He sighed again, then stood, swiping his hair back. “Maybe I will,” he said. “Maybe I will. Thanks, Dad.”
“Thankyou,” Eli countered.
He stayed right where he was when Jonah took his phone and went inside, the echo of Kate’s laugh in his ears. It was the prettiest sound he could imagine, and he couldn’t wait to hear it again.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Crista grimaced at Anthony’s words, spoken into her ear the moment she took him off FaceTime so she could say goodbye.
“Isn’t it sweet that?—”
“Crista! I didn’t send you two down there so she could…play! She’s missing school, a recital, and all of our lessons because you promised she would come home knowing how to read.”
On a sigh, she pressed the phone hard to her ear and rushed upstairs for privacy.
“You don’t understand,” she said as she slipped into her room and closed the door.
“No, Cris, I don’t. What about dancing in a fashion show is going to get her into third grade?”
It was a fair question—one she probably would have asked herself if she’d been watching through the phone and not here for the past week or so.
She tried to gather her thoughts. “It’s a process, Anthony.”
“We don’t have time for aprocess,” he shot back. “She needs to read, write, and do math without mixing up her sixes and nines in a few weeks. I’m glad she’s having fun and getting to be a fake flower girl or whatever, but it isn’t going to get her to pass that test.”
“I actually think this is working,” she said after a beat. “She’s getting confident, and her personality is returning.”
“Well, that’s great,” he said. “But nothing would give her as much confidence as opening a book and reading it.”
She closed her eyes and dropped on the bed with a heavy sigh, exhausted by the conversation and the feeling of being torn in two.
“And if she doesn’t pass, I have Plan B,” Anthony said.
“Oh?” She put the phone down, touching the speaker button so she could get comfortable. “What is it?”
“The Hawthorne Academy.”
Crista snorted at the mention of a dream school with the highest acclaim, especially for kids who had trouble in mainstream public schools. “Right. Did you win the lottery?”
“You did,” he said softly.
For a second, she frowned, then realized exactly what he meant.
“That house is worth enough, even split three ways, to pay for Hawthorne and still have money left over for college,” he said, confirming her suspicions. “Which she’d get into at the right age if she isn’t held back.”
Crista let out a small grunt. Talk about being torn! “Are you kidding, Anthony? That would put me smack dab in the middle of…things.”
“In the middle of what?” he asked, just enough tenderness in his voice to soften her. “Until Eli and Vivien cooked up this ‘keep the house’ plan, everyone was very excited about selling it. The whole family was overjoyed that Maggie had secretly held onto this goldmine that would translate into a cash bonanza for all three Lawson siblings. Just because you’re having a nice vacation, are you willing to walk away from that kind of money? Are they?”
She pushed off the bed, needing to walk off the emotion ricocheting through her. She didn’t want to get dramatic and theatrical—it wouldn’t win this argument.
Centering herself, she walked back to the phone. “Listen, it’s hard to put a price on a place like this,” she said softly.
“It’s not that hard, Cris. Look at Zillow. The price is high, the market is strong, and Nolie isour only child. The only thing that matters to you and me is Nolie’s future. Am I right?”
He wasn’t wrong.
“We’ll take vacations down there, I promise,” he said, using the logic that always talked her off an emotional ledge, but tonight? She really didn’t want to hear it.
