Mike hesitated, thinking maybe he should get her to talk if she was upset. But without knowing what Amanda was dealing with exactly, he figured he’d better try a wait-see before trying to dive into Molly’s little head. As it happened, he didn’t have to worry about either choice, because she’d ambled down to the water garden, holding one of her stuffed cats, before two minutes had passed.
“Mr. Mike, your stones are all wrong.”
He’d framed the kidney-shaped water garden with stones, both to keep down the liner and to make the project look “done.” “What’s wrong with them?”
“You just didn’t put them in a pretty way. They don’t look right.”
He looked at his brilliantly designed minipond, then raised an eyebrow at the pint-size diva. “So how do you think they should look?”
She showed him, and damned if she wasn’t right. After she’d rearranged all the stupid stones, the whole setup looked better landscaped.
“You’re pretty smart,” he told her.
“That’s what my mom says. But grown-ups never listen to me. I don’t know why.” She was ignoring Teddy as if he didn’t exist, but that was possibly because his son had his hands full of worms and was dying to get her attention. “Only, now you need some lights.”
“What kind of lights?”
“You know. The kind of little lights that you put outside. They don’t have cords. They have to get sun during the day to make them work. Then they’d make your pond look pretty at night.” She frowned. “I think you need four.” She motioned where she wanted them.
She was a miniature of her mother. “I think you’re right again.”
“I could give you more ideas, if you want.” Once she opened up, of course, she couldn’t shut up. She supervised lunch, which included how to properly wash hands, how Mike should cut the bread crusts and how napkins were folded. Once they all sat down-including Slugger and Cat-she opened up about Amanda.
“I’ve been thinking about it,” she said, “and I think I know where my mom is. It’s all about heat.”
“Heat,” Mike echoed.
“Yup. Heat. I’ll bet her meeting is with the vet. Because when we took Darling to the vet a while ago-the new vet, the one we’re going to now-he said it might be too late. And then my mom sent me out to the waiting room. And when we got home, that’s when we had to start locking Darling up in the laundry room. Or she had to wear a diaper when she was walking around. It’s all about in heat.”
“I see.”
“Darling doesn’t have to wear a diaper anymore. So I thought everything was okay. But then Mom had to go to this meeting. And that’s the only thing I know she was worried about.”
Okay, he just couldn’t completely let that go. “You know what? Your mom may be worried about something, just like you’re thinking. But you might want to remember, she’s really strong and smart.”
“Yeah, she is,” Molly agreed.
“Being smart doesn’t mean you’ll never have a problem. Everybody has problems. But I think you can stop worrying about your mom. She’s so strong and smart, that I’m positive she’ll find a way to work it out.”
“I sort of know that.” Molly sighed. “I just don’t like it when she doesn’t tell me everything.”
Teddy, clearly tired of being cut out, interrupted to say, “If you get to talk to my dad, then I get to talk to your mom.”
“Yeah. So?”
“And if you get to come over here, then I should get to go over to your house sometimes.”
“Sure,” Molly said.
“And I worry about my dad, too. All the time.”
“Yeah? What about?”
Teddy had to think. “Just things. Like when my mom isn’t nice to him. Things like that.”
The kids had a competitive argument over who was the best kid/who worried most/who took best care of their mom or dad. Mike felt like a humorous fly on the wall; they battled back and forth as if he weren’t even there. The afternoon filled up. He took the kids for ice cream, then had to find a potty. A trip to Target thankfully solved Molly’s shopping need, where he bought exactly the lights she told him to-that required another potty break. By three o’clock in the afternoon, he brought out cards on the deck and played fish forever. At least twenty minutes.
About then he started glancing at his watch. It might be too soon to start watching for Amanda, but he figured whatever had gone right-or wrong-about the custody hearing had already happened. She was either hugely relieved…or hugely upset.
His mother called. She wanted them over for dinner on Sunday. The phone rang again. It was a headhunter who specialized in attorney positions and wanted Mike as a client. The kids settled on the rug with the dog in front of a Disney flick.
Mike told himself to get the mail, get some bills paid, use the quiet time to tackle some chores.
But it was four-thirty by then, and Amanda still wasn’t home.
He knew how courts worked. How custody hearings went. Amanda had no way of knowing how long she’d be gone, and she’d have called him if she expected to be crazy late, or if anything had happened. She’d never have left her daughter hanging.
So there was no reason for him to worry.
And he wasn’t worried exactly.
He was just glued to the window.
At ten to five, her white SUV zoomed into the driveway. The sound of the car sent Slugger baying and Cat snarling at the dog door to confront the arrival. Molly and Teddy didn’t budge-they were near the end of the movie-but when Mike said, “Your mom’s just pulling in, Mol,” the little one bounced to her feet.
Slugger and Cat beat everyone else out the door to greet her, then came kids, with Mike bringing up the rear. By the time he got a look, she was bending down to give Molly a giant hug and kiss, so he couldn’t see her face.
Teddy got in there, to start explaining that he thought he should have time at her house, too, and Amanda was agreeing with him. “I was thinking of something we could do that would be fun for you. You like getting your hands dirty, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do,” Teddy confirmed.
“In fact, Teddy, I was thinking…maybe you could come over when we have a baking afternoon. Lots of flour all over the place. Lots of messes. Lots of squishing butter between your fingers. We could make pies or cookies or something. That sound okay to you?”
“That sounds like something I’ve wanted to do my whole life. And nobody ever let me before.”
After Teddy’s turn, his hound had to be petted, and Molly was still talking to her mom nonstop…but finally, finally, she lifted her head. “Hey, neighbor.
Did you survive?”
“We had a blast.”
“Uh-huh. What do I owe you? A day in a padded cell? Brownies? Cookies for the rest of your life? Slave labor cleaning floors? Pizza?”
She made the kids laugh…he did, too. “Let me think on it.”
“Yeah, you probably need a five-hour nap, huh?”
He chuckled again at her teasing, since she clearly wanted him to. “Everything go okay for you?”
“Sure did,” she said heartily. “Tell you about it when I get a chance. In the meantime…I’d better get Molly in and my brood fed and watered. Thanks, Mike. I really, really appreciate it.”
“Hey, no sweat. Anytime,” he said, and meant it. She looked at him, her expressions, her words, as if he were seriously a cherished friend, sincerity radiating from her tone and smile.
They were doing the friend thing really well, he thought.
And wished he could kick a mountain in the shins.
Something had whipped the hell out of her in that custody hearing. He didn’t know who won what-or who lost what-but Amanda’s eyes had the fierce brightness of a lioness. She was hurting. Bad.