AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTERNINETEEN
Rosalie opened a snack-size bag of pretzel sticks and watched her daughter through the glass. Autumn sat on the top step of the back deck, her phone pressed to her ear. Somewhere out in the yard, Thumper roamed. Charity had the long, holiday weekend off, and Rosalie couldn’t help feeling nervous about James talking to Autumn.
She hadn’t asked about Lee ever, and Rosalie wasn’t sure why she would. She’d mentioned him once, almost three weeks ago, while there was pizza in the room. Autumn hadn’t been upset by the time Rosalie returned home from the hospital, and she didn’t have to disclose to James that she’d started dating someone else. They weren’t together anymore, and all she was required to do was let him talk to Autumn.
He hadn’t returned to Texas, citing his new job was simply too busy. Rosalie believed it was, and she hadn’t questioned him on it. She did bite along her thumbnail now as Autumn got to her feet. She skipped across the deck and Rosalie turned from the kitchen window as she pulled open the sliding glass door.
“Momma,” she said. “Daddy wants to talk to you now.”
“Okay, sweetie.” Rosalie took the phone from her daughter and started to lift it slowly to her ear while the girl returned to the deck. She didn’t close the door behind her, and Rosalie went to stand in the opening of it. “Hello, James.”
“Rose,” he said. His voice used to tickle the inside of her ears and hum all the way down into her chest. Now, it just sounded like the supplier she spoke to on Tuesdays about the manufacturing of her new board game.
“How are you?” she asked, though he’d called her. “How’s California?”
“It’s great,” he said. “Listen, I’m wondering if Autumn can come here for her birthday.”
Rosalie straightened from the doorway and began to slide the door closed. “Did you tell her she could?”
“Of course not.” He sighed. “I’m asking you first.”
Her mind spun. Of course she knew when her daughter’s birthday was, but it still took her several moments to get the date into her head. “How is she going to get there?”
“My mom is coming about then,” he said, almost under his breath. “She said she had a layover in San Antonio if you could drive her up to the airport. She won’t have to fly alone.”
Rosalie couldn’t see why she should say no. “I have my new game releasing three days before her birthday.” She hadn’t told James that either. “When is your mom coming through?”
“Three days before.”
Rosalie sighed and reached up to run her free hand through her hair. “Uh, I need to think. I need to be in front of my calendar.”
“Maybe someone else could take her.”
“Maybe your mother should come here and get her,” Rosalie said, her tone somewhat snappy. James’s family lived in New Orleans, and honestly, they could drive through here, get Autumn, and then fly out of San Antonio. Or Dallas for that matter.
“She already has her flights.”
“Well, I already have my game release.”
James let out another long sigh, but Rosalie found she didn’t care. She didn’t know what to do with this void inside her, because she’d always wanted to make everything so easy for him. For everyone.
“Listen,” she said, her voice strong. She didn’t need to make things difficult on purpose. James had left several months ago, and she was sure he missed Autumn. “Let me look at my calendar and task list on Monday morning, okay?”
“Can you look now?”
“No,” she said, not willing to give him a holiday weekend. “We’re headed out to…my boyfriend’s farm for the holidays.”
She could see his thick eyebrows shoot for the sky. “Your boyfriend’s?”
“Yes,” Rosalie said. She didn’t elaborate, and she could practically hear the steam accumulating on the other end of the line.
“Rose,” he said, with obvious effort to stay calm. “You’re not putting our daughter in…anything she shouldn’t be involved in, are you?”
Rosalie blinked and then burst out laughing. That really was the only reasonable reaction to what he’d said. “Like what?” she said between her giggles. “Come on, James. You made it sound like I was involved in a drug ring.”
“No,” he said.
“Yes,” she argued back, not laughing anymore. “He’s a nice man. A cowboy. Owns a big dairy farm north of town. There aren’t any…situationsshe shouldn’t be involved in. I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
