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“What does she say?” I asked, bracing myself for some singsong bullshit about how the rainbow will lead you to your pot of gold.
“She says maybe you’re thinking too hard.”
Riveting advice, Mrs. Clifton.
What was she advising to do when you didn’t know what to do? Just not think about it?
“So, we shouldn’t think about how to fix it?” I was already exhausted from this riddle of madness.
“You shouldn’toverthink it.” My daughter quirked a brow as her gaze locked with mine. She clearly had my mother’s gift for therapy, and she was challenging me to go deeper.
But without overthinking.
Or, if I’d heard her correctly, not to think at all.
“All right. I won’t overthink it.” Whatever the fuck that meant.
“Daddy,” she said, placing her hand on my cheek. “Mrs. Clifton says the answers are simple.”
Well, Mrs. Clifton didn’t have a clue what the fucking problem was, so she wasn’t really in a position to say the answer was simple, was she?
“I know that lots of things in life are solved in a simple way. Maxine, for example, was an easy solution. The Langleys were going to give her to a farm, and I knew you wanted her to live with us. So, it was simple. Mrs. Clifton is a genius.”
My mother chuckled which made Gracie smile, and I was grateful for that.
“He’s trying, sweetheart,” Mom said. “Tell us how you think we can fix you and Daddy and Presley being sad.”
“It’s simple. We want to be together, so we should be together.”
My teeth clenched so hard that there was an ache in my jaw, and I made a mental note to give Mrs. Clifton a piece of my mind the next time I saw her. Not everything had a solution. Not every problem in life was fixable.
“It’s not that simple, Gracie girl.” My words came out harsher than I meant them to.
“But it is.” Her gaze softened, and I stared into those pretty chocolate-brown eyes. I wanted to give this little girl the world. “If Presley can’t move here right now, then we should move there. Because being here without her doesn’t make us happy.”
My eyes widened. “You’ve got your whole family here. Grammie and Pops and all your aunts and uncles.”
“But they don’t live with us in our house. Auntie Brinks lives in New York like Presley sometimes. And we still see her a lot here. Right, Grammie? We can visit lots.”
My mother smiled, and her eyes were wet with emotion. “Absolutely, sweetheart. You’re right. I moved away from my family to be with Pops when we decided to get married and start a family of our own.”
I was still processing her words. “You have your school here.”
“I bet they have schools in New York City. And you could be an animal doctor there.”
I glanced at my mother, who was nodding at me. “Life is short, Cage. Happiness is more important than your zip code. Your daughter is a wise little girl.”
“We’ve got a pig and a dog. And what about our house?” I said, wondering how the fuck they suddenly had it all figured out.
“Presley likes it here. We can have our house here, too. Maybe when her work’s all done, we can come back and live by Grammie and Pops. But I miss Presley, and I think she needs us, Daddy.”
“We’re just going to walk away from our life here, just like that?” I asked, looking between my daughter and my mother.
“You’re not walking away from your life, Cage. You’re walking toward it. Bob would do fine as a city dog. He doesn’t care to be outside much anyway. And you can find a country house outside of the city, or Dad and I will take Maxine for as long as you need us to. I just have one question for you,” she said.
“What?”
“Are you happy here without her? Don’t overthink all the reasons why it can’t work. My question is, can you live without Presley?”
