Catching Fireflies(64)

“I think you’re right,” Diana concurred. “I just didn’t want to accept it. It’s up to your dad and me to figure that out, though. And we need to do it now, so we don’t go on hurting you and Jake. I guess I kept hoping I could wait him out, that he’d come to his senses and come home.” She gave her daughter a rueful look. “Blinders, huh?”

“Pretty much,” Misty confirmed.

Diana reached across the table for Misty’s hand. “Do you want to talk about this situation with Annabelle some more before I call your dad?”

Misty shook her head. “And I don’t want to be here when you tell him.”

“You can stay in your room, if you like. Why don’t you take some cookies and milk upstairs for you and your brother?”

Misty’s eyes widened with surprise. “You baked cookies today?”

The shock on her daughter’s face was too telling. Things evidently hadn’t been the way they should have been around here for far too long. “I did. I was a little distracted, so they might be a bit brown around the edges, but I think they’re edible.”

Misty bounced out of her chair and threw her arms around her. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“They’re just cookies,” Diana said, even as she realized that to Misty they were far more. They were a hint that things might be returning to normal, or at least to whatever the new normal might be. It shook her to realize how little her children had come to expect from her.

When Misty had filled a plate with the chocolate chip cookies that had always been her favorite, she poured two glasses of milk, then gave Diana another hug before heading upstairs, shouting for Jake en route.

“There are cookies,” she sang out. “Mom baked!”

Diana closed her eyes against yet another potential flood of tears, then determinedly reached for the portable phone and took it outside.

“Les, it’s me,” she said when her husband picked up. “You need to come over.”

“Is this some new trumped-up crisis?” he asked, his tone resigned. “Give it up, Diana. I’m not moving back home.”

She drew in a deep breath at his harsh, justifiably suspicious words, then said, “I’ve finally accepted that, but you do need to come over. There’s a problem with Misty and it’s serious.”

“What’s happened to Misty?” he asked, real panic immediately evident in his voice. “Was she in an accident? Is she okay?”

“Physically she’s fine, but you’re not going to believe what she’s been going through on her own, because you and I have been too preoccupied to pay close enough attention to her.”

He sucked in a breath, then blurted, “Dear God, she’s not pregnant, is she?”

“No, but instead of throwing out possibilities, could you please come over here so I can fill you in on the facts?”

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” he said at once.

Diana turned off the phone with a sigh. Whatever had gone on between the two of them, however badly their marriage had deteriorated, she couldn’t deny that Les loved his kids. He might not always know the best way to demonstrate that love, but she knew she could count on him to be there for them. She was the one who had to get used to the idea of living without him.

As of today, though, there was no longer any question that she had to find a way to do just that.



Cookies or no cookies, tonight was turning out to be the worst night of Misty’s entire life. Her dad came over after the call from her mom. Even in her room, she could hear them in the living room, fighting like always. When she couldn’t stand it, she went to the top of the steps and sat listening. Okay, she knew eavesdropping was bad, but they were fighting about her. She figured she was entitled to hear what they were saying.

“How could you let a thing like this happen?” her father shouted. “You say it’s been going on since school started. Aren’t you supposed to know when your own child is being tormented by another kid? If you’re too self-absorbed to pay any attention to what’s going on with Misty and Jake, maybe I should fight for custody.”

That was the very last straw for Misty. She bolted down the steps and into the living room.

“No!” she shouted at her startled father. “Don’t you dare blame Mom. She didn’t know because I didn’t want her to know. She was already falling apart because of you. I didn’t think she could take any more.”

Her dad seemed to wilt under the attack. “Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry,” he said, reaching for her.

Misty pulled away. “Too late. And what are you sorry for anyway? What happened to me? Leaving us? What? Being sorry doesn’t help.”