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“Am I getting you at a bad time?” she asked.
“Not at all. I’m entertaining her highness. She doesn’t seem sleepy at all.”
“What’s her mood like?”
“She’s fussy, but she’s not crying. I was just going to give her a bottle.”
“Aw, she’s so cute when she eats.”
“I wonder if all babies are, or I just think she’s cute because she’s mine.”
“No, she’s pretty cute,” Ava said.
The idea that he had a long weekend ahead of him and that he’d like to spend it with Ava occurred to him, but he wasn’t sure how to word it. He didn’t want her to think it was so she could watch the baby. Then he remembered that she’d called him. It would be so much easier if she initiated a date.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“I was wondering if you and baby Violet would like to go to the apple orchard in Julian tomorrow. It’s going to be a beautiful fall day, and that’s such a fall kind of thing to do.”
Although going to an apple orchard wasn’t what he had in mind—it was more like lying on her living room floor watching football on her widescreen—maybe doing something different would be nice.
“We could do that,” he answered. “The Chargers are playing in the afternoon if we can do both.”
“That’s absolutely possible. Let me see what time the game starts.” She fumbled with the remote. “It looks like it starts at one. If you don’t mind leaving around nine, we can make the trip, I can get my apples, we can pick up lunch while we’re there, and be back in time for the game. How does that sound?”
“It sounds like a plan,” he said, a weird plan, but maybe this was what people did when they were adults. They didn’t stay up all night on Friday drinking and playing poker and then sleeping all day Saturday while their mothers did their laundry. “I hope she sleeps tonight.”
“Oh, right,” Ava said, laughing. “If you have a bad night, I’ll run out there on my own, and you can come by for the game, does that sound like an alternative plan?”
“That’s nice of you. Yes, that’s fine. But hopefully she’ll sleep.”
“Okay! I’ll hear from you at nine one way or the other,” Ava replied. “Have a good night.”
By midnight, Violet was having her last bottle and her father was ready for bed when his phone beeped. It was a text from Tina asking how the baby was doing.
She’s just fine, he said, snapping a photo of her drinking her bottle and sending it off.
Thanks again for doing this.
He debated sending a snarky answer, but thought better of it. Their text messages could end up as evidence in court if she came back and tried to take Violet away from him.
I’m her father, he texted.She’s safe with me. You did the right thing.
She thanked him and that was that. Chills went through him though. She wasn’t taking Violet away, no matter what. Making a mental note, he’d ask his father to get in touch with his lawyer friend, because now he didn’t know if he could wait until Monday.
Determined to get some sleep, he tried to put the text messages out of his head. From then on, he’d never read anything from Tina before bed.
At two, Violet woke up for a bottle and a diaper change and went right back to sleep until seven.
“Five hours! That’s through the night, Lenny. You sure are good with her,” Roberta said. “You’re both all dressed up so early.”
“We’re going with Ava to Julian for apples. Do you want some?”
Stopping herself from criticizing her son, Roberta took a deep breath. They were going to the apple orchard, not Las Vegas.
“Apples? No. No apples, but you could get me a pie. Apple crumb.”
“Apple crumb it is.”
