"Maybe not but I still think she's making a big mistake by—"
"By what?" Magnolia interrupted. "By interviewing? By considering the terms? By checking it out and getting a feel for the role? No, that's not a mistake. That's a smart girl keeping her options open."
"It's still in California," I replied.
"Which requires her to leave," Magnolia said. "Did you ask her to stay?"
I shook my head.
"Why not?"
I didn't answer for a minute. Then, "If she wants to go, I won't hold her back."
"Even if she's going to a job she will hate and moving to California of all the damned places."
I shrugged. "It's her choice."
"But you tried to talk her out of the job, no? Did I misunderstand?"
"I shared my concerns."
"Right, so, you told her it was a disaster in the making but did you tell heryouwanted her to stay? That you cared about her and you wanted her in your life on a daily, in-person basis?"
It felt like I was stepping on a land mine when I replied, "No."
"Let me ask you again: Why not? And you can't say anything about holding her back because you negated all that by trying to sink the job from the start."
"Because—because I don't know. All right? I don't know. And I meant it about holding her back. I don't want her staying here for me."
Magnolia shook a few tablets from the antacid bottle. "Why not?"
"Because that's not a good enough reason to make anyone stay."
"Isn't it though?"
I stared at her, confused. "How can you even say that? I can't ask her to give up everything just because I want her with me."
"Didn't she give up everything before she met you?"
Given up or taken away, the difference was all in perspective and perspective was the only thing that mattered. "I can't ask her to stay for me," I repeated.
"I can tell you believe that but I don't think it's true. I think she needs to hear that you want her to stay. You can't leave it up to inference." Magnolia shifted and winced again. "You are a lot of great things but expressive and communicative are not among them. Tell her that you want her hereandyou also want to make it work with her career."
I shook my head because it wasn't that simple, it was never that simple, but my mother bustled in through the back door before I could respond. It was a good thing. I didn't want to talk about this anymore.
"Let me take those," I said to Mom, relieving her of the heavy grocery totes. "What is in here? A twenty-pound turkey?"
"A fifteen-pound chicken," she replied. "Your sister asked for my lemon roasted chicken with orzo and—"
"And she needs fifteen pounds of it?" I asked with a laugh.
"For the record, I didnotask for lemon roasted chicken with orzo. I mentioned that I'd been in the mood for orzo but I only liked it with Mom's chicken."
I gave Magnolia a smirk. "Close enough, don't you think?"
"Linden, put those cartons of milk in the fridge for me while I check your sister's blood pressure."
"Your sister's blood pressure is fine and doesn't need hourly monitoring, thank you greatly," Magnolia said. "But her foot is asleep and she could use a hand getting up so she can visit the bathroom for the second time in an hour."
