He laughed. “Chris is in the middle of getting a graduate degree in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley.”
She was surprised. She glanced back to Chris, who’d ended the call and was now pocketing his phone. “Is he not doing well professionally?”
“Chris is one of the best outfielders in the American League. But he’s also a thinker. He’s one of those guys who needs to use his brain.”
Sixteen
They’d done it. Made it. Sarah had arrived in California with the kids, flying in late Friday night. Her dad had picked them up at the San Francisco airport and they were staying with him this week while Boone was gone.
Brianna was still at the house with Dad, but she’d gotten a job volunteering with a women’s shelter and was working all day Saturday, and Dad was playing golf, so Sarah took the kids to the California Academy of Science located in Golden Gate Park.
The building wasn’t far from where she’d grown up, and she’d loved the natural history museum and aquarium as a kid, but it was even better now. The park also had a children’s playground, also recently renovated, and the stunning 1912 carousel shimmered with fresh paint and color.
But by midafternoon the famous San Francisco summer fog began to roll in, in wisps at first then thickening and cloaking the park’s signature eucalyptus trees. Temperatures dropped rapidly, and it wasn’t long before Ella and Brennan, Florida kids, had had enough of the slides and swings and begged to return to Grandpa’s.
Back at the house, both kids wanted hot baths before watching a movie. With them in their pajamas, Sarah let them settle down to watch the movie so she could make dinner for everyone, having pulled a package of pork chops out of the freezer that morning.
Dad entered the kitchen via the laundry room, which connected to the narrow one-car garage, the Edwardian-era structure better suited to a horse and buggy than the modern-day SUV. He removed his cleats by the door and then padded into the kitchen in his socks.
“Something smells good,” he said, sniffing appreciatively, passing the stove to get a look at the browning pork chops. “Making your mom’s pork-chop casserole?”
“I am,” Sarah answered. She was just about finished peeling the potatoes she would then slice and place in the dish. “Hey, can we open that bottle of wine in the fridge? I wanted a glass but wasn’t sure if you were saving it for something.”
“I bought it for you,” Dad said, retrieving the Chardonnay and then searching one of the drawers for the bottle opener. “But don’t drink it all tonight. It’s not good for you.”
Sarah stopped peeling to look at him. “I don’t drink that much, Dad.”
“I just care about you.” He peeled the foil off the bottle and then eased the cork out. “You’re important to me.”
She stifled her irritation and rinsed off her final potato. “I appreciate that. But I’m careful. I have to be. I’m pretty much a single parent these days.”
“Where is Boone playing tonight? Arizona?”
She nodded. “He called while we were at the museum, but I couldn’t get good reception, and then when I called him back a half hour later, he was already at the park. I always forget that Arizona is a different time zone than California.”
Late that evening, after the kids were in bed and Sarah still hadn’t heard from Boone, she called him. It was almost eleven her time, which meant it was midnight his, and the game had been over for hours.
Trying to be playful, she asked him if he was out having fun with his girlfriends.
Boone hesitated a moment too long. “Yeah,” he answered curtly. “Yeah, I am.”
Sarah swallowed, realizing belatedly it wasn’t the right thing to say to him. He wasn’t amused. “I was just kidding,” she murmured.
“No, you weren’t,” he answered. Boone didn’t get angry often, but when he did, it wasn’t nice. He was angry now.
“I’m sorry.”
He didn’t respond, and she could feel his anger on the line, and his anger, coupled with the silence, made her feel sick. And disgusted.
Why had she made a joke like that? Feeble, so feeble . . .
“I took the kids to Golden Gate Park today,” she said, trying to smooth things over. “We visited the natural science museum and aquarium and then the children’s park. It was fun.”
“Sounds fun.”
“That’s where we were when you called. Earlier.”
He said nothing. Sarah struggled to keep the conversation moving. “The kids froze when the fog moved in. And I forgot we might need sweatshirts. We ran to the car, teeth chattering.”