The Challenge(40)
“That would be cool too,” Juliet said, giddy with the decision. They talked for a few more minutes, and Beth said she’d come out in a few weeks and find a place to rent, but she had work to do in New York first.
“Well, it took a year, but you got me out there after all,” Beth said to Tom, but they both knew she wasn’t doing it for him, and she wouldn’t have. She was doing it for Juliet. It seemed like a compromise that might work for all. And Beth wouldn’t be trapped there. She would still have one foot firmly planted in New York.
The next morning, Tom called Absarokee High School, and made an appointment to enroll Juliet for freshman year. When Juliet told Peter, he couldn’t believe it. The weird thing was that she and her mother hadn’t gotten along for the past year, but ever since Juliet had gotten lost on the mountain, everything had changed. She and her mother were enjoying spending time with each other again. Beth had changed after those three fateful days and almost losing her. They appreciated each other more than they had before, and Tom and Beth had made peace at last.
Beth still couldn’t believe she was moving to Montana part-time a week later when she told her agent, but she wasn’t sorry.
“You’re moving to a place called Fishtail?” he said, sounding horrified. “How does that compute?”
“It computes just fine because I love my daughter.” So she was moving to a tiny town called Fishtail, Montana. It made perfect sense to her, and with any luck, she’d have the best of both worlds: the excitement she thrived on in New York, and time with Juliet in Montana before she grew up and flew away. It was worth a try, and she was hopeful it would work. It was a bold move for Beth.
* * *
—
Before she left New York, Beth had lunch with a friend she’d known since her magazine days, before she’d married Tom, and told her that she was moving to Montana part-time. Her friend, Natalie Wyndham, looked at her like she was crazy.
“You? Montana? Have you lost your mind, or are you having an affair with a handsome cowboy who ties you to the bed?” Natalie asked her. She ran a small publishing house now, and she knew Beth well, although they didn’t see each other often. They were both busy, and Beth hadn’t seen many people during the year her marriage unraveled. She was too upset when Tom threw their whole life out the window to move to Montana.
“The cowboy idea sounds interesting, but actually, no, I’m not. I’m trying to be grown up and open-minded, and a good mother.”
“That sounds awful.” Natalie winced at the thought. She didn’t have children. She had lived with the same man for thirteen years and was happy with their life that way, committed but unmarried. She said it gave her the illusion of being free and independent. And the idea of children had always terrified her, after an unhappy childhood herself. “Why Montana?”
“Tom had some sort of personal crisis last year. He quit his job, went ‘back to nature,’ decided he hated everything we had worked our asses off for and that our life stood for.”
“Fell in love with your best friend’s brother and discovered he’d been born to be a woman?” Natalie asked as they ate their salads, and Beth laughed.
“No, not that. But our marriage had died while we weren’t looking. Or maybe we knew and just didn’t have the guts to say it. It was actually the right move for him, and maybe for me too. We filed for divorce, and he moved to a town the size of a doorknob in Montana. He loves it. Now my daughter does too. So I can either drag her back to New York and force her to live here and go to a school she doesn’t like, while she hates me for it, or let her live there with her father, and never see her, and I don’t want to miss the few years I have left with her before she leaves for college. Or, I can try to do a juggling act and go back and forth myself and see how that works. I can work from there, as long as I maintain all my contacts in New York, and I’ll be able to spend some time here every month. If I’m going crazy there, I can come back whenever I want for a quick fix. I know this sounds weird, but I was out there this summer, and I actually like it. Tom wasn’t entirely wrong to want to live there. It’s perfect for him. Living here was killing him, and it killed our marriage. So, there you are. Fishtail, Montana, here I come.” She smiled and Natalie shook her head in dismay.
“You obviously drank the Kool-Aid. Now you know why I never wanted kids. They make you crazy and force you to give up everything you love, like New York City. I’d rather commit suicide than live in the suburbs for a kid, let alone move to Montana. You should get Mother of the Year for that,” she said somewhat in awe, and Beth laughed.
“I didn’t do it for Tom when he wanted me to live there full-time. I’m not sure I could have done that. Maybe for the right guy, but not for him. But I’m doing it for her. I never thought about it that way before, but motherhood is about making sacrifices you thought you’d never make, and suddenly you’re doing something you swore you’d never do, for them. I thought I’d lost her this summer. She got lost in the mountains with some other kids for three days. I’d die if something happened to her,” Beth said. “They were the worst three days of my life, so spending time in Montana to be with her doesn’t sound so bad to me. Maybe sacrifice is the nature of loving someone. I didn’t love Tom enough to move out there. I’m happy to do it to be with Juliet. And I like the people I met there this summer.”