Chapter 5
There it was.
All set. $31,500. Stop worrying.
I held Lucy closer.
Three weeks earlier, I had asked whether we could afford someone to help with cleaning after the birth.
Garrett said we needed to be realistic.
Apparently, we could afford somebody else's address.
PART 3 — TWO NURSERIES
I let Garrett visit the following afternoon.
Mom stayed.
Before he arrived, I rehearsed what I would say. Then he walked in with pink roses and looked at Lucy, and every practiced sentence disappeared.
“She's beautiful.”
His voice broke.
I watched him wash his hands. Ruth helped him settle into the chair before I allowed him to hold our daughter.
He looked down at her for a long time.
“She has your mouth.”
For several seconds, I could see the man I had married.
That was the hardest part.
If he had walked in cruel and careless, I would have known what to do. Instead, he kissed Lucy's forehead and asked whether she had been feeding well.
Then he turned to me.
“Can we please fix this?”
“What are we fixing?”
He glanced at Mom.
“The misunderstanding.”
I thought of the phone beside my water.
“Is Paige pregnant?”
He looked back at Lucy.
“She has some things going on.”
“Is she pregnant?”
“Yes.”
The word seemed to take something out of the room.
“Is it your baby?”
“Audrey, let's not do this while you're exhausted.”
Mom moved her chair closer.
“She asked you a question.”
Garrett looked irritated, then tried to hide it.
“It isn't simple.”
It was simple enough for me to need Lucy back.
I held out my arms.
He hesitated before handing her over.
“I'm not trying to hurt you.”
“What is Pine Grove Residential?”
His eyes lifted.
“What?”
“The $6,200 payment.”
“It's work housing. We have a client project.”
“Your company uses our savings?”
“It was a temporary arrangement. I'll be reimbursed.”
Mom asked when.
“Soon.”
“Do you have an expense report?”
He stood.
“I came here to meet my daughter, not get interrogated.”
Lucy shifted against me. I lowered my voice.
“Then you should have answered honestly.”
He set the flowers on the windowsill and told me he loved me.
I waited for that sentence to feel like something.
It didn't.
Before leaving, he brought in a canvas weekend bag from his car. I had asked for the clothes on our dresser and a charger.
“Everything you wanted,” he said.