“What’s with the face?” Oakley asked.
“It just feels… manipulative.”
“Deal with it.”
Anne shot her a look, but she waved it away.
“I mean it. That’s just a word that men use when women advocate for themselves and their children. The system’s broken. We all know it. If we have to manipulate a broken system to survive, then so be it.”
“The system seems to be working out just fine for you,” Laurie said.
A shadow passed over Oakley’s face, and immediately Laurie regretted her snarky comment. In that moment, she realized that she actually had no idea what was going on in Oakley’s life – or in her marriage. She had been too wrapped up in her own problems to even give her sister a moment’s thought – and all the while she had been so certain that Oakley was the problematic one.
Sorry, she signed.
Oakley waved her apology away.
“How can we help?” Anne asked.
“Well, I should probably start scrounging up some used books. Good ones, no mildew or anything.”
“I’ll see what I can find.”
“Will you carry kids’ books?” Oakley asked.
“Of course!”
“I have piles and piles that the girls have outgrown. I can probably stock the kids’ section myself.”
Laurie’s heart rose up to her throat, and she reached for Oakley’s hand.
“Thank you.”
“We’re here for you, little sister.”
“I know you are.”
Oakley’s eyebrows came down. “Do you?”
“I forget sometimes,” she admitted. “But yes. I do.”
16
Anne
Between one thing and another, it was a while before Anne saw Noah again.
They met up once at the beach so that Claire could meet Jasmine before school started, but hanging with their kids was far from date territory.
Noah spent most of the day snorkeling with Pete, which warmed Anne’s heart – but at the same time, she wondered how her kids would be affected if she let Noah into their lives only to mess things up again.
She very much wanted to get things right this time… she just wasn’t sure what that looked like.
Then, on the day that she dropped Claire off to try her luck at Kea?au High, he showed up at her door with an enormous picnic basket.
“What’s this?” she asked, laughing.
“It’s the first day of school,” he said, dangling the basket in front of her, “so I thought you might be able to get away for an hour or two.”
