No.
Mind if I keep you company?
No.
Good.Noah had taken another sip of beer, then sat down on the grass, cross-legged. Ralph had come over, sniffing the sweating beer bottle, and Noah stroked the cat’s back. Ralph’s tail curled into a question mark.
He doesn’t like that. Pet under his chin.
Okay. Noah scratched Ralph under his chin, and the cat squinched up his face, wrinkling his nose.
He drooled and purred,Caleb had said, but it was barely intelligible.The letter R was difficult for kids with apraxia and other speech disorders. Noah remembered they were behind on their target words this week and at this rate, they’d never get toaccident, badges, antiseptic, oremergency.
Noah said,I really am sorry I threw that fit. I’m going to say I’m sorry to Maggie and Anna too.
Not Anna. She got a car. She didn’t ask.
Yes, that’s true, but two wrongs don’t make a right. I’m the father and I have to act like one.
You’re not her father.
No, that’s true,Noah had said, surprised. I’m not her biological father, but I’m her stepfather.
Caleb had fallen silent, looking away at the cat, and Noah hadrealized that he might have been overlooking Caleb’s reaction to Anna’s moving in.
What do you think about that, Caleb?
Caleb hadn’t answered.
Does it make you happy or sad? You can tell me, buddy.
Still no reply. Caleb always shut down when he was stressed. He’d known his speech wasn’t up to the task.
Son, don’t worry about how the words come out. Just tell me. I can understand you. I thought you liked her.
She doesn’t like me.
Why do you say that? I think she does. I know she does. You guys had a good time with the trains.Noah had touched Caleb’s bare arm, chilled in the cooling air. It had been a cold spring, and the backyard smelled of soggy mulch.
She said a curse.
What was the curse?
We were in the car. She said, “Don’t effing touch the buttons.”
Caleb, that was wrong.Noah had flashed on the night at Bed Bath & Beyond, when Anna had asked him if he wanted to know how soft she was. Maybe he hadn’t misheard her. Maybe this was a game she played. Or maybe Caleb had been lying out of jealousy.
Dad, don’t tell Mag. Mag loves her.
Caleb, Maggie loves you, too, you know. She loves you very much.
I know. She always tells me.
Good.Noah had given Caleb a hug, and in time they had gone inside, and the courtroom came back into focus and Noah wasn’t in his backyard anymore. Thomas, Linda, and Judge Gardner were still huddling, leaving the jury in suspended animation and Noah on the witness stand, wondering if anything would have been different if he’d told Maggie what Caleb had said.
But what had happened next was so much worse, it had gone forgotten.
Chapter Thirty-six
