Chapter Twenty-One
Jesse
After
“Mom, can I talk to you?” Viv said from the doorway of the library.
I’d been watching the clock, waiting to see how long it would take her to come and see me. “Of course, baby.”
I watched her walk in wearing skinny jeans and a long sweater, the neck wide and hanging well past her shoulder, so her bra strap was exposed. If Emery saw it, he’d tell her to change. My opinion was I liked the way it looked. She had beautiful shoulders and there was no reason she shouldn’t show them off when a bra wasn’t any different than a bathing suit.
Emery and I could be in denial all we wanted, but our daughter was going to college next year. Showing a bra strap was the least of our worries.
What I really worried about was Viv in Boston. She knew the city, she’d been going there since she was a baby. She knew the hard work and determination it would take to maintain a GPA that would please us. But to really survive in that city, you needed an edge and that was something she didn’t have.
“I think Luz is upset with me,” she said as she sat in the chair next to mine.
I was afraid of this, but I didn’t let her know that as I said, “Why would she be mad at you, honey?”
“When I came down for breakfast yesterday morning, she told me Dad had sent her a screenshot of my text to show how late we were up. I guess he was furious.”
When we had been in one of the art galleries yesterday, Emery told me he’d reached out to Luz. I wasn’t happy he’d done that, but there was nothing I could do. I just had to wait to see what happened.
Turned out, I didn’t have to wait for long.
“Mom, I don’t get why Dad’s mad.” She wrapped her arms around her stomach, her voice telling me how upset she was. “When Luz came to check on us, I told her we were still awake because you said we could stay up. Now Dad’s pissed, Luz thinks I lied, and this whole time I thought I was doing the right thing because you told me it was all right.”
“Don’t worry.”
“But I didn’t lie, Mom. You know that.”
My daughter wasn’t a liar. She also wasn’t sensitive. But her integrity was at play and that was what was affecting her right now. I had to be careful. I didn’t want her to discuss any of this with Emery. I needed her to believe I would dissolve whatever Luz was feeling and this whole thing could be forgotten.
“Do you trust me?” I reached forward, gently lifting the large chunk of hair that was resting on her shoulder and I ran my fingers through it.
“Of course.”
“Then know that I’ll take care of this. You have nothing to worry about, Luz will not be upset with you after I speak to her.” Finishing, I tucked the hair behind her ear. “So, don’t think about it for another second.” The longer the topic stayed open, the more questions she would ask, so I said, “Did you guys have fun with Charlotte?”
She shrugged. “We went to some pottery place and made a bunch of planters for Dad. Picked up a pizza on our way home and we watched a movie.”
I smiled, Viv just couldn’t see it. “What’s the planter look like?”
She pulled all of her hair to one side and took out her phone to show me a picture. “Dad’s going to love it. See how it’s geometric and super angular and short.” She was flipping through several different shots now. “I painted mine an eggplant color, it’s just hard to tell in the light.”
She was Daddy’s girl from the moment she was born, and I never had a problem with it. I loved seeing how sensitive Emery was with her and the way she idolized him.
When her father and I were dating and first got married, I always pictured him with a son, never a daughter. Then I watched him take Viv out of my arms at the hospital and immediately soften with her. She owned him from that moment on.
“Sounds like it was a good night then?” I asked.
“It was all right.” She pulled her phone away and set it on the chair, bending her knees and curling her toes around the edge of the cushion. Viv wasn’t over enthusiastic about anything unless she was talking about design, her friends or boys. That was when I couldn’t get her to stop talking.
My sweet girl.
It just meant I had to push a little more. “I’m just curious if you thought she was cool or not.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not really sure why it matters, but yeah, she was okay. I liked the music she listened to in the car. She didn’t lecture us when we got soda at the pizza shop and she let us use paper plates instead of the real ones and didn’t make us wash the glasses.” She dropped her legs and stood. She was done. “Is there anything else you want to ask me?”
“No, baby. You can go.”
She began to walk out of the library but stopped when she reached the doorway. “I think I’m going to go over to Trever’s house.”
It took a minute to remember Trever was the new kid who had transferred to her school. The guy she had gone on a date with, who she was still texting with every night.
“Are Trever’s parents’ home?” I asked.
“No.”