The sentence landed between them. Eve felt the weight of it. A teenager didn’t ask for escape unless she sensed the air had gone thin at home.
“It might help,” Eve said carefully.
Lila’s shoulders eased. “We could go somewhere for a week. Or two. You’re on leave too and could come with us.” Her hazel eyes lit with hope. “Please, Aunt Eve, can we do something like that?”
Eve nodded. It was true. She had forced her own hand, signed the paperwork for three weeks off before the hospital could argue. She wanted to be there for Mia, who had needed the leave. Eve had needed it in a different way. She had been running on adrenaline and responsibility for too long, and the week before Christmas had pushed her to the edge of something she did not want to name.
Lila leaned back against the couch cushion, eyes on the tree lights. “Somewhere with air that doesn’t taste like traffic.”
Eve smiled despite herself. “That would be nice.”
The phone on the coffee table rang.
Eve leaned forward automatically, expecting her own phone to buzz. She saw the screen light up and felt a small jolt when the name appeared.
William Moore.
Mia’s phone lay face-up beside the ribbon bowl, the ring cutting through the quiet like a scalpel through cloth.
“It’s Uncle William.” Lila’s eyebrows lifted. “Answer it.”
Eve hesitated for a moment before she picked up the phone.
Eve swiped to answer. “Hello?”
“Hello? Who is that?” William’s voice came through warm and familiar, like a man who smiled when he spoke.
“William, it’s Eve,” Eve told him.
“Oh, hello, Eve,” William replied. “I was calling to wish Mia and Lila. Are they there?”
Eve glanced at Lila, who grinned and mouthed, Say Merry Christmas.
“Mia is in the shower,” Eve said. “Lila and I are here together in the living room.”
“Then Merry Christmas to you, Eve,” William said.
Lila leaned toward the phone. “Merry Christmas, Uncle William!”
Eve put the phone on speaker.
“Merry Christmas, young lady,” William called jovially. “Lila, you sound older every time I hear you.”
“I am older,” Lila said, as if stating a fact about gravity. “I’m sixteen now.”
“I know,” William said. “I can’t believe how fast you’ve grown.”
Eve’s chest tightened at the tenderness in his voice. He held onto people.
Mia called Lila from down the hall.
“Oh, I’d better go see what Mom wants,” Lila said. “By Uncle William.”
“Bye, Lila, have a wonderful day,” William called back.
Once Lila left, Eve picked up the phone and took it off speaker.
“How are you all doing? How is Mia? How is Lila? How is… everything?” William asked.
