“I don’t know, Mom,” I said. I rubbed a hand over my eyes. This wasn’t the conversation I wanted to be having right now. Or ever, really.
I was saved, though, when my father asked me how the practice was going, and we started to talk about that, instead. The conversation then moved on to the weather, to sports, to how Declan was doing in school. And then Declan was up from his nap, a little bleary-eyed at first, his hair sticking up on one side of his head.
“What do you feel like doing for the rest of the day, buddy?” I asked.
“Can we get ice cream?”
“I did promise him we could get ice cream,” my mother said. “We were going to stop on the way home, but I could tell that he was too tired.”
“Too tired for ice cream?” I raised my eyebrows.
“I’m not too tired anymore! Look how much energy I have!”
And Declan shot off my father’s lap and started racing around the backyard like a pinball.
“Must be nice to have all that energy,” my dad said, laughing.
I was about to tell Declan that we could go get ice cream then, but then he must’ve spied Allie, because he shot across the yard and into her backyard, yelling her name.
“Where’s he going?” my mother asked. I stood up.
“Why don’t you come meet Declan’s teacher,” I said.
My mother brightened. “The woman you saved?”
“Yes, Mom, though we don’t need to refer to her as that, okay? Her name’s Allie.”
Allie must’ve been working in the garden, because that’s where we found the two of them when we got over there. She stood up and brushed her hands off when she saw that my parents were with me.
“Nice to meet you,” she said after they introduced themselves.
“We’re going to get ice cream!” Declan said.
Allie wiped at her forehead. “Are you?” she asked. “It’s certainly a good day for it.”
“Why don’t you join us?” my mother asked. “We were just going to go into town and get this boy here an ice cream—it’d be lovely if you joined us. That is, if you feel up to it, of course—I heard about what happened at the fundraiser. I hope you’re all right.”
“I’m fine,” Allie said. “Just a little banged up, but luckily, Cole was there. And I feel much better now.”
“We’re so glad to hear that,” my mother said.
We all packed into the Range Rover, my mother insisting that I sit in the front and she, Allie, and Declan in the back. It felt a little bit awkward at first, like I was on a date with my parents with my son in tow, but I could tell that it was definitely helping my mother’s mood to be around Allie, which was good. I didn’t want my mother to think about running into Sam because I knew all the guilt that would bring up for her.
Chapter Thirteen
Allie
After we got back from getting ice cream, I said goodbye to Cole’s parents and did a few errands. Amy had texted and asked if I wanted to do dinner and said she would come by with takeout food.
“My mother would be very impressed,” I said. We were sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by containers of Chinese food.
“What do you mean?”
“She’s just under the impression that a place like this wouldn’t have something like takeout.”
“I did have to drive into Gardner for this,” Amy admitted. “I haven’t had Chinese food in forever, but every once in a while, I get a wicked bad craving for it, and this place has the best crab rangoons.”
“They are very good.”