by Natalie Ann
“Very true. I guess it’s not the end of the world if people know now other than it’s an embarrassment to me. Maybe it’d be a lesson for others.”
“No one is going to hear from my lips what is going on. If you choose to tell people, that is your choice. But someone’s credit is their own personal business and it should stay that way. No one is coming after you for collections at this point and they shouldn’t empty your accounts, but the fear that whoever has your identity might is the bigger issue. Moving your money elsewhere won’t stop that if they find out what bank your money is in next having all that information about you.”
“I know. And I appreciate everything you’ve done. Even protecting me.”
“That is my job. I’d do that for anyone.” He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Are we good now? I didn’t blow it by overreacting to what you said?”
“No,” she said. “I worried I did by saying it. I said I wasn’t stupid enough to think you hadn’t been with anyone else since your wife passed, but I’m also not naive enough to not realize you loved her and always will. I want you to know that I’d never try to measure up or replace her in either your eyes or Adele’s. I’m my own person and always will be and I’m secure enough in my life to not be jealous of something or someone I can’t compete against.”
Again, not something another woman he’d dated would have ever said even if it crossed their minds. “There isn’t anything to compete or compare. I’m not comparing, if you need to know. Or even want to know.”
“Thank you for that. As hard as it is in your shoes, the woman’s shoes aren’t easy either.”
He never thought of it that way before. It’s not like he talked about Ellen with anyone he dated after she passed. It never occurred to him to do it more than to explain the situation. But maybe that was part of the problem before. That they were worried they’d never measure up?
“I suppose not,” he said.
Before either of them could say another word, Ava’s cell phone went off. She was getting out of bed and looking around his room, but he knew the phone wasn’t there. It was too faint, but the house was quiet enough for them to hear it.
“My purse is downstairs,” she said, running out of the room. He heard her feet on the stairs and then heard her say, “Hello. Yes, patch her through.” There was some silence, then, “How high is your fever?”
She was coming back up the stairs as she talked. Her voice was louder and he heard her feet on the steps. She came back over and sat on the bed for a minute, nodding her head like she was talking to whoever was on the phone.
He got up and went to grab a pair of shorts and slipped them on while she was talking to her patient. Asking questions and giving out advice. When he looked at the clock he noticed it was barely eight and he should call Adele to say goodnight to her. He said he would before she went to bed.
“Sorry about that,” Ava said when she hung the phone up.
“Not a problem. Do you need to go in?”
“No. Just a patient that sounds like she might have the flu or a summer cold. There aren’t any contractions or anything, but she’s a first-time mother and wasn’t sure what she could or couldn’t take.”
“Guess the timing of that call was good,” he said. “Or not thirty minutes ago.”
“The on call service will take a message and call me if I don’t answer. I can’t always answer when they call. I don’t wear it glued to me and have had calls when I’m in the shower and so on. But if I can get it, I do rather than worrying someone while they wait for the call back.”
“I remember that feeling well,” he said and then wished he didn’t.
18
Moving Fast
Ava put her phone on the nightstand next to Seth’s bed and then held her hand out. “I’m sure you do.”
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Why?” she asked. “You don’t have to hide Ellen from me. You can talk about her if you want. Tell me what she was like.”
“Why do you want to know?” he asked.
“Because I want to know more about you and she was such a big part of your life,” she said simply. If he didn’t want to talk about Ellen she wouldn’t be hurt. Many might think it was weird that she was asking, but she didn’t want this wall that could never be breached between them.
“Let me call Adele and tell her goodnight first. I said I would before she went to bed. She stays up later at my mother’s.”
“Go on,” she said, climbing back in the bed. If he wanted privacy he could have asked her to leave or left the room, but she’d be quiet while he talked to his daughter.
“Hi, Mom,” Seth said into the phone. “Is Adele there for me to say goodnight to her?” Ava could only hear Seth’s side of the conversation and she didn’t want to be nosy. “Hey, Adele. Are you being good for Grandma and watching your movie?”
She could hear the excited girl’s voice as just a sound but not the words and it was pretty rapid, causing her to smile.
Seth looked over to her. “I went to dinner tonight with Ava.” She was shocked to hear him say that and then the phone moving away from his ear fast. “Yes, I’m still with her. Hang on and I’ll put you on speakerphone.” He dropped the phone down and hit a button. “Okay, Ava can hear you.”
“Hi, Ava,” Adele yelled. “I didn’t know Daddy was with you tonight. I wouldn’t have come to Grandma’s if I knew that.”
She smiled since Seth had said that would happen. “Hello to you too. It sounds to me like you are having a lot of fun watching a movie. What movie is it?”
“It’s Frozen. I love it. I’ve watched it like twenty times.”
“More like fifty,” Seth said.
“Will you be there tomorrow so that I can see you too?” Adele asked.
She looked over at Seth and shrugged her shoulders. That wasn’t going to be a question she was answering even if she had planned on spending the night.
“I was going to get you around noon,” Seth said. “Maybe if Ava doesn’t have plans tomorrow we can see if she wants to do something with us.”
That was a good way to answer without actually giving an answer. “I would love to spend time with you tomorrow, but I might get called into work.”
“I hope not,” Adele said. “I want to see you again. I had fun at your house last week.”
“I had fun having you at my house last week,” she said.
“Grandma says I have to go now, Daddy. I love you.”
“I love you too, Adele. Behave for Grandma and go to bed when she tells you to.”
“I will. Night, Ava. Night, Daddy.”
“Goodnight, Adele,” she said and Seth disconnected his call and put his phone on the bed.
“Sorry for putting you on the spot. She asked me what I did tonight and I don’t really like to lie to her. I don’t lie in general as it’s too hard to get tripped up that way.”
“I agree. And you didn’t put me on the spot. Not until she asked if I’d still be here. Saying I was spending the night to your daughter is out of the question even though she mentioned about staying at my house.”
“I guess that might work in our favor in the future,” he said, smiling.
“When the timing works for you on things, I’ll be fine. You get to call the shots here.”
“I don’t think I do,” he said. “In a relationship it’s between two people. Even if I’m ready, maybe you aren’t.”
She thought of that for a minute and realized he could be right. Hadn’t she already said that it wasn’t easy being in the woman’s shoes? “If I wasn’t ready to be with someone with a child I would have never come to your house the first time to teach you how to braid when your daughter asked me. Did it occur to you that she needs that figure in her life?”
“It has. And I don’t want you to think that is all I’m looking for. It’s not. Though my mother said I’m not hardwired to be single the rest of my life, I’m definitely not the type to be with
someone just to make my daughter happy.”
“That makes me happy to hear you say that. Putting your kids first is great, but not at the expense of your own happiness.”
“No,” he said. “It’s not. And you wanted me to tell you about Ellen.”
“Only if you want to.”
“I find that I kind of do. I know that it might seem we are moving fast.”
She laughed. “We’ve been dating in my book for well over a month and we are finally getting to this point. Many would think that isn’t fast at all. And I’m sorry for that. That it seemed my job or living situation is what played a part in this.”
“I think it’s both of our living situations. And don’t be sorry. Maybe learning about each other so much before we got to this helped. It also makes it easier to talk to you about Ellen. I’m not sure where to start.”
“Anywhere. The more I’m around Adele, the more she is going to talk about her mother. I want her to. I don’t want you to feel awkward if she does, nor do I want to feel that way. In your daughter’s eyes we are friends. I’d like to be able to understand more if I can.”
He leaned over and gave her a kiss. “You’re a pretty special person and I can’t for the life of me understand why you are still single.”
“Not everyone obviously thinks I’m that special of a person,” she said, laughing.
“Then you can tell me more of that after I say a few things about Ellen.”
She wasn’t sure she knew what to say, but if he was willing to talk then she would let him. “We can answer questions for each other then.”
“Ellen and I met our senior year in college,” he said. “I was from Boston and planned on moving back. My mother was there, and though she is one of the strongest women I know, I just felt the need to return and live by her.”
“Family can be strong that way. I know that feeling well. I guess if anyone could, it’s me and the Bond family.”
“I figured you’d get that.”
“Where did you go to college?”
“Springfield College. Not that far. Just under two hours, but Ellen was from Ohio. Not sure what brought her there, but it did.”
“And Adele said she was a teacher?”
“Elementary. She loved kids. She taught second grade. She took a year off after Adele was born and the plan was for her to do the same with our second child.”
Ava hesitated, not sure if she wanted to ask this. “Did you name your son?”
“We did. Anthony Robert after Ellen’s grandfather. She was close to him as a kid.”
“Did she not want to move to Boston?”
“She was okay with it. Her family is still in Ohio. She wasn’t as close to them as I was with my mother. As you are with your family. Her parents divorced when she was young. She was an only child and they both remarried and had other families.”
“Ah, so she might not have felt like she belonged with either of them after?” she asked.
“That was it. There weren’t hard feelings that I was aware of. It’s just she felt she came second to their new families. I’m not sure if it was in her head or not, but it made it easier for her to move here and they were fine with it.”
“So they either accepted her independence or were fine because their other kids were around?” she asked.
“That was always my thought. I figured they were fine with her independence, but she felt the other way. It was one of those things we didn’t talk about much. When Adele was born, she was the first grandchild for both of them, but no one really ooh’d and ahh’d like you’d think. They came and visited. They called and they sent gifts, but it’s not what my mother did with the first grandchild.”
“So she had a reason to feel the way she did,” she said.
“Most likely. And when Ellen died, they were there for me in the beginning. They’d check in on Adele now and again, they’d send gifts for holidays. But they haven’t seen her in two years.”
“They don’t want to come visit the island?” she asked. “It’s a great vacation spot.”
He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I brought her to Ohio for a week. She didn’t stay by herself. I made it a vacation visit for the two of us. I was there for them to spend any amount of time they wanted with her. But they were too busy to do more than each take a day with her. So Adele and I had a great time and we came back. I haven’t offered to do it again and they haven’t brought it up.”
“That’s too bad,” she said. “It’s their loss.”
“It is. So you can see why Adele is pretty much with me at all times,” he said.
“And again, I’ve got no problem with that.”
“What else do you want to know? I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures of Ellen in the house.”
She had. There were pictures of Ellen in Adele’s room. A wedding picture on the wall of Seth and her too. “How long were you married?”
“She moved to Boston with me after graduation and we got an apartment together. I had a job lined up, she was waiting tables until school started. She managed to land a job pretty fast and we were thrilled. We got engaged a year later and then a year after that married.”
“So engaged at twenty-three, married at twenty-four?” she asked. “That’s young by today’s standards.”
“It is. But we were happy and in love.”
“Married about nine years?” she asked.
“Yes. You’re pretty good at math,” he said, tapping her nose with his finger. At least he wasn’t acting distressed over this conversation.
“I am. Science too.”
“I bet. As you can tell, we didn’t have children right away. We wanted to put some money away since she knew she was going to take time off to be at home with them. I think she wanted to be the parent she felt she never had. My parents didn’t have the best marriage and I guess I try to be the father I never had growing up too, so I had no problem with that plan.”
“Sounds practical,” she said. “My mother never worked once she was married. A lot of the women in that generation in our family don’t work. My generation, not so much. Money doesn’t mean anything, but happiness does. I guess back to happiness. You know Hunter, and he got married earlier this year. They have a baby, but I don’t see Kayla working anytime soon. Drew is engaged and Amanda a hairdresser. She has plans to continue to work, but I’m not sure when she has a baby what will happen.”
“Everyone makes those decisions in life. Money helps ease it, but it’s a personal one too. Not everyone is meant to do that.”
“I’m not,” she said. “I’ve worked too hard to get where I am and I’m just starting. I want children someday, but I will go back to work. My cousin Emily got engaged a few weeks ago. She is one of the owners of Atlantic Rise Hotel. I expect she’ll have children and still work as hard as she has been.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to be a stay at home mother,” he said. “It’s not for everyone, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t be a good parent. My mother always worked and she was the best. Money wasn’t much of an issue in our house, but it wasn’t Bond money.”
She smiled. “Not many do have Bond money. So, what did your mother do?”
“Oh no,” he said. “You are going to tell me why you’re still single and why you made the comment about not many think you’re a special person.”
She didn’t think she’d get off that easily. “I’m still single because my education and career has come first. It had to. I’ve worked too hard to not put it first.”
“Understandably,” he said.
“I dated in college but never thought any of them would be the one. After I finally started practicing, I had one boyfriend for about a year, but I expressed that I wanted to end up on the island and he didn’t. He worked in Plymouth and said there was no way he was going to commute on the ferry and the island was a great place to visit or have a second home, but to live daily, no. He wasn’t having any part of it.”
“So that didn’t last,
” he said. “And I can understand that too. The young attorney from Boston was out for fun, and Amore Island wasn’t the life she wanted.”
“So that is the story of my dating life.”
“It doesn’t mean you aren’t a special person,” he said. “I find that you are.”
“I’m glad you think that and not just my family members,” she said, smiling. “But I never had a lot of girlfriends either. I guess some might think I’m distant.”
“Which is very odd to me because I don’t find that at all.”
“I don’t think I was that way in high school. But definitely in college and med school. Things can be cutthroat and I didn’t want any part of it. Once I started working, I learned that some only wanted to be friends because I was a doctor or from the Bond family if they recognized the name.”
“So no one really felt like they wanted to get to know you?”
“That was my feeling at times. Even at work, I just decided to keep my distance. I wanted to go in and do my job but not get close to anyone. I’ve always been one that wanted to separate the two.”
“You must have done a good enough job of it judging the reaction of your former coworkers tonight.”
“Oh, I got along with everyone. I talked with everyone too. But again, detached.”
“There is no hard and fast rule you have to be friends with anyone at work. I don’t understand why many feel that way, but I see it at the bank. More with women than men.”
“Men don’t seem to care as much,” she said.
“Not really,” he said. “I’ve got a few guys I can go get a beer with at work, but it’s hard, being their boss. As for friends, I had some close ones in college, but after I got married, I found our friends were other couples.”
“What happened after Ellen passed?” she asked.
“They faded away. I realized after that they were friendships she cultivated. None of them started out as my friends.”
“You don’t seem like you are lacking any social interactions.”