered to call her back when she wants to talk to you.” He found his voice in a rush of anger. “Now all of a sudden you’re coming to visit?”
She let out an exasperated sound that he knew well. “I’m coming and I want to see her. I thought I’d stay with you if that’s okay.”
“What?” His stomach made a hard landing. “Not a good idea.”
“I’m not bringing Brad, it’s just me. I guess I could get an Airbnb if it bothers you that much.”
“I don’t give a damn. It’s Lilah I’m thinking about. She hasn’t seen you in four years and now you just want to pop in?”
“I’ll only stay a couple of days, then I’ll be out of your hair. I thought maybe I’d take her to Vermont to see her grandmother.”
“No. Lilah’s not going to Vermont.” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.
He didn’t know if the idea had just occurred to Sophie or if she’d planned it all along, but this was what he’d always feared, that one day she would remember she had a daughter and invade their lives like a robber bee, trying to snatch what wasn’t hers.
“Why not?” An unexpected challenge in her voice. “She hasn’t seen her grandmother in years. You know I have the right to take her for vacations.”
A cold sweat crept along his neck. Sophie did have visitation rights. In theory, Lilah could be made to spend summers and some holidays with her mother, but Sophie had never pressed it.
“I don’t want you staying at the house.” The prospect of Sophie under his roof filled him with a stewing dread.
Not that he might fall back under her sway; he worried about Lilah.
The sudden, gratifying attention of a mother.
Even a mother as unreliable as Sophie. What famished twelve-year-old girl wouldn’t be seduced?
“Why not? Oh wait—” A note of amusement in her voice. “Do you have a lady friend these days? Is that the problem?”
He glanced toward the building, his face suddenly warm. “Whether I do or don’t has nothing to do with it. I just don’t think it’s a great idea.”
“Tell her not to worry, I’ll sleep in the extra bedroom. Unless you’ve filled it with bee stuff.”
“There’s no bee stuff in there,” he growled. “I have a shed.”
“Then what’s the problem?” She sounded like she honestly didn’t know. That was Sophie, so caught up in her own drama she couldn’t imagine what it might be like for him if she suddenly reappeared.
He took a breath. “The problem is that we’re no longer married and you no longer live here and it would be better for all of us if you stayed somewhere else while you’re in town.”
“Better for Lilah?”
The question hung in the air like a fine mist. Was he being unreasonable? Was it better for Lilah to have her mother stay with them? It made him crazy uncomfortable, but maybe he was being unfair to Lilah. How would she feel if he wouldn’t allow Sophie in the house?
“When are you coming?” he said flatly.
“A week from Monday. I’m going to fly into JFK and rent a car.”
“It’s not school vacation.”
“It’ll just be a long weekend so she won’t miss much.”
“You’ve got it all figured out, don’t you?” He couldn’t keep the bitterness from his voice. How she’d inserted herself, just like that.
“Glenn.” She softened her voice. “I know it’s a little awkward but it’s only a few days and it would be nice to stay at the house with Lilah. Can’t we do that?”
He shut his eyes briefly. Then opened them. But he was still having this conversation. “I’ll think about it.”
“Okay then!” she said as if he’d given a wholehearted yes. “See you next Monday. I get in late so don’t bother waiting dinner but if you could you pick up some salad stuff that would be great.”
“Wait. I didn’t say—”
But she rang off, leaving him shaking. Who the hell did she think she was dropping in to play Mom after all this time? Wanting to take Lilah out of state. And the thing that filled him with a panic he could hardly name—what if she didn’t bring her back? He couldn’t even go down that road.
It was full on dark now, the meeting room a blazing rectangle of light, jammed with people and their passions. He didn’t have the stomach for it anymore. The housing project or anything else. He should find Cassie and apologize for leaving so abruptly, but he couldn’t manage it.
Sophie was coming. It felt like a freight train headed right at him.