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Your mother isn’t any family to me. Only she couldn’t say that—not to Summer. Mostly she adored the teen, who was always so wonderful with Jackson. And while she appreciated the support, she didn’t actually care about Peter’s clients.
Only without them, there wasn’t any future income. Once Peter was out of jail, he would need a business to go back to and she didn’t know the first thing about bookkeeping and taxes. Her eyes burned as she realized no matter where she turned, she was trapped.
“I can’t deal with his clients,” she admitted, wondering when she was going to hit bottom, because right now it seemed like the disasters just kept on coming. “I can’t deal with any of this.”
Summer slid Jackson to the floor, then hurried to the sofa and sat next to Allison. She put her arms around her and squeezed tight.
“We’re going to get through this,” the teen said fiercely. “We will. I’m scared, too. He’s my dad and I don’t know what’s happening. Thinking about what to do for you really helps me but you don’t have that.”
Allison managed a smile. “You understand a lot for just being a kid.”
“I know, right?” Summer bounced to her feet. “Let me text my mom right now and we’ll figure out a good time to get together. Do you want to meet here or at our house?”
Exhaustion joined worry, leaving her with a case of I don’t care.
What did it matter where they met? Nothing would come of the moment, with the possible exception of Erica doing her best to make her feel awful, stupid and small. Something Allison was perfectly capable of doing on her own.
“I doubt she’ll be able to do anything,” she murmured before she could stop herself.
Summer waved the comment away. “Don’t tell her I said this, but she’s really amazing. She has all kinds of people working for her and they mostly love her.” She flashed a grin. “Okay, they’re a little scared of her, too, but they would do anything for her.”
Allison couldn’t reconcile that statement with what she knew to be true about Peter’s ex-wife, so she ignored it. She slid onto the floor, next to Jackson, who beamed at her. He grabbed a cow and a chicken, then climbed onto her lap and waved his arms.
“I see them,” she said, faking a happy voice. “Chickens give us eggs.”
“And KFC,” Summer added, while typing on her phone. “Okay, so let’s get together tomorrow. We’ll figure out a plan, then you can talk to Dad about it on Saturday. You can tell Mom any specifics he shares and she’ll get it all managed.” She looked up with a smile. “One problem solved.”
Allison wished it could be that simple. Erica was a hairdresser with a few employees. How did that compare to Peter’s large accounting business? She had never done her own books—in fact Peter had been her accountant. That was how they had met.
But Summer meant well and Allison didn’t have it in her to refuse the kind offer. Especially when Summer was pretty much the only person she knew who was totally on her side.
Allison’s regrets about meeting Erica were immediate and only grew overnight. By the next morning, she was making lists of reasons it was a bad idea and wondering how to convince Summer to call the whole thing off. But between getting ready for her shift at the grocery store and dropping Jackson off at day care, she didn’t have time to do anything, and after six hours on her feet, she hurt too much to think, let alone act.
She collected her son, avoiding eye contact with Liz as they passed in the hallway.
“Are you all right?” her former friend asked, sounding concerned. “I’ve meant to call.”
Have you? Have you really? Allison could hear the snippy words in her head, but she didn’t say them. She had to assume that the horror of her current situation was temporary, and everything would work out. When that happened, she would want her job back.
“I’m hanging in there,” Allison lied, ignoring the throbbing in her lower back and the pounding headache. She shifted Jackson to her other hip. It felt like the kid had put on twenty pounds in a single morning.
“We miss you here,” Liz admitted. “The parents are asking after you. Any news about—” she paused “—the situation?”
Is that what they were calling it?
“Not yet, but I should know something soon.” Yet more lies, but why not?
Liz offered her a tentative smile. “As soon as everything goes back to normal, please come talk to me.”
“I will.”
“I’m really sorry about having to let you go. I didn’t want to.”
Allison smiled tightly, nodded once, then left, all the while thinking Liz hadn’t had to do anything. She knew Allison’s character and how great she was with the babies. They could have kept the information quiet, at least for a couple of weeks. But there was no point in dwelling on that tiny issue when she had whale-size ones swimming right at her.
She got Jackson into his car seat and started for home. She had just enough time to get him fed and herself changed before Summer and Erica showed up. No way she was facing Peter’s first wife wearing a bright pink T-shirt with the name of the grocery store blazoned across the front and stylized cantaloupes on the back.
But of course everything went wrong. Jackson threw more food than he ate and refused to drink his milk. He squirmed in his high chair, constantly looking at the door and asking for Dada. He kicked, he screamed, he wouldn’t look at her. Allison did her best to stay calm, but she wanted a little tantrum of her own. She wanted to scream that this wasn’t easy or fair, that her back hurt, her feet were swollen, she was scared, she was exhausted and in less than an hour, she would have to sit politely with the woman who had taken Peter for every penny he had during the divorce, forcing him to start over. In fact, excluding her husband being in jail, every bad thing that had happened in the past few days was practically Erica’s fault!
