Along for the Ride(46)

‘What?’ he said.

I wrapped my hand around his, pulling him into my room and shutting the door gently behind us. Then I motioned for him to follow me across the short distance to the window, the farthest spot from the wall between the baby’s room and mine.

‘Auden,’ he said, his voice still loud. ‘What are you doing?’

‘The baby was really colicky last night,’ I whispered. ‘And this morning. But she’s finally sleeping, so I bet Heidi is, too.’

He glanced at his watch, then at my closed door. ‘How do you know she’s sleeping?’

‘Who?’

‘The baby. Or Heidi, for that matter,’ he said.

‘Do you hear crying?’ I asked him.

We both listened. All that was audible was the noise machine. ‘Well, this is anticlimactic,’ he said after a moment. ‘I finally finish my book and nobody cares.’

‘You finished your book?’ I asked. ‘That’s great.’

Now, he smiled. ‘Just wrote the last paragraph. Want to hear it?’

‘Are you kidding?’ I replied. ‘Of course I do.’

‘Come on, then.’

He opened the door, and I followed him – quietly – down the hallway, back to his office, where he’d pretty much been living for the last couple of weeks. This was obvious by the collection of mugs, empty water bottles, and broken apple cores in various states of decomposition that I spied as soon as I stepped inside.

‘Okay,’ my dad said, sitting down in front of his laptop and punching a few keys. A document appeared, and he rubbed his hands together, then moved the page down so only a couple of lines were showing. ‘Ready?’

I nodded. ‘Ready.’

He cleared his throat. ‘“The path was more narrow now, the lacy boughs of the trees bending to meet each other as I walked beneath them. Somewhere, ahead, was the sea.”’

When he finished, we just stood there, letting the words settle around us. It was a big moment, although I was somewhat distracted as distantly, I was pretty sure I heard a yelp. ‘Wow,’ I said, hoping I was wrong. ‘That’s great.’

‘It’s been a long haul, that’s for sure,’ he said, leaning back in his chair, which creaked beneath him. ‘Ten years, all leading up to those twenty-seven words. I can’t really believe it’s finally done.’

‘Congratulations,’ I said.

Thisbe was definitely crying now, the sound growing louder from down the hall. My dad sat up straighter, hearing it, then said, ‘Sounds like they’re up! Let’s go share the good news, shall we?’

And with that, he was out of his chair, a bounce in his step as he walked back down to Thisbe’s room, pushing the door open. Instantly, the crying went from low level to full on. ‘Honey, guess what?’ he was saying as I caught up with him. ‘I finished my book!’

All it took was one look at Heidi to know that, frankly, she probably couldn’t have cared less. She was still in her pajamas from the night before, a pair of yoga pants and a rumpled T-shirt with some kind of damp stain on the front. Her hair was flat and stringy, her eyes red as she looked at both of us, as if we looked familiar, but she wasn’t quite sure why.

‘Oh, Robert,’ she managed as Thisbe squirmed in her arms, her own face red and twisted, ‘that’s just wonderful.’

‘I think a celebration is in order, don’t you?’ he asked, then turned to look at me for confirmation. I was still trying to decide whether I should nod or not when he added, ‘I was thinking we’d do a nice dinner. Just the two of us. What do you think?’

It was hard to ignore Thisbe when she was screaming. I knew, because I had been trying since, oh, the day I’d arrived. And yet my dad could somehow do it. Apparently.

‘I don’t know,’ Heidi said slowly, looking down at the baby, who was clearly in a state. ‘I don’t think I can take her out like this…’

‘Of course not,’ my dad said. ‘We’ll find a sitter. Didn’t Isabel say she’d love to come help you out one night?’

Heidi blinked at him. She honestly looked like pictures of prisoners of war I’d seen in history books, that out of it and shell-shocked. ‘She did,’ she said. ‘But…’

‘Let’s call her, then,’ my dad said. ‘Get her earning those godmother stripes. I’ll do it, if you like. What’s her number?’

‘She’s out of town,’ Heidi said.

‘Oh.’ My dad considered this. And then, slowly, he turned to me. ‘Well… Auden? Think you can help us out here?’

Heidi looked at me, then shook her head. ‘Oh, no, that’s not fair. We can’t put you on the spot like that.’

‘I’m sure Auden doesn’t mind,’ my dad said. To me he added, ‘Do you? It would only be for a couple of hours.’

I probably should have been annoyed by this easy assumption, but honestly, looking at Heidi, agreeing felt more like an intervention than a favor. I said, ‘Sure. No problem.’

‘But you’ve got to go to work,’ Heidi said, shifting Thisbe to her other arm, which did not stop or even slow down the crying. ‘The books… payroll is tomorrow.’

‘Well,’ my dad said, glancing at me again. ‘Maybe…’