“Why can’t we all go together?” Izzy asked, her tone a little bit pleading. “We used to all go to things together.”
Cadence took a deep breath to make sure her voice was steady before she answered.
“I know we did, honey,” she said. “And that was nice. But, remember how Daddy and I explained it to you? He and I both love you so, so much, but sometimes grown-ups have disagreements that mean that they need space from one another for a while.”
“And it’s not because you’re mad at me. It’s because you’re trying to figure out how to be nice to each other again,” Izzy said, the words an echo of past conversations with her parents. Even so, there was a tiny hint of a question at the end, as if part of her, deep down, still worried that she was to blame for her parents’ separation.
“That’s right,” Cadence said firmly. “You did not do anything wrong at all. Daddy and I are just learning how to be good parents to you separately, instead of together.”
“And learning things takes time,” Isabelle completed with a sigh. “I know.”
Cadence reached out and dragged her daughter’s chair closer until she could wrap Izzy in a hug.
“That’s because you’re such a smart, super kid,” she said into the crown of her daughter’s head. “How’d you get so smart, huh?”
Izzy didn’t answer. She just gave her a sad sort of smile and went back to poking at her bowl of cereal.
There were a million things about her separation that made Cadence miserable, but nothing made her feel more like mud than when she saw her daughter’s sadness.
She was sad when Tyler and I were fighting all the time too,Cadence reminded herself.This is the right thing to do, even if it’s hard.
“Hey,” she said, grasping for something to get that bone-deep sadness off Isabelle’s face. She was too young to be feeling such things, certainly. And a little distraction wouldn’t solve the problem, but it wouldn’t hurt either, now would it? “What do you say we do…” She trailed off dramatically, tapping her chin like she was thinking really hard. “Double French braids today?”
That perked Isabelle right up.
“I love double French braids!” she said.
“You do?” Cadence asked, feigning ignorance. “Why, I was so sure I knew a little girl who liked them but… you’re sure it was you?”
Izzy’s grin widened. “Mom!” she complained through her laughter. “Of course it’s me. You know they’re my favorite!”
“Yourfavorite?” Cadence pressed a hand to her chest in a theatrical gasp. “Well, goodness, we simplymustdo them, then.” She made a show of patting down nonexistent pockets. “Ah, but I don’t have ties or a comb. Oh well, then.” She shrugged and reached for her laptop in slow motion.
“I’ll go get them!” Izzy shrieked happily, leaping to her feet. “Don’t do work! Do my hair! Wait just one second!”
These last comments were tossed over her shoulder as she raced from the room.
Cadence smiled over her daughter’s happiness, although the smile quickly faded as her thoughts wandered back to her own sadness.
It was hard. Everything about the separation was justso hard. Cadence felt like she had to relearn everything: how to be a good mom, how to keep a house going, how to be herself.
She and Tyler had married reasonably young, when they were both twenty-five. They’d been dating for a few years by then. She’d known her husband for nearly all her adult life.
Even in her own mind, she could hear Tyler’s interjection into this story.
I knew you before that, Cade! I told you, we met at that beach cleanup.He would then turn to whichever person was hearing the story of how they’d met.I noticed her because she was the most gorgeous girl in three towns. She doesn’t remember me because I was just some guy.
That would be Cadence’s cue to nudge him with her shoulder.Oh, stop it. I noticed you the minute I met you. Which is why I know we didnotattend the same beach cleanup in high school.
It was a silly, sweet joke between them, one that never failed to invite charmed laughter and questions about how Cadence, a Magnolia Shore native, had convinced her husband to move from a few towns away, where he’d grown up.
Are you kidding?Tyler would ask.I’d go anywhere for this woman.
It had never failed to make her feel like the most loved person on the world. Now, the memory felt like a slap.
She missed the way things had been between them. Not at the end, when their unspoken hurt had been the elephant in every room, but the time before that. The times when they’d feltlike their whole lives were ahead of them, every hurdle to be tackled together.
“I brought two butterfly clips too,” Izzy said, coming back into the room, sliding a few inches when her socked feet hit the wooden floor. “Can I have clipsandbraids?”
