“Well, as much as I’d love to have you come back, you could just find another place to live up there, right?”
“I haven’t been looking very diligently, but I take a peek every once in a while. There’s only one development that’s close by, and I’d have to pay close to two thousand for a two-bedroom.”
“Two bedroom! Are you Bill Gates’s secret daughter? You can’t afford a two bedroom. No one can.”
“This development only has two bedrooms. And it’s literally the only place I’ve seen that’s nice, and anywhere close to affordable. There’s a real dearth of rental housing in Columbia County. I could buy a house, I suppose, but I’d probably lose money on it if I had to sell it in a couple of years.”
“You could always hold on and wait for it to appreciate—”
Avery held up a hand, stopping her cold. “I need to be back by the time Lisbet’s in preschool. I want her to grow up urban.”
“That’s why Henry and I have decided to stay. So?” Her smile brightened. “Let’s seriously think about doing this. I think it could work for both of us, Avery.”
“It’s tempting. Actually very tempting. I’d lose a lot by moving, but I think I’d gain a lot too.”
Rebecca took a bite of her lunch as a happy smile settled onto her face. “This is so good,” she purred.
“Food rises to the top of the list when you’re too tired and uncomfortable to go anywhere or do anything, doesn’t it?”
“The very top of the list.” She probed at her bowl with her fork, clearly trying to get a little bit of everything in each bite. “I don’t need you to decide immediately, but I’m going to have to get moving on finding someone. I’m due in two weeks, and I only get six weeks off after that.”
“How well I remember,” she said, thinking of how horrible her first weeks back in the office had been—and she’d had to go in much less than Rebecca was going to have to. “I’ll get on it and see if there’s anywhere for me to live that’s close to my mom. If not, I’m coming back.” She was so torn she felt like she had a thousand competing interests laid out in front of her, most of them at odds. But losing her house would make a decision imperative.
Rebecca looked like she would have clicked her heels if she could have gotten off the ground. “The good news is that the market’s opened up a little in Brooklyn. I think you’ll be able to get a studio close to the office for around seventeen fifty. Can you handle that?”
“Mmm. I’d rather not, but I assume I’ll have to.” She let out a sigh. “Only paying a thousand has let me save some money, which has been fantastic.” She laughed. “Having dinner at my parents’ hasn’t hurt either.” She extended her finger and made a circular motion in the air. “And not going out saves a ton. Add in all the cappuccinos I’m not drinking, and we’re talking some cash.” Her eyes opened wide. “And the alcohol! I was spending fifty bucks a week going out for drinks. That’s two hundred a month in alcohol savings I’ve been able to sock away for Lisbet’s college fund.”
“Oh, I hear you. I haven’t even given birth and I’m worried about paying for private high school.”
“It’s going to be dreadful,” Avery agreed. “I can see why everyone at home thinks I’m crazy for wanting to come back, but they’ve never been bitten by the big-city bug.” She let out a sigh. “There’s no cure.”
***
That afternoon, Casey arrived at Kathy and Ken’s house a little past her norm. Ken’s truck was already in the driveway, and she could smell something good wafting out of the vent in the kitchen. Chicken? Probably. Kathy made a mean roast chicken, and she tended to keep just a few dishes in heavy rotation.
After knocking perfunctorily, Casey entered, finding Ken, still in his work uniform, a pale blue twill shirt and navy blue pants, in the living room with Lisbet standing in front of him, with her little hands on his knees.
“Look at the big girl who can stand up so straight,” Casey said, drawing a delighted smile and an ear-rattling shriek from Lisbet. “How’s it going?”
“Everything’s good,” Ken said. “How was your day? Did you work late?”
“Little bit,” she said, starting to take her coat off. “I’m working on a new beer, and today was our first brew. I’m not sure I’m satisfied with it, but it’s still too early to tell. The alchemy of brewing,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’ll go say hi to Kathy.”
“I can hear you,” she called out. “Don’t mind me, stuck in the kitchen all alone.”
Casey smiled at Ken, messed up the already messy fuzzy blonde strands on Lisbet’s head, then went into the kitchen. “Are you feeling unappreciated?”
“Not really. I’m just used to you showing up earlier. Cooking’s boring when I’m alone.” She shot a look at the living room. “Don’t tell Lisbet I find her a little dull, but the kid’s got nothing to say.”
“She’ll start soon. At least she looks like she wants to talk.”
“I’m sure she does. I can tell she’s getting frustrated by not being able to communicate better.” She placed green salads on the table, then added a couple of bottles of dressing. “She’d just better not say her first words in Brooklyn,” she said grimly.
“Brooklyn? Why would she be in Brooklyn?”
Kathy went back to the stove to tend the potatoes she was cooking, then turned and revealed a very unhappy expression. “I tried to talk to my very frustrating child a while ago, but she didn’t have much time, since she was racing across town to look at a studio apartment in Vinegar Hill, wherever the hell that is.”
“Vinegar Hill?”
“I assume that’s in Brooklyn, but you never know with Avery.”
“But why would she be doing that now?” Casey grabbed a chair and sat down hard, with her legs feeling a little wobbly. “Why wouldn’t she have even mentioned…”
Kathy walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. “I feel the same. She hasn’t said a single word about this before today. I know Lisbet is her child, and she can take her wherever she wants, but I’m beginning to have some empathy for grandparents who sue for custody.” She let her gaze slide to the door to the living room, where they could hear Lisbet babbling. “I don’t think I can let that baby go.”
Chapter Twenty
A little after three p.m. on Wednesday, Avery heard a car coming down her driveway. She got very few visitors, and she wasn’t expecting any package deliveries, so she got up from her desk and peered out the window in Lisbet’s room to see what was up. Surprised to see Casey’s truck, she put on her shoes and went downstairs, grabbing her coat from the hook by the door before she went out onto the porch.
Casey didn’t even have her jacket zipped, even though the temperature couldn’t have been more than twenty degrees. She looked up and met Avery’s gaze, but she didn’t smile.
“What’s wrong?” Avery asked.
“We need to talk.” Casey brushed right past her to enter the house, leaving Avery slightly stunned and very puzzled.
She followed her in, and stood in the entryway when Casey didn’t move to enter the living room. “What’s wrong?” she asked again, beginning to catastrophize.
Casey shoved her hands into the pockets of her khaki green bomber jacket and rocked back on her heels. Her eyes closed briefly, then she met Avery’s eyes. “Your mom told me you’re looking for apartments.”
“Not…Well, technically I looked at one, but that was only because my friend—”
“You haven’t mentioned a word about moving, Avery. Not a word.”
She could see that Casey was upset, but that didn’t make any sense. “I was going to tell you, but this just came up yesterday.”
“You can’t do that,” she said, as if she were in charge—of everything.
Brushing past her, Avery slipped her coat off and tossed it onto the pod. Then she sat on the edge of it and considered her words carefully before responding. “I think I can, and if the circumstances are right, I’m going to. I might need to take this oppor
tunity.” She wasn’t going to keep Chris’s secret if push came to shove, but she also wasn’t in the mood to stir up trouble between father and daughter if she didn’t need to.
“Opportunity?” Casey walked into the room and began to pace. The room was wider than it was deep, but she covered the space in just a few long strides, before turning and going back. As she turned one more time, she spoke, like she was addressing the room rather than Avery. “There isn’t an opportunity in the world that would make up for taking Lisbet away from her grandparents. None,” she said, head down, feet still pacing.
“Casey,” Avery said, trying to draw her attention so they could have an actual conversation, “I know you and my parents will be upset if we leave, but there are a lot of factors that go into this. I have to do what I think is right for us long term.”
“For us,” she grumbled, still pacing. “That’s a load of crap, and you know it. Lisbet loves being with her grandmother all day. It’s you who wants something different.”
Avery let out a sigh, having to acknowledge the truth of that statement. “At this point in her life, you’re right. But I think growing up in Brooklyn will be better for Lisbet. I think all of you know that’s my goal. If we don’t go now, we’ll go eventually.”
“How?” Casey demanded, stopping to glare. “How in the hell will she be better off around millions of strangers?”
“Um, I’d appreciate it if you’d drop the attitude, okay? I’m very willing to talk, but you’re yelling at me, and I don’t deserve that.”
She rolled her eyes, then went into the kitchen and grabbed a chair. Turning it around so she straddled it, she rested her arms across the back and pursed her lips, obviously the only way she could stop herself from sniping. “I’ve dropped my attitude,” she said grimly.
Even though that was an obvious lie, Avery gave it another try. “I will admit that living here has been very good for both of us. Lisbet has three people besides me who love her, and they all work hard to satisfy her every need. But as she gets older, I’ll want her to be exposed to more…everything,” she said, unable to pin it down much better than that.
“I don’t understand,” Casey said, her eyes burning with anger. “At all.”
Avery was tempted to tell her it didn’t matter if she understood or not, but she couldn’t dismiss her concerns so easily. Casey clearly had a stake in the situation.
“I liked growing up here,” Avery said. “But I want Lisbet to have more diversity—in every way. I want her to be around people of different faiths, and backgrounds, and heritages. The world is changing, and I want her to be exposed to all of it.”
“You told me that you weren’t in a rush,” Casey snapped. “You’ve got years before she starts school. You’re getting the best quality child care imaginable, and it’s all free!”
“Listen to me,” Avery said, trying hard to keep her voice level. “I have an opportunity to get free child care—”
“Which you already have.”
“Please let me finish,” Avery said, knowing her patience was growing thin. “I struggled when Lisbet was a newborn partially because I had to pay for child care, which was ruinously expensive. But if this works out, it won’t cost me a dime.”
“Great. Then you can also have this magically free child care when Lisbet’s old enough to tell you what she wants. You act like her preferences don’t count at all.”
“Mmm. They pretty much don’t,” she admitted. “She’s barely a toddler, Casey. She doesn’t have the knowledge or the experience to know the things I know. I agree that she’d prefer for her routine to stay just as it is for many years, but that’s not how the real world works. She’s got to learn to adapt, and living around a wide variety of people will definitely help her along with that.”
“Or she’ll get lost in the shuffle and wind up sitting on a park bench, talking to pigeons,” she said, still glaring. “Do you think those people I saw shuffling around with shopping carts enjoy living like that? You can look all day and you’re not going to find people living outside in Columbia County.”
“I’m not sure that’s true, but even if it is it doesn’t prove your point. I acknowledge that a lot of people with mental health issues live in big cities, but it’s a leap of logic to assume the cities caused their problems.” She took a breath, realizing she hadn’t addressed Casey’s insult. “By the way, I think I might notice if my child fails to thrive. She’s not just an afterthought.”
“Taking her away from her grandparents sounds exactly like the decision of a woman who’s not putting her baby first. Exactly!”
Avery stood up and walked over to her, forcing Casey to meet her eyes. “You want to be honest? Fine. Let’s be honest. We’ve been tiptoeing around this, but we may as well get it out. This isn’t about Lisbet missing her grandparents. It’s about you missing Lisbet. So let’s just state that as a fact, and we can move on.”
It was like a wall had broken, with the emotion that had been building up flowing out in a rush. Casey’s eyes filled with tears in a nanosecond, and she broke eye contact to stare down at the floor as she wiped at them. “Of course I’d miss her. If you don’t know how much I care for her, you’ve had your head up your ass.”
“I know,” Avery said, trying to sound soothing. She put her hand on Casey’s shoulder, but it was shrugged off as she stood and backed away from the chair.
“Two things can be true at the same time. Losing her would break my heart. Fact,” she said, shouting so loudly the glass in the kitchen cabinets made a tinkling noise. “And this can be a bad decision for her. Fact!”
“I understand losing her would hurt, Casey, but you can’t just take your feelings about big cities and put them onto this situation while calling them facts.”
“They are!”
“No, they’re not. But here are the real facts I have to consider. Someone I’ve known for years, someone I trust, is having a baby in a week or two. She works at Ad Infinitum, and has to go into the office more than I do. So I’d watch her new baby, and she’d watch Lisbet in the evenings so I could get my work done. I’d essentially flip my schedule to work at night.”
Casey glared at her for an uncomfortably long time. “So you’ll spend your days watching some random baby, and then have someone you don’t know very well watch Lisbet, right?”
“I’ve known Rebecca for years!”
“Then why hasn’t this close friend ever been here? Why didn’t she come to Lisbet’s birthday party?”
“She’s a work friend, but that doesn’t mean she’s a stranger.”
“Yes, it does. If you just talk to someone at work, she’s not a friend. She’s an acquaintance. Lisbet will be with a virtual stranger a couple of nights every damn week.”
“Four nights,” Avery said quietly. “I wouldn’t be able to work during the day with a newborn and a toddler, so I’d have to do all of my work at night.”
“Is she going to sleep at this stranger’s house?”
“It’s not a boarding school, Casey. Rebecca will watch her at her nearby apartment until I’m finished with my work.”
“Lisbet goes to bed at seven, and from what I’ve read, that might be true for another year or two. So she’ll go to bed and then have to wake up to go home?”
“That’s…true,” Avery admitted. “But that won’t be bad. She wakes up once a night anyway. Maybe waking up at ten or eleven will get her on a schedule she likes.”
“Great. So you’re setting her up to waking up even when she’s ready to sleep through the night. That’s a fantastic idea. I’m sure she’ll thank you when she becomes an insomniac.”
Avery closed her eyes and tried her best to summon some empathy for Casey. She was clearly very attached to Lisbet, so it only made sense that she was upset. But she didn’t have any right to be this strident. None at all.
“You’ve got to stop,” Avery said, trying to make it clear she was at the end of her rope. “This isn’t a fait accompli. It’s something
I’m investigating, and I’d like a little room to breathe while I’m weighing my options.”
Casey’s eyes were like tiny smoldering fires. If this hadn’t been so completely out of character, Avery might have been afraid of her. But she knew she was just upset, and didn’t know how else to express it. She was acting a little like Lisbet did when she was frustrated, but the baby never pissed you off with such harsh words.
“Have you noticed how many times you’ve used the words ‘I’ or ‘me’?” Casey demanded. “Why haven’t I heard that Lisbet’s needs are number one? Or your mom’s, for that matter. You showed up on her doorstep when you needed her, but now that you’ve got your shit figured out you think you can just yank Lisbet away from her. That’s so fucking selfish I’m at a loss for words.”
“No, you’re not,” Avery said, now equally angry. “You’ve got a million of them, and they’re all pissing me off.” She grabbed the shoulder of Casey’s jacket and pulled her along to the front door, where they stared at each other for a moment, electricity arcing between them. “Come back any time—after you calm the fuck down.” She opened the door and pointed toward the yard. Casey opened her mouth, then shut it firmly, turned and stormed away, grumbling under her breath as she stomped down the walk. As Avery stood there in the cold, the engine roared to life, then she barreled down the driveway, sending gravel spraying in all directions. Avery wasn’t sure how much rubber burned off her tires when she hit the street, but it was enough to leave an acrid scent that permeated the cold air for as long as she stood on the porch, stunned and confounded.
***
After pulling over to the side of the road to get her anger under control, Casey finally drove home, even though she craved seeing Lisbet’s cheery little face. She really wanted to talk to Kathy, too, to at least empathize with her about Lisbet being taken away. But she didn’t want to be the person who got into the middle of family disagreements, and knew she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from doing just that if she and Kathy planted their flags on the same side.
Friday Night Flights Page 33