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The line crackled with static for a few seconds. “He can stay.” An odd note colored his wife’s words. “I’d like to come over anyway, if you don’t mind. There’s something I want to say to you.”
He fought to keep his composure. He didn’t want to know what she’d been discussing with Joshua. Was she coming to demand the divorce? Surely not tonight. “Something you can’t say on the phone?”
“Yes. I need to tell you something.”
When the door bell rang ten minutes later, Daniel forced himself to turn the knob and open the door. The sense of impending doom saturated him. This was it. The final showdown. He’d sent Chris upstairs. The boy didn’t need to hear this conversation.
Nicole stood in the doorway in a long, black leather coat, her hair swept up in a ponytail, her face anxious. “Can I come in?”
“Sorry. Sure.” Daniel moved aside, rubbing his hands on the kitchen towel he’d forgotten he still held. She stepped inside. Stopped. So near him he could have touched her face.
“Where’s Christopher?”
“In the shower. I told him to get ready for bed. I figured whatever you . . . whatever you came to say, he didn’t need to hear.”
She nodded and glanced around as if she was looking at his apartment with a new view. “How is Benny?”
“Passed out.”
“What about Deborah Smith?”
Daniel straightened. “What? What about Deborah?”
“Are you in love with her?”
Daniel laughed, the sound slightly hysterical in his ears. He couldn’t help himself. “You must still love me, Nikki, if you’re jealous of Deborah. She’s a friend who’s trying to get sober and stay sober. I’m trying to be supportive. That’s it. I promise.”
Nicole slapped her purse on the coffee table and sat down on the couch. “Good. Sit down. Now, let’s talk about Benny. Will they let you keep him?”
Nonplussed by the lack of transition, Daniel sat. “At least until we go to a court hearing next week. I’m going to fight for him.”
She studied the carpet, then drew a long breath. “Do you want me to go with you?”
She had to know how he would interpret that. What was she really offering? Why?
“Do you want me to go to court with you?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“I want to adopt Benny. It would be a lot easier to convince them to let me do that if I were—”
“Married?”
“I am married.”
“So I should go to court with you?”
She threw the words down like a gauntlet. He stared at her. She stared back, the emotion in her face telling him something, but for the life of him, he couldn’t be sure what. “I won’t lie to the court, Nicole. If you going with me, that means you’re in it for the long haul.”
“Fine. Name the time and the place.”
“Pardon me.” The words hummed in Daniel’s ears.
“Did you mean what you said about quitting your job?”
Everything came into focus, into this one simple question. “It’s already done.”
