couple, Debbie whom she’d met at a yoga class and Mark, who played baseball with Cal, and was delighted when they seemed to hit it off. She wasn’t losing her touch with other people at least. Cal bought Charlie a point-and-shoot camera, and she went with the two of them for walks in the park and on the streets and took loads of pictures. It was fun to discover Charlie’s interest, and restful to be with him and Cal.
Every time her thoughts drifted to Alex and she wondered if he’d proposed yet, she deliberately focused them elsewhere. So she wasn’t even thinking about him the Sunday evening before Thanksgiving when Cal came into the kitchen and asked, “Whatever happened with Alex?”
Her ex had stopped by that afternoon to take Charlie for a bike ride in the park. When they’d come back, Daisy had invited him to stay for leftovers. After, he’d helped Charlie build a fire station with his Legos. Now Charlie had gone upstairs to get ready for his bath while Daisy put dishes in the dishwasher.
She felt a moment’s jolt at the sound of his name. But then she just shrugged. “No idea. Haven’t seen him for a while. I believe he’s got a woman in his life. He seems to think she’s ‘the one.’” Daisy couldn’t help adding that.
Cal looked at her closely. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not,” Daisy said, dropping forks in the silverware slots. “He was never the man I thought he was. He still isn’t.”
“Life sucks,” Cal said with a faint grin.
“It has some good bits,” Daisy countered, nodding toward the stairs where they could both hear Charlie banging around in the upstairs hall.
Cal’s grin widened. “You’re right. It does.” He shoved away from the doorjamb and flexed his shoulders. “I’ll be going then. Thanks for letting me take him to the park.”
“Anytime.” She walked to the front door with him and kissed him on the cheek and he gave her a hug. Then he shrugged on his jacket. “I’ll pick Charlie up Thursday morning. I told my folks we’d be up there by noon.”
Daisy nodded and forced a smile even as she felt her throat tighten. “He’ll have so much fun.”
Cal was taking Charlie to his parents’ upstate for Thanksgiving. They wouldn’t be back until Sunday morning. The thought of rattling around by herself for four days was horrible. But it was good for Charlie and for Cal and his family. It was a part of the life they’d made.
“My folks are really looking forward to it,” Cal said. He looked at her closely. “You can come if you want.” He must have seen some of the hollowness she felt.
Daisy shook her head. “Thanks, but I can’t. You know that.”
If she did Cal’s parents might think there was hope of them getting back together. They had been upset when she and Cal divorced. Now they seemed to be coming to terms with the way things were. It wouldn’t do to get their hopes up again.
“You’re probably right. No, you are right. It’s just—I’m sorry. Especially this year.”
Daisy shrugged. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I’m going to Finn and Izzy’s. It will be chaos. I’ll never miss you. What do you have planned?”
“Going fishing if the weather stays warm enough. Chopping wood otherwise. Getting ready for winter.” He grimaced.
“You’ll have fun.”
“Charlie will make it fun. He and Dad are something else when you get them together.” Cal shook his head, grinning. “Like two kids.”
“I’d guess there were three.” Daisy cocked her head and smiled at him.
Cal rubbed a hand against the back of his neck. “Well, yeah.”
Their eyes met, both of them rueful.
“Moving on,” Daisy said with all the briskness she could muster.
And Cal nodded resolutely. “Moving on.”
He went out, and Daisy locked the door after him. Then she went back into the living room, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. Was Alex having Thanksgiving with the woman in his life? Or was he working on one continent while she was on another?
What did she care? Daisy asked herself irritably.
She didn’t, damn it. But sometimes moving on felt curiously like walking through molasses with her shoelaces tied together. Hard and lonely.
She felt suddenly very, very cold.
FINN and Izzy’s at Thanksgiving was chaos. Finn’s nieces, Tansy and Pansy, were both there, along with Rip and Crash, Finn and Izzy’s sons, and a dozen or so other friends, several slightly giddy from having spent the night before over by the Museum of Natural History where all the gigantic balloon floats for the annual parade were being inflated.
Daisy had gone to the MacCauleys’ early and she’d stayed late. Friday she’d spent the entire day catching up on photo editing. More often than she’d liked, she’d been tempted to open the folder where Alex’s photos were.
Every time, she’d steeled herself against it and had resisted.
Saturday was harder. Her backlog of work was gone. The house was reasonably clean. The laundry was done, folded, put away. The rugs vacuumed, the furniture dusted. She supposed she could clean the oven, but that seemed like taking things too far.
Instead she took the dog Murphy for a long walk in the park, then decided to do some Christmas shopping. Closer to Christmas, stores would be jammed. Of course, they were on Saturday, too. But it wasn’t as lonely as being home by herself, wondering if Charlie and Cal were having a good time.
Wondering what Alex was doing.
It was a relief when Cal and Charlie got back late Sunday afternoon. Charlie was full of stories about hiking in the woods and stacking firewood.
“No, I didn’t let him chop it,” Cal said before she could ask.
“An’ we caught fish,” Charlie told her, hopping from one foot to the other. “We got pictures. Look.”
Daisy admired the pictures Cal had taken of Charlie and the fish. One of them, though, startled her as his expression in it was so much like Alex’s. She never thought he looked like Alex. She really didn’t know who he looked like, except that he had her color hair. But in that photo of him grinning up at his grandfather she could see that he had Alex’s profile. It made her catch her breath.
“What’s wrong?” Cal asked.
“Nothing,” she said, papering over her surprise. “I was just amazed at the size of the fish.”
“It was huuuuuge,” Charlie told her proudly. He spread his arms to their fullest extent.
“Well, maybe not quite that big,” Cal said.
But
