Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
“Mom, hurry,” said Riley from near the front door. “We have to pick up Sally or we’re going to be late.”
“Do you have Dash? And your lunch?”
“And my snack, and my gear,” said Riley.
Sarah picked up her bag, keys, and travel coffee cup, and stepped into a pair of work sandals. “I guess we should go.”
She looked around the room to check that everything was off, then stepped outside and followed Riley to the car.
“Do you need any help?”
“I’ve got it,” said Riley, who was obviously struggling a little with the cat carrier and her oversized gym bag. “We have to go. Sally called and said Dot’s lonely. She’s been whining all morning.”
Sarah opened the back door, took the cat from Riley, and placed it in the back while Riley climbed in the front seat.
When they got to Sally’s house, Riley ran to knock on the door while Raven retrieved the cat.
“Oh, good. You’re here,” said Sally, with a look of relief.
“Did you have any trouble with this one?” asked Simon, appearing in the doorway looking as relaxed as a teacher on vacation. Maybe she should have been a teacher after all.
“No, he seemed to settle in pretty well. Riley played with him for about an hour after you left and tired him out, I think. Yesterday was an eventful day for them.”
“But Dot takes longer to adapt,” said Sally, her face serious. “She missed him.”
“Well, let’s reunite them, shall we?” said Sarah, handing the carrier to Simon.
“Sally, go grab your stuff. You don’t want to be late for camp.”
“But Daddy…”
“The cats will be fine. I’m just doing chores around the house this week, and they’ll be together and can play.”
“Maybe we can see them together for a few minutes, to reassure the girls so they don’t spend all day worrying?” suggested Sarah.
He looked down at Sally’s hopeful face and grinned. “Okay, but then you have got to go. You don’t want to make Sarah late for work.”
You don’t want to make Sarah late for work.
His words were simple, but they showed he had integrity.
Enough integrity that he was concerned about honoring their shared custody arrangement and, more importantly, that he had considered how his actions, and the actions of his daughter, might impact her.
Not everyone took the time to consider others.
Simon was a nice man. More than that, she thought, as they all went to the living room, he was thoughtful too.
Dot was sitting on the bed they had bought for her the previous day, which they’d placed in an old playpen in the middle of the room. She looked lackluster and lonely. “Clever to put her in a playpen,” said Sarah.
“Wanted to save my curtains for as long as possible,” he said, placing Dash inside. Dot’s lethargy vanished as she ran toward her brother.
“There,” said Simon. “She’s happy again. Now go.”
Sally turned her beaming face up to her father and nodded. Without another word, she ran upstairs to grab her bag and, within moments, was waiting at the door with Riley.
“Thanks again for taking them both,” said Sarah, nodding toward the cats.
“Ditto.” He nodded at the girls. “I’ll see you back here about five?”
“Yes, we’ll be back right after camp,” said Sarah, stepping toward the door and away from him. A large part of her wanted to play hooky today, to hang out with the cats… and Simon.
Once she had dropped off the girls and arrived at work, she made a beeline to her office, past a group of staff who were sharing their news about their weekends.
They were, for the most part, younger, single, and without children.
Today, for the first time in ages, she had something she could share other than the usual news about Riley, cleaning. and weekend work.
She paused for a moment, tempted for the first time to join in, but she only smiled tightly and said, “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” they chimed in, as though they were students and she were the teacher. Once she had reached her office, they returned to their conversation. Maybe another day.
Once she started work, her cases consumed her time and attention. Before she was aware, the alarm on her watch was reminding her it was four thirty and time to go.
When she pulled up to the college gym, the girls ran to the car, excited to tell her about the day. Riley would regale her with a tale while Sally quietly pointed out any discrepancies. Riley would nod without concern and say “Sally’s right. There was that detail too.”
By the time they got to their destination, Sarah felt like she understood the girls a little better—at least she understood they had a good relationship.
Friends like that were rare, and, with some luck, maybe they would still be friends long into the future.
Sally was good for Riley, so she certainly hoped so.
Since Riley was an only child it was important that she have good friends.
Sarah thought of her friends back home in Toronto.
She had lost touch with them since she’d moved out west after marrying Graham.
And though she had a few friends locally, it was never quite the same.
Her old friends knew her like one knows an old house, and they still loved her despite every crack, creak, bad wallpaper choice, and broken fireplace.
New friends? Well, that was harder.
Especially since most of her new friends had been Graham’s friends first.
She pulled into Simon’s driveway and the girls nearly leapt from the car, anxious to see the cats.
Sarah sat for a few minutes, her usual transition time between work and home having been considerably shortened, and closed her eyes to shake off thoughts of Graham and his fickle friends.
They had taken his side in the separation, even though he had left her—and even though it was she who had always worked so hard to keep his friends in their life.
She imagined walking in a meadow beside a babbling brook, the sunshine sparkling on the water, and the birds—cardinals, though they were never found this far west—singing in the trees nearby.
This was her happy place, a place from her childhood that didn’t even exist anymore, having been developed years ago into condominiums. But she still visited when she needed a minute to shift from work and stress mode to home mode.
A few deep breaths later, she opened her eyes to find a concerned Simon standing at the front door watching her.
“Everything okay?” he asked, when she climbed out of the car and joined him.
“Of course,” she said. “Just taking a minute to decompress.”
“I thought you were gathering courage to face the cats,” he said lightly. She assumed he was joking, but when she saw his concerned expression, she wondered if he might be serious.
“No, no. I’m fine. I usually have about half an hour between home and work to transition.
You know, leave work behind. Today I needed to find a few extra minutes, that’s all.
” What she really wanted to do was go home and change into a summer dress or a pair of sweatpants, but she couldn’t tell him that.
He searched her face a moment and must have decided she was okay. “That makes sense,” he said. “With my job, there isn’t such a separation. I bring my work home.”
“I can’t. I found it way too overwhelming. It’s probably the main reason my marriage ended,” she confided, just before she stepped into his house and took off her shoes.
Now why had she told him that? She had made it a rule never to talk to anyone, outside a few brief sessions with a counselor, about her failed marriage.
“We all make mistakes,” he said. “Isn’t that what life is about? Mistakes, learning, growing.”
“Growth is highly overrated.” She smiled, following him into the kitchen. “Can I help at all?”
“Growth sucks, but it’s as necessary as air,” he said, walking over to the stove to add spaghetti to a pot of boiling water. “You can help by letting me know what you might like to drink. I’ve got kombucha, some iced tea—unsweetened—soda water…”
“I’ll try a kombucha,” she said. “Lime flavored?”
“Lemon and ginger.”
“Perfect,” she said. “Can you also direct me to the washroom?”
“Down the hall, last door to the left,” he said, then turned to stir the sauce bubbling on the stove.
Sarah walked down the short hallway past a couple of doors she thought must be bedrooms. She longed to peek inside to get a sense of just who Simon was, but instead she followed his directions and went straight to the bathroom.
There she considered her severe reflection, with her hair scraped back into a bun and her formal blazer.
She couldn’t change clothes, but she could make herself a bit more comfortable.
She took off her blazer and lay it on the counter, then reached into her bag for a brush.
Moments later, her golden-brown hair was down by her shoulders, the top two buttons on her blouse were undone, and she felt more like herself again.
She opened the door and breathed in the aroma of spaghetti sauce and pasta and padded back to the kitchen, blazer over her arm and the stress of the day gone.
Simon turned when she approached, swallowed hard, then turned back toward the stove.
What was going on? Was this a signal? Or was it just her way of getting comfortable after work?
He reached for a clean spoon and tried the sauce again, though he’d already decided it had the right seasoning, and turned down the heat.
Behind him, he heard her pull out one of the tall chairs at the island and pour the can of kombucha into the glass he had left there.
“Do you want ice?” he asked the ceramic loon sitting on the counter nearby.
“No, I like it like this, thanks.”
She sounded different now. Relaxed. The result, he figured, of changing from some female Clark Kent into a super-hot mom.
He needed to think a minute, so he excused himself and went to the living room to call the girls.
“Come and set the table and wash your hands, and not necessarily in that order.” Basically, just come into the room so I don’t have to be alone with Riley’s hot mom.
“Look, Daddy, they’re sleeping,” said Sally.
He peered into the playpen to see the kittens curled up with each other. Together. Where they seemed to belong.
Maybe adopting them separately had been a mistake.
“Come on,” he said, leading them back into the kitchen, where he found Sarah perched on the chair, her cloud of luscious, thick waves hanging down her back. Yes, adopting the kittens with Sarah and Riley had been a mistake.
And though he knew everyone made mistakes, he wasn’t sure how to correct this one without breaking Sally’s heart.
The girls returned to the kitchen to wash their hands and set the table, and he turned his attention to serving supper.
He needed to focus on getting through the meal.
Then he was determined never to make the mistake of sharing a meal, or a drink, or even coffee with Sarah until he could put her back into the box in his mind labeled Sally’s Friend’s Mom.
A box never to be opened or examined too closely.
Because in his experience, once you let things out of boxes, putting them back in was a very difficult endeavor indeed.