Page 97 of The Irresistible Distraction

Jesse smiles, likely remembering all the times (when I was younger, before my cleaning up after Spock and Kirk days) I declared my intention to own at least a dozen dogs. “What kind of a pet?”

“Tarantula,” Seba confesses, with a shy smile.

This time, my ex bursts out laughing. “Sebastian, kiddo, there’s no way Sophs, your mother, would ever allow that. One time, when she was just a little younger than you, actually, she left the house because she found a plain, completely harmless daddy longlegs in the sink. Your grandfather went through months of reading books to her, doing everything he could to convince her to be less arachnophobic. It didn’t work.”

There’s a brief moment of silence, since Seba has never heard this story and never knew I’d previously been scared.

Brody’s the one who breaks in, his smile dangerously benign. “Sophie actually saved me from a brown recluse once, when we first met.”

“It wasn’t a brown recluse.”

“Agree to disagree. As we sometimes do.” He smiles, and I realize he’s set this up, because Brody being Brody, he always needs to force the issue in front of my ex.

“You’re not scared of spiders anymore?” Jesse sounds genuinely perplexed.

“Exposure therapy,” I explain, not wanting to get into the whole thing, that I had still been scared, that there was what felt like a mini infestation at the diner and I realized there was no one to do it for me, that it had to be me. “Community college class in photography helped a little, made me appreciate the beauty of them.”

My ex is quiet as he digests this. Such a small thing, really, but proof of at least one of the ways in which life has gone on without him, that we can’t all stay that frozen-in-time impression we develop of one another when we’re young.

“Well, if you end up being really against it . . .” Seba starts, before Jesse covers his hand.

“No, it’s not that. I was just a little taken aback. it’s an unusual pet, for sure, but I don’t have anything against it.”

“Great, then that means I just have to talk Mom into it.”

With lightning speed, Seba redirects his father’s attention back to the riddle, and Brody nudges me to let me know he has news to share as well.

“This might be a good time to tell you Cally’s spending the night at Aunt Vera’s so she can help at the diner tomorrow, and also, Walter’s going to ask for a raise.”

I think back to his earlier words. “If you’ve called in Cally and given out a raise . . .”

“Technically, I have not lost the bet.”

“How did you get Tyler here without losing the bet?” Tyler told us on the way down that Brody had “made some calls.”

“I have rich friends. I mean yes, I had to call in quite a few favors to first get a hold of Tyler’s supervisor and then arrange for a helicopter to take Tyler directly from Santa Barbara to Lake Arrowhead, and there might have been an implied future donation, but since it wasn’t my helicopter and I’m pretty sure I can talk my mother into making the actual completely tax-write-off-able donation from the law firm, technically, I’m still Poor Brody. Meaning, the bet is alive.”

“Feels like cheating.”

“But it’s not. Welcome to the American legal system.”

29

WHEN I LOOK AT YOU NOW

Despite complications, Angelina Alessandra Taylor-Martinez comes in at eight pounds even and measures nineteen inches. She’s got a healthy pair of lungs, and though it turns out that mother and daughter might have been okay staying in Lake Arrowhead, everything was easier at St. Bernardine’s. They were able to diagnose and monitor what did turn out to be preeclampsia and thus were able to respond to the potential ramifications.

I go overboard with photos, ensuring that Angelina Alessandra (“never just Angelina,” Maggie insists) will have a well-documented, well-photographed beginning to her life. I get beautiful shots of each of the adults holding the baby and a precious one of Angelina Alessandra seeming to reflexively grasp Sebastian’s finger; it’s unintentional and happenstance, but it’s captured now on Vera’s camera.

It’s only after we’ve cooed over the baby appropriately that Maggie gives us permission to leave. She gives an extra-long hug to Brody, because he got Tyler here.

“Am I still on the friends and firearms watch list?”

“I’ll downgrade it to friends and fire ants.”

“Kinky.”

She narrows her eyes at my boyfriend. “It would still be painful.”