“I leave Friday for the weekend,” I tell her. “I’m hoping my mom can come down.”
“I’m off,” she tells me. “That would be weird, though, right?” she says, laughing.
“I don’t want to take advantage of you like that,” I tell her.
“The offer stands.” She smiles at me, grabbing the door handle. “I had a great time tonight.”
I smile at her and watch her walk down the steps to a cab I didn’t even know was waiting outside. I watch her get into the cab, then slowly close the door.
I go back into the kitchen and clean up the rest of the dishes I didn’t get a chance to. I pick up my phone and call my mother while I load the dishes.
“Hey, Mom,” I say when she answers the phone.
“Hey, honey,” she says, and I smile. She always calls me that no matter how old I get. Except during hockey, I remember once I cross-checked someone into the boards, and she got up and yelled my name. I’m lucky the ref got me before she did. “How are you? How is my grandson?”
“That’s why I’m calling,” I start to tell her. “Sarah, his nurse, has strep, and I leave on Friday for the weekend.”
“Oh, no,” she says. “Want me to fly down?” There it is—the support that a child needs from his mother, the love a child needs.
“You wouldn’t mind?” I ask her, finally closing the dishwasher and starting it.
“Mind spending time with my grandson?” She laughs.
“Okay, I’ll book your ticket now and send you the confirmation.”
“Oh, good,” she says. “I can’t wait. What else is new?”
“Thanks, Mom,” I say and don’t say anything else and neither does she. “Chantal wanted to fight me for custody.’
“Oh, dear,” she says, and that is another thing; my mother refuses to swear even when she gets frustrated. It would be so easy to say fuck, but she just turns around and says a clean word.
“Yeah.” I turn off the lights, heading upstairs. “Luckily, my lawyer baited her with money, and she will sign off on it.”
“Figures,” she says. “She wouldn’t even know what to do with him.”
“Now the good news,” I tell her. “They think Jack is a good candidate for a newly approved drug.”
“Oh my goodness,” she says, and I hear her quietly sob. “The new doctor, Denise,” I correct myself, “Dr. Horton, she is the best there is.” I smile while I talk about her. “She was reading about this new medicine, and she pushed to have Jack approved for it.”
“She sounds like an angel.”
“She is,” I tell her, picturing her lying in bed with my son while she reads to him. Not doing it because anyone forced her to, not doing it because people were watching her. But because she wanted to. “He goes in Monday to do the bloodwork.”
“Will it be okay if I stayed then for the week?” she asks.
“Of course, it would be okay,” I tell her.
“Perfect. I’ll tell your father,” she says, and I groan. He doesn’t do well when my mother is away, and I believe the last time, he sulked.
“Great,” I tell her, laughing. “I’ll wait for the hate mail.” And she then starts laughing herself. “I’ll send you the flight information.”
“See you soon, son,” she says, and we hang up.
I peek in on Jack and see that he is still sleeping soundly. I walk back to my room, get into bed, and pull out my iPad to buy my mother a plane ticket and email her and my father a confirmation.
A message comes through after I press send. It’s from Denise.
Confirmed. Monday 10:00 a.m.
I answer her right away.
We will be there. Thanks for tucking him in; he’s still out like a light.
She answers me back right away, and I wonder if she’s in bed. I wonder if she’s maybe lying on the couch watching a movie. I wonder if maybe, just maybe, she is thinking about me. I shake my head.
Best date I ever had.
I put the iPad down and power it off before I do something stupid like beg her to let me take her out on a real date. If only.
Chapter Thirteen
Denise
Best date I ever had.
I press send, and I want to take it back right away. What if I give him an idea that I’m after him? What if he thinks I’m coming on to him? Am I coming on to him?
Tonight, standing in his hallway when he asked me if he was enough, I walked to him without a second thought and touched him as if I have always touched him. I touched him with my hand, and his heat filled my whole body. I pick up my phone and call the one person I know will tell me what to do.
“Mon amour,” My love, Vivienne says when she answers after one ring.