Isaac’s back and looked at him. “I know you didn’t. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap, and it had nothing to do with you.” She was dying to tell him just what had caused her to snap, but she couldn’t do so with Dominic sitting here. The story would have to wait.
“Yeah, Mommy. Daddy didn’t do it. I tripped. I think I was running too fast. I’m very fast, you know. Faster than everyone. I beat you and Daddy all the time.” The washcloths through which Dominic muttered filtered the arrogance out of his voice and rendered it endearing. Reese laughed.
“You are very fast. Too fast for your own good sometimes, I think.” Reese dried his face. “There. How does that feel, sweetheart?”
“Let’s see if that nose has stopped bleeding.” Isaac lowered his arm. A bright red stain decorated the washcloth, but blood no longer gushed from Dominic’s little nose. Isaac put his arm around him and kissed the top of his head. “I think you’re good to go, little man.”
“Wanna wiggle my loose tooth?” Dominic looked hopefully at both of his parents.
Reese ruffled his hair. “Sweetie, we just checked this morning. No loose ones yet, but they’ll come, I promise.”
Dominic stuck his finger in his mouth and wiggled one of the top front teeth. “Ith looth. Thee?”
“Let me take a look.” Isaac placed a finger on the tooth in question and moved it slowly back and forth. He glanced at Reese and raised his eyebrows. “Guess what, Tiger? Congratulations! You have a loose tooth. I think you have the ground to thank for that.”
“Yes! I told you so! I’m gonna go show Max and Gretchen.” With that, he jumped down from the counter and bolted out the door on his way to the backyard.
Reese grinned, but her expression turned solemn instantly when Dominic’s words hit her. “Isaac, oh my God. You’re not going to believe this. Gretchen—”
“Daddy!” Dominic charged back into the room. “Come play baseball again with me and Max.” Dominic grabbed Isaac’s arm and pulled.
“Hang on, Tiger. I’ll be right out. I’m just talking with Mommy for a sec.” Isaac gently pulled his arm free of Dominic’s grasp.
The abrupt interruption made Reese realize that trying to talk to Isaac about Gretchen and Max right now was a bad idea. She shook her head and smiled. “No, that’s okay. Go play ball, boys. We’ll talk later.” She looked solemnly at Isaac, who nodded his understanding and went on his merry way with Dominic.
Reese tried unsuccessfully all afternoon to isolate Isaac so she could discuss this with him. Not that he could do anything about it—she doubted that anyone could do anything about it—but this was huge and devastating and she needed to process it with somebody. More often than not, Isaac was a fantastic listener. He seemed to know just when to contribute to conversations and when to be silent so she could get things off her chest. Right now, though, she could not get Isaac off by himself. So she sat tensely beside Gretchen, her anxiety and stress over this situation increasing by the second.
“Reese, will you just relax? Please?” Gretchen broke into another of Reese’s reveries.
Reese uncrossed her arms and let them drop to the arms of her chair, and she willed her leg to stop bouncing. It was too much of an effort to maintain a relaxed, still position, though, so she promptly refolded her arms across her chest and let her leg resume its rhythmic bobbing. “Relax? Really, Gretchen? Just how am I supposed to do that? You dropped a huge bomb on me, and you’ll soon be dropping another one on your family. I’m hurt that my best friend is doing this, and if I’m this hurt, I can about imagine what Max is going to feel.”
Gretchen sighed impatiently. “Look. I’m sorry that you’re hurt, Reese, and I’m sorry that Max will be hurt. I’m not trying to hurt anyone.”
“But you just don’t care that people are hurt,” Reese said sharply.
“Truthfully, no, not really. You’ll all get over it and move on. I told you. This is what I need to do, and by pursuing my happiness, I’m making room for everyone else to find theirs.”
“Whatever, Gretchen. You keep telling yourself bullshit.”
For the duration of the evening, Reese made meaningless small talk with Gretchen. She only looked at her because she needed to so Max wouldn’t catch on that an earthquake was about to rattle his world. As typical for a weekend evening, they ordered pizza. She watched Isaac light the torches that surrounded the patio. He loved those things. Normally, she did, too. Their dancing flames cast muted, flickering light across the whole area, making people and objects appear to glow warmly from within and without. Tonight, though, she thought that they looked like the flames of hell, and she wanted to go around behind Isaac and snuff them out. Only because she wasn’t in the mood to explain herself did she leave the torches lit.
The pizza came. The boxes were opened. Isaac seemed to take great delight in loading up everyone’s plate by pulling individual pieces out of the box and letting the cheese stretch into long strings before finally separating them from the whole pizza. He laughed. “Look at that! Absolute perfection. Come on, pizza, get in my belly!” Max appreciated the Austin Powers reference. Reese did not, as she didn’t find a single thing funny at the moment. She had little appetite, but she noticed that Gretchen seemed fine. How could she sit here, casually eating and pretending like nothing was about to happen? Reese felt ill as she tucked Dominic into bed and checked on Elise, who was dozing in her playpen in the kitchen. Filled with dread and melancholy, she rejoined the others on the patio. She was barely settled in when Gretchen threw her brick.
Never one to mince words, Gretchen got right to the point. “Max, I’m leaving.”
Max shoved the end of his piece of pizza into his mouth and, without first chewing and swallowing, said, “Where’re you going? Another business trip?”
Reese wanted to scream at Gretchen to knock it off and come to her senses. Instead she remained silent and caught Isaac’s gaze. She tried to bore meaning into him. He looked at her quizzically, and she figured that he probably missed the point. She turned her attention back to Gretchen and Max.
Gretchen made a noise of disgust and wrinkled her nose. “God, Max. Don’t talk with your mouth full. It’s repugnant. And it’s more than a business trip. I mean that I’m leaving you and Elise. For good.”
Max choked on the mouthful of food he had been in the process of swallowing. He tried to gulp down water but in a fit of coughing ended up spitting it all over the table in front of him. He continued to cough. Isaac whacked him on the back. Max continued to cough and sputter for a moment, but he managed to take a few drinks of water from the glass that Reese handed him. When he stopped gasping for air and regained the ability to talk, he looked across the table at his wife, who hadn’t made a move to help him. “What? You’re leaving us? Why?”
Reese couldn’t decide if she wanted to punch Gretchen or simply cry as she listened to her coldly relate a summary of what she had told Reese earlier. When she looked over at Max and saw his distraught expression, she wanted to do both. As Max tried to express his lack of understanding, Reese looked frantically at her husband. She wanted to connect with him, to share this shock even if it was just across the table. Isaac, though, was looking from Gretchen to Max and back again. He squeezed his eyes shut and held them closed for a few seconds. When he opened them, his entire expression was cold and hard, his jaw clenched so tightly she could see knots of muscle formed in the upheaval of teeth bearing down on teeth. His eyebrows seemed to simultaneously
