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He made a grumbling sound. “Can’t you just pay someone to move your grandmother’s things?”
“Actually no, I gave you the contents of my savings account at the beginning of June.”
“Oh, I forgot about that. I meant to give you back your money before I left. I’ll send it to you today. That way, you can hire some movers and buy a ticket for Denver.”
Olivia wished she could. “I’d love to come, but my grandma is looking forward to seeing me, and movers wouldn’t know which of her things to keep and which to get rid of.”
“I’m pretty sure they could figure it out.”
“I’m sorry. After I come back from that, I could fly out for a weekend—oh, wait. I’m helping my mom paint her house during the last two weekends of August. We’ve got to get that done before the weather turns cold.”
There was a long, unhappy pause. “Then the soonest we’ll be able to see each other is Labor Day weekend. That’s more than a month away.”
“I’m sorry,” she repeated.
He sighed again.
They hung up not long after that, and he didn’t sound any happier during the rest of the conversation.
23
The end of July dragged on. Olivia went to her grandmother’s house. While she sorted through closets stuffed full of more clothing than her grandmother would ever wear and attempted to match all of the plastic kitchen container lids and bottoms, she tried not to resent being in Missoula instead of in Denver with Carson.
Carson’s calls were still frequent, although not as long as she wished. And sometimes she detected a hint of resentment on his part. She emphasized again that she couldn’t have shirked her family duty, and she sent him a care package filled with sheep milk powder.
By the time she went back to Lark Springs, she only had a little free time before she returned to the high school for the teacher prep days.
Matt found work on a housing development in Lark Springs and came back to live with their mother. He’d lasted longer with their father than she’d expected. The first time she went over to see him, he said, “Now that you’re dating Carson, he doesn’t still expect me to pay him back as quickly, does he?”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
“We’re almost like family. I could spread payments out over a few years, right?”
Meaning, never get around to paying him back.
She and Matt were in the kitchen taking things out of the fridge. Olivia was going through it to throw out the expired food. Matt was going through it to find something to eat. She said, “I don’t know if he expects you to keep the same payment schedule, but I expect it. Every paycheck, like you agreed.”
“Yeah, but you won’t throw me in jail,” Matt said.
“You don’t know that.”
Matt grabbed some lunch meat of indeterminate age. “I’ll take my chances.”
Clearly she needed a weightier threat. “You need to pay him back because if things end badly between Carson and me, for sure he’ll throw you in jail.”
Matt popped a slice of meat into his mouth, nodding. “Good point. I actually oughta increase my payments. You never stay with a guy for long.”
His assessment of her relationships was touching. And not her fault. “Not by choice,” she said. “I just keep dating guys who don’t want to commit to a serious relationship.”
He snorted and grabbed another piece of meat. “Maybe that’s because it’s hard to commit to a woman who pushes you away.”
Words sputtered in her mouth. “I didn’t push anyone away.”
He went back to the fridge and grabbed a package of cheese slices. “Which one of your exes cornered me after your breakup and unloaded on me about how you were emotionally distant?” He snapped his fingers, trying to remember the name. “It was the cheap guy who was constantly flipping through social media on his phone.”
That actually described more than one of her exes. “Just because someone said it doesn’t mean it’s true.”
Matt folded meat around a piece of cheese. “Miles still drunk calls me sometimes. Dude says the same sort of stuff about you.”
