Page 12 of Personal Foul
Hope gets out the griddle and starts the sandwiches cooking, including the one thoroughly buttered by Grace.
After dinner and a dessert tea party with Grace, complete with small cookies and some additional stuffed animal guests, I’m feeling refreshed and better able to face all my crap.
Eric bustles Grace off for a bath after we clean up the remains of the tea party, leaving Hope and me time to talk alone. She refills my glass of water and sets it in front of me at the table before taking the spot across from me, her brown eyes warm as she looks me over. “How are you holding up?”
Sighing, I slump back in my chair. “Okay, I guess. Mom barely tells me anything, though, saying she doesn’t want me to worry.” I spread my hands in front of me, palms up. “But how can I not? Is Dad going to go to jail?”
Hope’s forehead creases, and she shakes her head and sighs. “I don’t know. He hasn’t actually been charged yet, though.”
“Will he be, do you think?”
“Maybe?” She shrugs and sighs again. “I hope not.”
“And what’s Mom going to do if he gets charged and is found guilty? How long would he have to go away for?” Now that I’m starting to ask the questions that have been building inside me since I found out about Dad, they all come spilling out. “The sentences I’ve found have a really wide range, and it seems like some people don’t actually go to jail for that long? Like Martha Stewart. She was only in actual jail for a few months, and then a few more months on house arrest. Do you think Dad could get that kind of deal? Or was it just because she’s famous that she got off pretty easy?”
Hope opens her mouth to answer, but can’t get a word in before I’m off again.
“Of course, she didn’t actually get convicted of insider trading. Did you know that? I mean, it was adjacent to that, but that wasn’t the actual charge, so her case probably doesn’t have any real relationship to Dad’s anyway. Although I guess it’s possible Dad could get charged with something else too, even though that’s what they’re investigating. I don’t know why I’m even talking about Martha Stewart, except that her name’s familiar given how much Mom always loved her.”
Hope flashes a smile, but this time doesn’t even try to say anything.
“I’m sorry.” I cover my face with my hands and shake my head, squeezing my eyes shut against the tears wanting to come to the surface. “I haven’t really had anyone to talk to about this.”
“It’s okay. I haven’t really either.”
I drop my hands. “You have Eric, though.”
She shrugs. “True. And you have friends. Can’t you talk to them?”
I make a noncommittal noise that’s neither agreement nor disagreement.
“I see,” she says quietly.
“What?” I sound defensive even to me.
She lets out a soft chuckle. “You haven’t talked to any of your friends about it, have you?”
Dropping my eyes to my glass, I spin it around. “No,” I mumble. Hope doesn’t know I haven’t told them anything about Dad’s business. As far as they know, he’s still an accountant.
“Yeah, me either.” At her admission, I meet her eyes again. She spreads her hands in a gesture of helplessness. “How do you even explain that? It’s not exactly a good conversation starter with the other moms at preschool pickup or at work. The absolutelastthing I need is to be the subject of office gossip. Andthattype of gossip, no less. It’s hard enough to be taken seriously as one of the few female architects at my firm. I don’t need Dad’s problems making life even more difficult.”
Leaning forward, I reach a hand across the table. She takes it and gives it a squeeze, holding on, both of us seeking comfort from the way our father’s problems are threatening to spill into our lives. I’d been so focused on my own stuff that I hadn’t realized Hope would be facing problems too.
I give her hand a squeeze before releasing it and sitting back. “Well, at least we have each other, right?”
She leans forward and clinks her glass against mine. “Right. I’m glad you came to Marycliff, Charity. It’s been good to spend more time with you again the last few years.” She pauses and takes a sip of water. “Do you think you’ll stick around here after you graduate?”
Shrugging, I shake my head. “I’m not sure, really. Maybe? I might go for my Masters in Library Science. But if I can get a job working as a copy editor or something here, I’d stick around for a while.” Spokane’s a nice enough city, but sometimes I miss Seattle. I like being close to the coast and since it’s a bigger city, there’s more to do and more opportunities. I mostly came to Spokane to be near Hope and her family, and while I’d like to stay near them, I haven’t actually planned that far ahead yet.
Eric brings a snuggly Grace in, her hair still damp from her bath and forming loose curls near her shoulders. “Gracie wanted to say goodnight.”
Standing, I move to give her a hug and kiss. “Goodnight, Gracie. I need to go so I can get some homework done, but I’ll see you again soon, okay?”
“Kay.” She kisses my cheek and squeezes my neck before reaching for her dad.
Hope gives me a hug. “Come for dinner this weekend. When would be good?”
“Can I text you? I need to check what’s due soon and see what all I have going on.”
