I smile. At least one of them is excited. “We can go surfing,” I tell her.
She perks up at this but still adds, “We can also do that here.”
“Maybe you can find some sort of animal to rescue in Florida. God knows your mom probably will.”
“Yeah!” Luke says. “Like an anaconda!”
“Those are in South America,” Ivy says.
“They have alligators in Florida,” I say.
Ivy opens her mouth to protest, probably that an alligator would be too dangerous to keep on the ranch, but I beat her to it. “Hey, maybe your mom could find an alligator with no teeth.”
“I could feed it through a dropper!” Luke announces. He leaps and karate chops the air, which I hope is not what he would do with a toothless alligator and a dropper.
“You’d need a turkey baster,” I tell him.
Ivy rolls her eyes at me, but she finally finishes changing, and we head to the pool. As we all try to squish on one floaty raft and end up submerging it entirely beneath us, I try not to think about how I really do need to call Kim to talk over this Chris thing. I shouldn’t be happy about that; Kim certainly won’t be.
But having a reason to hear her voice, even a concerning one, is always something I can’t help but look forward to.
Icall Kim after dinner, while the kids are watching a movie. I’ve slacked majorly in the homework department today, but it’s Friday night, and they have all weekend.
I’ll make them do it before tomorrow night’s drop-off, though. I know Kim hates it when they play all day with me, and then she has to make them work on her time. I can’t change that I was a complete failure as a husband, but I make it my business now to be the best possible ex-husband I can be, as if that could ever atone for what I did to her.
It’s her Friday evening without the kids, so she’s probably out doing something, but I call her anyway, figuring she’ll call me back when she can. I’m surprised when she answers.
Her voice is sharp. “Blake? What’s going on? Are the kids okay?”
“Yeah.” I guess I probably should have texted a preamble. It’s not like weneverhave to talk, but Kim likes to keep it to a minimum. I can’t remember the last time I just called her. “The kids are fine. Mostly, anyway. I took away Ivy’s computer because she’s been using it to chat with a boy named Chris?”
“Oh,” Kim says. “God, Blake, I should have told you about the phone. I meant to text you about it, but I forgot. I probably overreacted, but—”
This is more words than Kim has uttered to me in a long while. “No, you didn’t,” I say. “Ivy said that she told you this boy is thirteen, but he’s actually fifteen, and she’s met him in person at the mall.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.” I hate being the bearer of bad news, but I guess it can’t hurt how she feels about me.That hit bottom long ago. “I told her having her phone and computer taken away aren’t a punishment, just measures to protect her. And I’m totally going to scare the hell out of this kid when he contacts her over her computer in an hour. But there should definitely be some consequences for her lying to you. I figure that’s yours to decide.”
Kim is quiet for a moment. “But she told you.”
“Yeah.” I hate admitting this part, since I know Ivy and Kim share the opinion. “I think she assumed I’d let her get away with it. She’s not thrilled with me.” I realize then that I don’t actually know if Ivy told me the whole truth. “What prompted you to take the phone away?”
“I saw some texts that worried me,” she says. “Nothing really horrific, more like ‘I’d love to see you surf, I bet you look good in your wetsuit,’ that kind of thing. But it was definitely enough that I didn’t want it going any further.”
Oh, hell no. “I’m glad you did that.” I pause. “I was going to scare him anyway—is it bad that I want to take it up a notch for him saying that to my daughter?”
“I’m not going to argue with it,” Kim says.
I smile and consider quipping back that she generally does argue, but decide against it. We’ve had a civil conversation, which I have to take as progress. I know we’ll never get back together, but a part of me still hopes that one day we’ll be the type of friends who sit together at the kids’ events and laugh like we used to. “I’m starting to empathize with your father,” I say, and Kim does laugh.
Her dad never liked me, partly because Kim broke her policy against dating co-stars for me, and partly because he couldn’t stand not being the most important influence in Kim’s life anymore. I wait, hoping she’s going to have a comeback for that, but all she gives me is silence.
My heart twists. I want to ask how she’s doing with the film, or with the fact that Ivy lied to her, which I’m sure is eating at her.
But I don’t, because before I can decide what I can safely say without her snapping at me, her tone turns crisp. “Well, thanks, Blake.”
“Yeah, of course. I’ll keep you posted if I hear any more.”
