Page 164 of The New Place

Again, Ned looks up at Abbot, but the same question sits on his face.

“Liesl,” he starts, his tone gentle.

She turns away, shoulders drawn up, opening Abbot’s passenger door before Ned can stop her.

“Wait,” he calls, but it’s to the door slamming shut and the glow of her phone as she bends over it, ignoring him.

“Daddy?” Peggy asks.

“Yeah.” Ned’s hands feel too empty, so he scoops her up, a warm and reassuring weight against him.

“It’s chilly.”

“I know,” he says. “We’re going. Abbot⁠—”

“This will be the third time you’ve said you’d come, and then haven’t,” Abbot says, which is really different than I’ll talk to her or Give her a second and she’ll get back out.

“But—”

“Are you ever going to visit?”

“Yes, of course I am.”

“When?”

“I don’t know,” Ned says and hears how his words carry an irritability he didn’t quite mean.

Or he did, maybe, that thick exasperation heating through him.

“I want to go now,” Peggy says.

“You don’t know or you don’t want to?” Abbot asks.

“I want to,” Ned repeats, and hasn’t he said this? He’s said this.

“Then can’t you tell her you will?” Abbot gestures toward the car and Liesl inside it.

“It’s not that simple,” Ned says and that’s a real snap in his tone. He closes his eyes for a moment, drawing a long breath in through his nose. “I’m sorry,” he gets out. He leans toward the car, mindful of Peggy’s weight, and calls through the window. “Liesl? I’m sorry I can’t come, but have a good trip home, okay?”

Nothing. Not a nod or even a cut of her eyes toward him.

“I’m glad I got to see you. Love you. Bye, kid,” he tries one last time.

She still ignores him.

“Abbot—”

“Can you tell me why?”

“Abbot,” Ned whispers, tipping his head toward Peggy. Not now, he means. He needs to do some math, first of all. And then disappoint Peggy, before he starts disappointing everyone else too. Liesl, Abbot, and his parents, he’s sure. He’ll have to beg them to stay. He’ll host whoever these people are who are coming. Show them around, make them pancakes, whatever they want as long as he can stay in the house too.

“I want to know,” Abbot says. “You told me you wanted me to talk, and yes, Ned, we need to. I want to. I will, so won’t you?”

“What about the house?” Ned asks. “You didn’t even tell me you were looking at it.”

“I told you. I have to live somewhere.”

“Are you coming over tonight?”