“Something wrong?” she asked as she tucked him into bed that night. He had scarcely said a word to her all through dinner. Usually he raved about whatever it was he had done with his father. “You feel okay?” She felt his neck and his back but he wasn't hot. He was very cool, but his eyes looked worried, as his head rested on his pillow.
“Yeah.” He looked as though he was on the verge of tears and she didn't want to leave him. “Dad said … I can't tell you.” He didn't want to hurt her feelings.
“Did you two get in some kind of argument today?” Maybe Andy had done something really dangerous and Brad had swatted him on the behind, but it wasn't like him. But Andy only shook his head and continued to look unhappy.
But after a few minutes, he couldn't contain himself anymore, and he started to cry as he lay there.
“Oh sweetheart,” she said, and held him close to her as she lay next to him on the bed. “You know Daddy loves you, whatever he said to you today.”
“Yeah …but …” he choked on the words as he clung to her “…he has a girlfriend. Her name is Stephanie,” he said miserably. It was out now. He had told her, and she smiled through her own tears as she held him.
“I know. It's okay. I know all about her.”
“Have you seen her?” he asked, looking amazed as he pulled away from her, but his mother shook her head, thinking how sweet he looked as he lay there.
“No, I haven't. Have you?”
“At lunch. She was terrible. She's skinny and dumb and ugly, and she hates me.”
“I'm sure she doesn't. She's probably scared of you, and wants to make a good impression.”
“Well, I hated her. And Dad says I have to try to like her.” It was serious then, Page thought to herself. If he was pressing Andy on her, maybe they were planning to get married. She felt a tug at her heart at the thought, but knew that, like Andy, she'd have to get used to the idea that Stephanie was part of Brad's life now, perhaps forever. “Why don't you just try?” Page said gently. “She may be nicer than you think when you get to know her. She must have something good about her, if Dad likes her.”
“No, she doesn't,” he said, and wiped his eyes. “I hate her.” And then, with worried eyes, he asked her a question.
“Do you think Daddy will ever come back to us?” he asked anxiously. That was what it was all about. Stephanie was a threat to Brad's safe return to Andy's mother.
“I don't know,” Page said honestly. “I don't think so.”
“But if he marries her, he can't come back to you.” He looked at Page miserably. “I hate her.”
“No you don't. You don't really know her. And Dad's not marrying her yet. I think you're worrying too much.” But she also knew he wasn't wrong. They probably would get married.
“They're going to Europe this summer. That means he won't take us on vacation.” He didn't understand that Brad wouldn't have taken them on vacation now anyway. But it irked her to hear that Brad was taking Stephanie to Europe. He had never taken her, and she had wanted to go for years. She hadn't been since before she married Brad, with her parents.
“We shouldn't leave Allie anyway,” Page said quietly. “Does Daddy want to take you with him?” He hadn't said anything to her, but maybe he would eventually. But Andy just shook his head.
“They're going alone. For a month.” Page nodded as she listened. He had his own life now, and they had theirs. And she had Trygve.
“Let's not worry about it now, okay? Daddy loves you very much, and so do I. And I'll bet his friend is really very nice, and you'll get to like her.”
He growled a little bit about it again as she tucked him in, and the next day he was still grouchy over breakfast. To him, the threat of Stephanie meant only one thing: Brad was not coming back to him, or his mother. And then he looked up from breakfast suddenly and asked Page a question that tore at her heart. She had to turn away so he wouldn't see her crying.
“What are we going to tell Allie about Dad? When she wakes up I mean? How will we tell her?” Page looked out the window and blew her nose as she struggled for an answer. If only one day they'd have a chance to talk to Allie.
“We'll figure something out by then.”
“Maybe Stephanie will die' he said angrily, and Page almost laughed when she turned around to face him. He was so emphatic, he was almost comical. She chased him out to the garden then, and her mother called a few minutes later.
She had nothing new to say except that Alexis had developed a frightful ulcer. It didn't surprise Page at all. It was something that happened to anorexics. From starving themselves their stomach acids began eating through their stomach. But of course her mother said it was because Alexis was naturally nervous.
Her mother seemed surprised when Page explained again that Brad was no longer there. It was as though Page had never told her. As usual, she refused to accept what Page was saying to her, and they hung up a few minutes later.
She said something to Trygve about it that afternoon, about how dysfunctional her family had been, and it was hard for him to understand it. His parents were normal to the point of being boring.
“You're lucky,” she said comfortably.
They sat together talking and touching hands, and wishing they could kiss as they sat on his front lawn, within clear view of their children.
Bjorn and Andy were playing ball, and Andy was throwing left-handed. His cast was going to come off soon. And Chloe was sitting in a wheelchair, next to Jamie Applegate, poring over some homework.
“Brad introduced him to Stephanie yesterday,” she told Trygve as they watched them.
“How did he take it?”
“Not very well. But I wouldn't expect him to. She's a big threat to him. It means it's really over. He said he hated her.” She grinned mischievously. “It must have been a great lunch.”
“I think kids always have dreams of their parents getting back together.” He smiled at her. “I know even mine still secretly think that Dana will come back home and we'll get back together again.”
“Would you want her to?” she asked with a look of interest, and he leaned close to her and smiled.
“God, no. I'd leave town …with you in my suitcase.”
“Good.” She smiled back at him and their hands touched briefly.
The two families spent a happy afternoon, and Page and Trygve cooked dinner for them. Chloe set the table from her wheelchair and did what ever she could, and Bjorn and Andy cleaned up afterward. They were a good team and they had a great time together. Chloe seemed to fill Andy's longing for his older sister. Nick was coming home in a few days again too. He had a summer job in Tiburon, at the tennis club, and they were excited about him coming home from college. The only one missing would be Allie.
After dinner, they were sitting in the dining room, talking about her, when Chloe said how much she missed her, and how much she still hoped she'd wake up from her coma. They all wished for that, and it still wasn't too late. But two months was a long time. In another month, the outlook would dim further. Dr. Hammerman still seemed to feel that if she didn't come out of it within three months of the accident, perhaps she never would. It was something Page tried not to think about, but late at night, as she lay in bed, she was haunted by the fear that Allyson might spend the rest of her life in a coma.
“I saw Mrs. Chapman yesterday,” Page said quietly. “At Safeway. The poor woman looked awful. She just looked kind of gray, as though all the life had gone out of her.” Trygve nodded, thinking of what it would be like. He couldn't even imagine it, and didn't want to. Phillip would have graduated a few days before. And at graduation, there had been a moment of silence for him.
Chloe's eyes filled with tears, and she turned away, thinking of that night, as she often did. Bits of it had come back to her. She had even gone to the therapy group with Jamie because she had a lot of guilt about talking Allie into going with her. That night had changed so much for so many.