How Sweet It is

by Sophie Gunn

  Lizzie felt no emotion at all. She was pure logic. She had to follow the trail to its rational conclusion, not hesitating at emotional crossroads.

  She turned to Tommy. “You didn’t know about the money.”

  “I thought Annie had found a thousand dollars. Which I thought we had thrown away to seal our relationship.” His voice became hard. “I was obviously mistaken.”

  “Drive me to New York City. To JFK,” Lizzie told Tommy.

  “I’m coming with you,” Annie said.

  Lizzie shook her head. “You’re staying here in case it’s all not true and Paige didn’t get on the bus. We have to consider that. I’m going upstairs to get dressed. When I come back down, Tommy, we go.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Tay was invisible. She had dismissed him as useless.

  He couldn’t exactly blame her.

  All around him, everyone buzzed with activity.

  Even White seemed to have picked up on the vibe. She rubbed against his legs and mewed at him. “Get lost, girl. I’m so not in the mood.”

  He could hear Lizzie upstairs in her bedroom, moving around frantically. If he raced upstairs after her to plead his case, he’d be an even bigger ass than she already thought he was. She had more important problems on her plate than listening to him try to explain why he loved her and needed her and needed to make this right.

  He couldn’t drive her to New York. It would take a week.

  White rubbed against him, more insistent than usual. “Take it easy, girl. It’s okay. I didn’t mean it. Stay. You’re kind of all I have left.” He scooped her up and rubbed her neck.

  White rubbed her wet nose against his face, then pushed her paws against his chest and mewed.

  “What?” He put her down.

  She raced to the front door.

  He followed her into the living room. “You need to go do some hunting? Sorry, birds are off-limits here. I can’t let you out. You know that.”

  White continued to mew and paw at the door.

  “Lizzie likes birds. I mean, likes them alive. I know, it’s not the kind of thing you can understand. Settle down.”

  But White wouldn’t settle, and Tay started to get agitated, too. “Are we having a Lassie moment? Is there some danger you want to show me? Is Old Man Lewis at the bottom of the well?”

  Despite his better judgment, Tay opened the door. White slid out, then started off down the sidewalk like a person with a bus to catch. Tay wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised if she pulled out a tiny kitty pocket watch to check the time.

  Tay went out onto the porch and watched her go.

  Wait. What was going on here? Did she want him to follow her to Old Man Lewis?

  It was ridiculous, but he jumped down the porch steps anyway and started after the cat.

  She turned and fixed him with her yellow eyes as if to say, Do the right thing and back off, mister. Then she swung her head around and kept walking. Tay watched her. She reached the corner, then, without hesitation, disappeared around it.

  A curious feeling came over him.

  He felt light.

  I do not believe in signs.

  He looked up to Lizzie’s room. The light was out.

  She and Tommy came onto the porch. Annie was behind them, looking miserable. Candy came out, too, keeping to the shadows.

  Tay looked down the street where White had disappeared.

  I’ve been forgiven. The cat has finally left the building.

  Tay stepped in front of Tommy and Lizzie as they came down the walk. “I’m driving,” he said.

  “We’re in a hurry, Tay,” Lizzie said. “I don’t think you’ll do.” She stepped past him.

  He grabbed her arm. “I’m driving, Lizzie. Tommy is staying here to be with Annie. She needs him. Let’s go. There’s no time to talk about this. I know JFK like the back of my hand. I can get us there quicker.”

  “No offense, Tay, but you can’t drive to save your life.”

  “Get in the truck, Lizzie. For your sister’s sake. For Tommy’s sake. And most of all, for Paige’s sake. I swear to you, I’m going to drive.”

  CHAPTER

  54

  For the first time since she’d gotten back from the ski slope, Lizzie looked at her sister. Really looked. Annie’s face was red and tear-streaked. The beautiful baby on Annie’s hip played with her mommy’s ear as if nothing was wrong in the world. Poor helpless kid had no idea. Tommy stood between her and Annie, frozen. He didn’t know which way to go. Someone had to tell Annie’s galoot of a husband which way to go. He had to stop coming with her. Especially right now, when Annie was so upset.

  Lizzie had to stop counting on her brother-in-law.

  Right now.

  She had to start counting on Tay. But she couldn’t.

  Lizzie looked at Tay. “You’re going to drive fast?”

  “I am. I swear.”

  She wanted to believe him. But how could she after what she’d just seen? “Tommy, can I take your car? I can drive myself,” Lizzie said.

  They all looked to the police car in front of the house. “Oh, Liz. I don’t know.”

  “I could go home and get the Toyota for you,” Annie offered.

  Tay stepped in front of Lizzie. “You’re in no shape to drive. You’re too upset and distracted. You’ll kill yourself and maybe someone else, too.”

  “I’ll drive,” Annie said.

  “You’re in worse shape,” Tay pointed out.

  “Tay. I’m sorry,” Lizzie said. “I need to get to New York this week.”

  “I can do it.”

  “And I believe you because—?”

  “Because you love me and you trust me,” Tay said.

  Lizzie looked to Candy. She nodded.

  “I do?”

  “Yes. And I love you and I trust you. Now stop arguing with me. Let’s go. We’re wasting time.”

  Lizzie looked from face to face.

  She nodded. “Both of you, look after Candy. Call me the minute you know anything. Let’s go.”

  They ran for Tay’s truck.

  “You better be able to do this,” she said as they climbed inside.

  “Shut up, Lizzie,” Tay said. “And let me drive.”

  They made it to JFK in just under three hours, Tay doing eighty the whole way and feeling as if he could have gone even faster. Hell, he could have flown, he felt so good.

  Tommy had called ahead to airport security, and a man in a uniform met them at the curb at the International Departures terminal.

  He put something official-looking on the car’s windshield, then ushered them through the airport lobby, flashing his badge as they went. “We found her waiting for a flight to Geneva,” the guard told them. “She had a ticket and passport and everything.”

  “Would they have let a kid alone on a plane?” Lizzie asked.

  “Not supposed to. But sometimes things get by. Especially with a smart kid like that.” He led them through a door and down endless hallways to a small room. “There she is. Take your time.” The guard motioned to a door.

  Lizzie looked through the glass. Paige looked up, saw her, then looked back down. Her snowboard was next to her, an enormous blue duffel bag at her feet.

  “You go in,” Tay said. “And Lizzie, be a little proud of her. She’s not afraid of anything. She did it herself, just like you taught her.”

  Tay waited in the hallway while Lizzie went into the small room. It was painted industrial gray with metal folding chairs, just the way Lizzie imagined an airport holding pen for international drug dealers would look.

  “Hi,” Lizzie said. She sat down next to Paige.

  “I wanted to go to the Alps,” Paige said. “I didn’t need him. I was going to do it myself. That’s what you wanted, right? That’s what you taught me. To do it myself. I had it all worked out.”

  Lizzie put her arm around Paige. “Let’s go home.”

  Paige started to cry. “I don’t want to go home. I want to g
o after my dream.”

  “I know, honey. I know. And you will. Nothing is ever, ever going to stop you because you know exactly what you want and believe me, that is so important. You just have to be patient.”

  “Is that what you were? Patient? Mom, I don’t want to be like you.” She looked up at Lizzie quickly. “Sorry.”

  Lizzie looked up to the fluorescent light vibrating on the ceiling and took a deep breath. “Come home and we’ll talk there.”

  “I could have done it.”

  “I know. You still can. Just not now. Not with Tay’s money.”

  “Money?” Paige looked confused.

  “Maybe sometime soon, you and me can go together. Take our passports and go to Geneva and find that ratbastard Ethan ourselves.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. Sure. Why not? We’re not the kind of women who sit around and wait for men. We’ll find him and demand that he be a better father and give you money to snowboard at the best places in the world.”

  “But I thought you didn’t want anyone’s help.”

  “I was wrong. Sometimes, going it alone is just plain stupid. It can really mess a person up.”

  “I’d have to go to Japan if I was serious about boarding. The best boarding is there, too.”

  “I like sushi.”

  “You’ve never had sushi.”

  “I could start.”

  Paige stood up. “You’re really going to take me to Geneva? How?”

  “With the money I saved for your college. You really don’t want college, then we’ll use some of it—not all of it, but a little bit of it—to find your father and kick his butt.” Lizzie picked up the duffel bag. “Is the money in here?”

  Paige looked at her mother. “What money?”

  “The money. From the basement.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Come on, Paige. We know you know about the money Aunt Annie hid.”

  “The money in the laundry chute? I knew about that money. But then someone moved it. I looked everywhere, but I couldn’t ever find it again. All I took was a thousand dollars. I swear. Just enough to buy some equipment and pay Aidan and Ben and Paul for doing our walk.” She looked down sheepishly. “I thought it was the money you were saving for me so I thought it was okay to take a little.”

  “You thought I was saving your money in the laundry chute?”

  “I don’t know. It made sense at the time.”

  “You really don’t have the rest of it?”

  “No. I don’t. I sort of used your credit card to buy the tickets and stuff.”

  Lizzie felt relieved that Paige had only stolen from her—except for the thousand dollars. But then, where was the money? “Were you really going to get on that plane, Paige?”

  “Yep.”

  That’s my girl! “I would have killed you.”

  “You would have left Galton and gotten to see Europe.”

  “Paige, you are so grounded.”

  “I love you, Mom. I’m sorry I scared you.” Paige started to cry.

  “I love you, too. Or at least, I will, once we get home and I regain consciousness.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Lizzie put her arm around Paige. “I know, honey. I know. I’m sorry, too. C’mon. Let’s get home.”

  Tay drove them home at the speed limit, maybe just a bit below. Paige slept the entire way.

  “Thank you, Tay,” Lizzie said. “You did it.”

  “You did it,” he said. “I’m just along for the ride. Lizzie—” He stared at the road ahead. “If you’ll have me, I’d like to try to stay. I don’t know if I can. But I want to try.”

  “Really?” Despite herself, her heart leaped with hope.

  He snuck a look at her and she saw how doubtful he still was. “I apologized to Candy. Remember when I said words don’t matter? They do. She said she forgave me, and it felt like Christmas. So, I’m thinking I’ll hang around a bit. See if it sticks.”

  “Good,” she said. “Trying is good. Even just for a little while.”

  When they got back to the house, a broken-down Volvo was parked outside behind Tommy’s cruiser.

  Annie came out on the porch, a funny look on her face.

  “No,” Lizzie said, ushering a sleepy Paige inside.

  “Yep,” Annie said.

  Tay came up behind them. Lizzie felt as if they formed a solid family, the three of them standing there, together.

  A man came out of the living room.

  “Oh, my God.” Lizzie could hardly breathe. She recognized him in an instant, even though he was almost bald and very, very tan. He wore a pair of ripped jeans and a faded T-shirt under an argyle button-down sweater. His arms were covered in tattoos. His lower lip was pierced. He was thin in a graceful, athlete’s way.

  “Hi. I’m Ethan Pond,” he said. “Sorry I’m late.”

  CHAPTER

  55

  Despite how odd it had felt, Lizzie had set Ethan up in the second spare bedroom, next to Candy. They’d all been too exhausted to do much talking.

  Now, the next morning, Ethan wouldn’t stop talking. They were in the dining room, Ethan looking out the window at Lizzie’s bird feeders, Lizzie looking at Ethan, still amazed that he was actually here.

  He was telling her how he’d missed his flight in Geneva. Then, the friend of a friend who was supposed to pick him up at the airport in New York hadn’t shown and he’d taken two buses and the wrong subway, but had finally gotten to the man’s house in the East Village. He had planned to borrow the man’s old Volvo, but it took awhile to fix the flat and then replace a few faulty spark plugs.

  As he went on and on about his misadventures, Lizzie studied him. He was nothing like what she expected or remembered. He had moved on from talking about fixing cars to the excellent hamburger he’d had at an exit off Interstate 80, while she listened in amazement.

  Paige was still asleep upstairs, but Lizzie wished she was awake to hear her father’s excitement to be back in “the States,” as he called it.

  He started in on the story of his life after he’d left Galton. “So I only stayed at Oxford for a semester. I was too restless, as you probably remember. Couldn’t stay put. Later I found out I had ADD, so that was what was wrong with me. But back then, I didn’t know why I was so scattered. So it wasn’t just me and you that didn’t work out, it was me and everything. Holy cow—a flock of robins. I forgot how they flock in the winters up here. Look at them! I can’t believe you still live in this house, in Galton. Anyway, I went to Europe and to India and I climbed Everest. I know, it was nuts. But I did and it changed my life. I guess you could call me a ski bum now. I just want to be one with nature, with the universe.”

  Something thumped on the stairs.

  “Paige?” Lizzie said. “I know you’re there, why don’t you just come in and talk to your dad?” It still hurt to say that word, but now that she saw Ethan with all his flaws, she had to relent. She couldn’t remember why she’d been so sure that he’d be perfect and she’d be ashamed of her life.

  Paige came shyly into the room. She was never shy, and Lizzie tried not to smile.

  Lizzie did her best to facilitate the conversation, but it kept skittering to a halt. “So, skiing, huh? Paige, you’re—”

  “—not a skier,” she said, as if skiers were the worst humans on the planet, on par with child abusers.

  “Snowboarder,” Lizzie corrected.

  “Awesome,” Ethan said. “I board, too. But not so good.”

  Paige rolled her eyes. “Well,” she said.

  He looked puzzled.

  “You don’t board so well.”

  Ethan ignored her criticism. “We have got to hit the slopes together. The hills aren’t high, but snow here is awesome. I loved Meeks Peak when I was in school here,” Ethan said.

  “It’s not exactly the Alps,” Paige said, turning a little red.

  “No. Not exactly. But I like it here better,” Ethan said
. Paige’s eyes lit up with pride and Lizzie felt a wave of happiness wash over her.

  “I was actually kind of thinking of staying here,” Ethan said.

  “Staying!” Lizzie and Paige said together.

  “Here?” Lizzie asked. Lizzie tried not to jump up and hug him. She could keep Paige close, even if Paige decided to be with her father.

  Ethan said, “We could get to know each other better here. Don’t you think?”

  “And by here, you don’t mean this house, obviously,” Lizzie said, suddenly concerned. His clothes were ripped and the car he was driving was almost as bad as her own dead heap of junk in the driveway. Surely, the man wasn’t looking for a handout?

  Later, when Ethan was in the shower, Paige said to Lizzie, “We did all that work on the house for nothing.”

  “Not for nothing. Now our house looks great.”

  “And he didn’t even care,” Paige groused. “This all makes you happy, doesn’t it?”

  “A tiny bit. But only because I love you and I want you near. I’m not sorry that you’re not leaving for Geneva any time soon.”

  “You would really have let me go?” Paige asked.

  “Maybe not right away. But if Ethan was okay, maybe after a while. How could I not?” Lizzie smiled.

  “You can’t stop smiling, Mom. It’s sickening.”

  “I’m smiling because you were right all along, Paige. The universe heard my wish and it listened. My wish was that you would stay.”

  “Well, that wasn’t my wish.”

  “Maybe your wish comes soon,” Lizzie said, hugging Paige to her until she managed to escape. “The universe has to take care of us old folks first.” She studied her beautiful daughter. “What do you think of him?”

  “Well, he’s not what I expected,” Paige allowed. “But I think we’ll get along okay. Just so long as he doesn’t make me ski.”

  CHAPTER

  56

  Mom! Tay’s here!” Paige called up the stairs. It was her first day back to school after the holiday break. Candy had gone back to her dorm room yesterday, and except for Ethan in a hotel room at the Galton Marriott and a missing two hundred thousand dollars, the world was feeling back to its old routines.