Chapter xiii
xiii
LATER THAT AFTERNOON, MY PHONE PINGED WITH a text from Violet—a photo of all the kids together in the pool from earlier that day—and I called her.
“Are your brothers with you?” I asked.
“Mm-hmm,” she said. “The Airbnb we’re staying in had a room with a bunk bed and a single, so we’re all together.”
“Liam’s on the top bunk?” I asked, knowing that Violet would have claimed the single bed for herself, and the boys would have let her.
“The bottom,” she said. “Sammy wanted the top, and Liam didn’t care.”
“Is there a bar on the side of the bed?” I asked her before I could stop myself.
I could almost hear her roll her eyes at me. “He’s almost nine, Mom, he doesn’t fall out of bed.”
“Right,” I said. “Anyway, I wanted to hear your voices before I leave for Italy tonight.”
“You never said why you were going,” Violet answered. “Are you doing an Italian Tiger & Bunny ?”
“That would be awesome,” I replied, evading my daughter’s question. “Anyway, I’ll be back Friday night, so you won’t miss me at all.”
On the other end of the phone, somewhere beyond Vi, I heard a voice calling: “Movie time!”
“Gotta go, Mom,” she said. “Uncle Charles figured out how to make the projector work, so we’re watching Nana’s favorite movie: The Parent Trap . The original one, not the Lindsay Lohan one.”
“I had no idea that was Nana’s favorite movie.”
“Violet! Do you want popcorn?” came through the phone.
“Love you, Mom,” she said. “Have fun in Italy. I’ll tell Liam and Sam. Call us when you land, even if it’s super late or early or whatever over here.”
“Will do,” I said. “Love you too. Love you all.”
She clicked off, and I felt a hole open up in my heart. We’ve been doing this for eight years, but it still hurts, being away from them, knowing that they’re making core memories, having new experiences, and I’m not part of it.
I wiped my eyes and put on my cold-weather running gear for a quick run before I finished packing. There was no better cure for loneliness than running on the streets of New York City.