Page 116

She picked up the phone and dialed.

He stood and carried his plate to the window and gave her his back, because she needed privacy and because he needed thirty seconds where she wasn't looking at him the way she'd been looking at him all morning.

He heard it ring twice.

"Mary Sue's Diner, this is Annie speaking, how can I help you?"

A pause. He could feel Sage freeze behind him.

"Hello?" Annie said.

"Ah….Hi — hi, Annie. Um. This is Sage? I'm the girl — the girl who — "

"I know who you are!" The warmth in Annie Townsend's voice came through the phone so clearly he could hear it from across the kitchen.

"You're the girl that makes Bear laugh!"

He stared out the window at the tree line.

"Well — I mean, I don't really — "

"You probably want Mary Sue! Hold on, I'll go get her — "

A brief muffled pause, and then Annie's voice carrying back through the diner the way voices did in that open kitchen: "Mary Sue?! Sage is on the phone for you!" A beat. "What? Okay, fiiiiine — your daughter is on the phone. Sheesh."

He took a sip of lemonade.

"I might go fishing later," he said, to the window. To no one. Giving her the only privacy he could.

Behind him, Sage made a sound that was almost not a sound — a tight inhale like she had been ambushed by something she wasn’t prepared for. He didn't turn around. He watched a hawk move over the far tree line, and swoop down near the frozen creek.

Then Mary Sue's voice came on the line, warm and immediate: "Baby girl? Is everything okay?"

Sage laughed — wet, quick. "Yes, Mary S—." She caught herself.

He heard it. "Mama. Sorry. Yes, Mama. Everything's fine. I was just — I was wondering. Whenever you have time. And it's completely okay if not, totally no big deal if not, but — could you maybe teach me how to cook? Something simple?"

Silence on the line.

Then: "Of course, baby girl. I'll see you in an hour."

"Wait — really? An hour? Are you sure, because — "

"Gotta run, baby, the lunch crowd is here. Tell that son of mine I expect to see him soon. Bye, baby."

The line went quiet.

Sage lowered the phone slowly. He heard her set it on the counter. Heard her breathing and trying to reassemble herself after being unexpectedly taken apart.

He turned around.

She was sitting very still, both hands wrapped around her lemonade glass, her eyes bright and her expression somewhere between stunned and full.

She looked up at him.

"Wow," she said. "I just — wow."

He said nothing. Let her have it.