Chapter 49

Evie stirs again when Brody’s car door shuts, but she doesn’t wake, so Gavin has to carry her upstairs when he gets home. She always sleeps in his bed when she visits, so he tucks her in and retires to the couch. It’s getting late, and he has an early day tomorrow—Mondays in the summer he drops her off at daycare before heading into the office. Because he knows he needs to get to sleep, he’s sure he’ll be up half the night.

But he’s more worn out from the beach and the drive than he thought, because one moment he’s stretching out on the couch, and the next, he’s blinking awake to the sound of early morning cartoons. “Hi, Daddy!” Evie says brightly from where she sits at the coffee table, a bowl of cereal in front of her.

He rubs his eyes and glances at his watch. “What time is it?”

Evie answers by saying, “Mommy called. I told her you were sleeping.”

Shit. Marian?“What’d she want?” he asks, though for the life of him, he can’t imagine.

With a shrug, Evie chomps on a spoonful of cereal and turns her attention back to the TV.

Every bone in Gavin’s body aches in protest as he stands. He stretches, trying to wake up his still-sleeping muscles, then yawns with a roar that sets Evie giggling. He heads for the bathroom, snagging his iPhone from the counter as he passes, but he waits until after he relieves himself before calling Marian back.

She lets it ring a while before answering—never a good sign. Gavin used to think she just didn’t keep her phone on her, and would leave long voicemails telling her to call him back, but she never did. When he finally asked her about it, she said not to bother. “I thought you just couldn’t find the phone,” he said, sheepish.

“No, I know where it is,” Marian snapped. “I’m staring right at it thinking daggers at your name on the display. If I don’t answer, don’t leave me a message because I’m not talking to you at the moment. You’ve done pissed me off.”

“What’d I do now?” he asked.

Marian made a little perturbed noise in the back of her throat. “As if you don’t know.”

Thing is, with her, he doesn’tknow, and he sits on the closed lid of the toilet, dreading the click that will tell him his call has gone into her voicemail. They didn’t leave Friday on the best of terms. All Gavin can picture is Marian drinking herself into an angry stupor over the weekend and wanting to have at him first thing Monday morning.

Which is notthe way he wants to start the day.

So he’s pleasantly surprised when she finally answers. “Hey, you,” she says, her voice almost as bright as Evie’s despite the early hour.

“Hey, yourself,” Gavin says. Silence spawns between them. After a long moment, he prompts, “Evie said you called.”

“Just wanted to see how your weekend went,” Marian says.

Bullshit,Gavin thinks, but keeps the thought to himself.

“So,” Marian drawls, “did you have a nice Father’s Day?”

“It was nice,” Gavin admits.

When he doesn’t elaborate, Marian asks, “What’d she give you? She said it was a picture of some sort, but it was already wrapped when I saw it. I don’t know where—“

“A picture Brody drew of her,” Gavin explains. Even when Marian’s playing nice, talking to her is painful. “I guess he framed and wrapped it for her.”

“Hmm.” The quiet between them stretches out with an almost palpable heaviness.

When it’s obvious she isn’t going to say anything further, Gavin offers, “Well, I should probably get ready to go. I have to drop Evie at daycare—“

“What are you doing for dinner?” Marian asks suddenly.

Wary, Gavin asks, “Tonight?”

“Or whenever.” He can hear her shrug in her voice. “I was just thinking maybe we could do something as a family sometime. You, me…I can make spaghetti.”

Her spaghetti sauce is good, better than anything he’s ever found in a jar at the supermarket. The one thing he misses about living with her is his daughter, of course, but her food is a close second. She cooks everything with wine, which adds to the flavor and robustness of her dishes…and her loose grip on sobriety.

He tries to think if he and Brody made any set plans for the coming week. He doesn’t think so. And dinner with Evie would be nice. It’s good for her to see her parents together sometimes, not always fighting. Gavin will just have to call Brody sometime this afternoon and do something with him Tuesday evening after work instead.