‘It means I travel and then I have a home. Where Daniel is. Where I will need help.’
‘Are you offering me a job?’ Her voice sounded cold.
‘A job, no. You’re the only mother he’s known, Leonie. I cannot take him from you, I can’t take you from him.’
Her lips narrowed. ‘If you are going to do that someday, Sam, do it now. Now is easier.’
‘No. I know you love him.’
‘And my legal standing with Daniel?’ she asked in the barest whisper, a question she almost couldn’t risk.
‘None, right now. This is a test drive, Leonie. We’ll see.’ I did not feel the need to say that if she ran with Daniel, she couldn’t run far. Not with me and Mila and friends looking for her.
She scratched at her lip, considering.
We were silent for several moments, watching the water wipe the sandy slate clean.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I accept.’
‘I might be at home a lot, I might have to travel. I plan on staying well clear of trouble.’
‘Man plans, God laughs.’ She crossed her arms. ‘You know I didn’t sleep with you because… I did it because I wanted you.’
‘I know. I wanted you, too.’
‘But.’
‘But. We were both in an extreme mental state. It’s too soon for me, after Lucy. I’m sorry.’
She steepled her fingers before her face and studied me. ‘And the future?’
‘I don’t know. I won’t promise something I can’t keep. I’ve had enough of that in my life.’
‘All right. So what city? Las Vegas or New York?’
‘Do you want to go back to art school?’
She looked genuinely surprised. ‘I… I hadn’t considered that as a possibility.’
‘Well. If you want, pick a good one. I’ll pay for it. Or I’ll get you a studio, if you don’t want to go back to school. I would rather you be back at art than forgery.’
Delight played across her face. Art school and Danieclass="underline" that was heaven. ‘You don’t have any preference for a city?’
I shrugged. ‘My folks live in New Orleans, but I don’t really talk to them. I think, with Daniel, now maybe I should mend that fence. I can’t teach him the value of family if I’m too distant from my own.’
‘Yes, show up with your new son and your non-girlfriend who’s not a nanny and takes care of the kid. They would love that, I’m sure. Where else?’
I bit my lip. The wanderer gets to choose a home. ‘I like Austin. I like Savannah. I like Boston and Nashville. I like London and Paris and Dublin.’
‘I like all those choices,’ she said.
‘Then you decide.’ And I meant it. I didn’t care where we lived. I was getting a new start. So was she, so was Daniel. So, even, was Mila. Wind, lift me, take me, then settle me down. I’d lived so much of my life planned out and I was ready for a jolt of spontaneity.
‘Okay. I’ll decide,’ Leonie said, and we walked back to the cottage.
But in the end, Daniel chose, that night. Leonie had written down a bunch of cities on slips of paper, tossed them into a rainbow knit hat she’d bought down on the beach. She couldn’t decide and had thought she’d have me draw a city from the hat.
Daniel, holding onto the coffee table, pulled himself standing. He knocked over the hat and shook it and to his delight the scraps of paper spilled loose.
He grabbed one and tried to stick it in his mouth. I pulled it from his little fist and uncurled the damp strip. Held it up for Leonie to see. She laughed and said, ‘Sold.’
‘Good choice, Daniel,’ I said. He offered up a hand and I gave him a gentle high-five.
He plopped on his butt and began to fuss and then he reached up for the comfort of my arms.