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“But … but your dad said you were having the time of your life, and Justice said you called her ‘Mom.’ ”
“By accident, duh. She’s weird. She gets in your face all lovey and cutesy for a few seconds, then every night she locks herself in her room so we can’t bug her. And Dad turns on the TV like he doesn’t know what to say to us, and lately they go out for dinner and leave us with a pizza. It’s weird not having dinner all together, you know?”
“Yeah.”
“I really miss you, Mom.”
He missed her. He hadn’t said anything like that since he was little.
“I miss you tons, Al,” she said, using his nickname. As an infant, he’d resembled Al Gore to a disturbing degree—the VP era, not the bearded era.
“You’re coming back tomorrow, right?” he asked, his voice worried.
Charlotte hesitated for three seconds—three seconds to imagine her two weeks with Eddie, three seconds to weigh her hoped-for happiness against Beckett’s. She did her best to keep any regret out of her voice when she said, “You bet.”
“Good,” he exhaled.
Charlotte cleared her throat and forced herself to smile so he could hear the smile in her voice. “How’s Lu been?”
Beckett snickered. “A huge pain in the—”
“Beckett.”
“Yeah, okay. But really, I wouldn’t hate it here so much if she weren’t so mopey.”
“She having a hard time with Justice?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. She’s always on the phone or with her friends complaining about Maggot Boy—don’t get mad at me, that’s what she calls him.”
“Who?”
“Maggot Boy. That guy, what’s-his-name.”
“Pete?”
“Yeah, she loved him sooooo much, and then he was a jerk apparently and now she hates him forever and ever. That kind of thing.”
“What did he do?” Charlotte asked casually.
“Two-timing, I guess.”
She knew it! Charlotte just knew it! And now her daughter was boyfriend-less! Yes! Wait—no! Oh no, poor Lu. Oh, ouch, poor thing. Why were boys so stupid? She’d kill that Pete! Well, maybe there’d been enough murder, lucky for him. Lu would find someone better. Charlotte believed that, and even hoped for it.
“Is Lu there?”
“Yeah, hang on.”
She could hear Beckett open the door and call to his sister, who yelled something back.
“She says she’s on her way out.”
“Let me just talk to her for two seconds.”
“Two seconds!” Beckett yelled.
A pause. Lu said, “Hi.”
“Hi baby. I just wanted you to know that I miss you.”
