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She could still fall. Best not let that thought stray too far from her mind. She was well aware that buying Susan out when she retired was not security now, and, hell, it wasn’t even security in the future. Vivian knew just enough about owning a restaurant to know it was essentially gambling with a stacked deck of your opponent’s making—but it was a place in the world that she was creating for herself.
“Do you want more hot chocolate?” Vivian asked before filling up Susan’s mug, as well.
“No. Anything more to drink and I’ll just have to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.” She pushed away from the table a little, eyeing Vivian thoughtfully. “You should let Karl pay for any classes you take. He’s got the money. He’s not spent a penny of that money his grandmother left him.”
“Maybe.” Vivian stuck her milk in the microwave to heat up, deciding against more chocolate. With so much to think about, she would need all the soporific powers hot milk could give her with none of the caffeine.
“They say that the more education the mother has, the better it is for the child.”
“Do I have to agree to Karl paying for classes tonight?” If so, she was going to need more than hot milk to drink.
“Are you going to get more or less stubborn about it after a night’s sleep?”
The microwave dinged and Vivian removed her mug, wrapping her hands around the warm crockery. “Neither. How about we work out the details of this whole idea before we decide who’s going to pay for my college classes.” The milk both energized and relaxed her as she drank it in one long gulp then put the two mugs in the dishwasher.
Susan was standing when Vivian walked past her. Her mother-in-law put a hand on her shoulder, then seemed to change her mind and pulled Vivian into her embrace. Vivian rested her head on Susan’s soft shoulder, which smelled slightly of kielbasa and cabbages. The smell of Healthy Food’s kitchen. “You’re a good daughter-in-law. I’m sorry I didn’t see that right off.”
Vivian squeezed the older woman, almost afraid she would disappear and Vivian would be transported back to Las Vegas without the warmth of a guiding hand at her back. “You’re a good mother-in-law, and I didn’t see that right off, either.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
AFTER HIS CONVERSATION with Tilly at Babka, Karl headed home. He unlocked his door and stepped into his apartment. Once, before Vivian, he had come home to silence and emptiness every night. He had valued the quiet. Now it felt like a vacuum and he strained to hear Xìnyùn whistling, terrified he would come home and there would be nothing but stale air to greet him.
He hung up his coat—the coat he’d given Vivian was still hanging in the closet because she’d refused to take it—and let Xìnyùn out of his cage. The bird wasn’t his pet. Vivian said it wasn’t even her pet, but Karl still had the responsibility to make sure the bird got mental stimulation and exercise, and stayed healthy.
There was that word again. Responsibility. Duty. Tilly talked about obligations as though they were distasteful concepts, when he had let Vivian stay with him in the first place because of duty and he was playing basketball with a miniparrot because of a responsibility to the bird. If everyone did their duty, there wouldn’t be abused children, or homeless veterans, and his dad might still be alive.
The bird lobbed the ball of wadded-up paper into the cup and whistled. “Jackpot.”
Karl laughed. He would never have thought a bird would be such good company, but the two things he looked forward to most in his day were playing basketball with the bird and the hour or so he got to see Vivian at Healthy Food.
Between a developing case at work and making the drive south every day to make sure Vivian was still there, he wasn’t getting as much sleep as he needed—being beaten by Tilly in an argument made that clear. But not seeing Vivian wasn’t an option.
He tossed another ball to Xìnyùn, who missed the cup and chirped, “Hit me.”
When he’d first started driving to Archer Heights every day, he had done it out of a sense of duty. The paternity test was clear—he was the father of Vivian’s baby. He never should have expressed doubt in the first place. He’d promised her they would be friends and partners in the raising of their child, and he was going to own that promise.
