Pete rolled his eyes and splashed back into the river with his cousins.
“He’s in a band,” Claire said quietly. “My boyfriend.”
“What’s he play?” Akemi asked.
“Viola. But it’s cool,” she added quickly. “Like fiddle, but more modern folk.”
“Very cool.”
Claire held her phone up and turned her body this way and that, trying to find a single bar of service. Then she dropped her arm with a sigh.
“I’m going up to the top of the stairs,” she said, making the short walk sound like the height of inconvenience. She crammed a huge sunhat on over her fire-red hair and trudged up the beach.
“What have you got against the viola player?” Akemi asked when Claire was halfway to the stairs.
“He’s a senior in high school.” Anne’s hand moved in an agitated way as she rubbed fresh sunscreen onto her freckled white legs. “Or he will be in a few months”
“Horror of horrors.”
“He’s nearly four years older than her.”
“High treason.”
“That’s fine, make fun of me. We’ll just see how you take it when your baby starts dating.”
“My baby is the size of a mountain apple, so I’d say I’ve got plenty of time to prepare.”
“It goes quicker than you’d think.”
“What if Mr. Viola’s a genuinely good guy?”
“Noah’s a good guy,” Anne said, her voice barely audible. “Look where that got me.”
“It got you Zoe,” Akemi said without thinking.
Anne shot her a look that was half acid, half plea. “It got me an impossible choice, is what. And a lifetime of regret over how I handled it all. But we’re not allowed to regret choices that result in people.”
“Do you regret becoming a mother?” Akemi asked quietly.
“I love my kids, Kemi.”
“I know you do.”
“I wouldn’t trade them for anything. But the circumstances, the harm done tothem… that’s what I regret.” Anne sighed. “Allof my children are the result of poor decisions. The wrong time, or the wrong man. I can’t regret it, because if I had chosen differently, my kids wouldn’t be here. But it’s been so painful, Kemi. It still is. I don’t want that for Claire.”
Akemi was quiet for a while. Finally she said, “Seems to me like a boyfriend who lives over two thousand miles away is more of a solution than a problem.”
“Sure, until they come crashing back together again.”
“Man. You’re really catastrophising over there, huh?”
Anne laughed, but even that sound carried stress.
“You have to let them make their own mistakes,” Akemi said.
“Second trimester and already a parenting expert, huh?”
Halia glanced up from her paperwork to give Anne a look.
