“Sylvie’s on the other line, Mom,” Lucas said in a strange voice. “We both wanted to talk to you. Is this a bad time?”
Amy snapped the laptop screen shut and stepped out of the living room. In the kitchen, she opened and closed severalcupboards, not looking for anything in particular. Since arriving, this was the first phone call either of them had initiated, and Amy couldn’t help feeling like something was wrong.
“Are the girls okay?”
Sylvie sighed. “June, Judy, and Beth are fine. We want to talk about you, Mom. Listen, we know things have been tough lately—”
“But you and Dad have been married for decades,” Lucas interrupted, his voice rising toward the end. “What’s changed that made you want to leave out of the blue?”
Amy pushed herself up to the tips of her toes and reached for the glass bowl in the back. “Nothing’s changed. I’m the one who just couldn’t do it anymore.”
“We were supposed to ease her into it, Lucas,” Sylvie scolded, her voice trailing off. “We’re just trying to understand, Mom. What’s so bad that you left the city and the only life you’ve ever known?”
Lucas blew out a breath. “Is this some kind of midlife crisis?”
Amy went to the refrigerator and returned with an armful of ingredients, including a container of butter, eggs, and flour. “It is not a midlife crisis. Not anymore, at least. Your dad already filed for divorce.”
“I’m sure he’d be willing to drop the case if you come back,” Lucas argued, conversation rising and falling around him. “Mom, please. We’re just worried about you. This all feels very sudden and unlike you.”
“I’m on the phone, Stu!” Sylvie yelled. “Yeah, look, Lucas is right. This can’t be good for you. At your age, you’re supposed to be settling into a routine, not turning your whole world upside down.”
Amy frowned as she measured out a spoonful of baking soda. “At my age? I’m not that old, you know.”
Except, she knew they were right.
And in their own way, they were trying to help her.
It wasn’t their fault the two of them were so busy hustling and grinding with their own lives that they couldn’t see what was happening right under their own noses. Since they were born, Amy made a promise to herself to shield them from her own problems and to make sure they never carried around her burdens, and she’d honored it every day since then.
Nothing had changed, not to her.
Unlike Eric, Amy had no intention of going into the nitty-gritty details of her marriage. The last thing she wanted was to tarnish their father’s reputation.
After all of the years they shared together, she owed him at least that much.
“Sylvie didn’t mean anything bad by that,” Lucas added with a sigh. “She just means that things don’t have to change. Not if you don’t want them to. You can still come home.”
Amy cracked open the eggs and began to whisk. “I’m not going back. Not anytime soon, at least. I still have some things I need to figure out.”
A long and tense moment settled between them.
Amy wanted to reach into the phone and pull them both out for a hug, but she knew it wasn’t possible. Neither of them was going to understand unless she explained it to them, and she wasn’t ready to burst their bubble just yet. Before she could say anything else to dispel the awkwardness, Lucas’s phone beeped, and someone called out his name in the background.
Then, Sylvie’s voice turned distorted, and the line went dead.
Amy finished preparing the buttermilk pancake batter, covered the bowl, and shoved it into the fridge. When Ashley came out of her room, dressed as if she was about to go on a walk, Amy impulsively decided to join her. In silence, the two women set off at a leisurely pace, with Amy struggling not to overtake Ashley’s smaller and daintier steps.
“You really stay in shape.” Ashley placed both hands on her thighs, hidden underneath the pink tracksuit. She blew out a breath. “You’ve got to teach me how to do that.”
Amy’s lips twitched. “I just like to walk, but I wouldn’t say I’m in shape.”
“Oh, you definitely are.” Ashley straightened her back and tilted her head to enjoy the warmth of the sun on her face.
On either side of them, people on the walking path raced past, illuminated by the soft glow of the midmorning sun. Blue clouds rolled by, and a flock of birds took to the sky.
But Amy couldn’t shake off the feeling the phone call could’ve gone better. She’d been working up the courage to tell her kids about the divorce all through her phone call with Liam’s lawyer friend.
Now, like a lot of other things, Eric had taken that away from her.
