God.

The weight started shifting.

I closed my eyes.

“Thanks, Mickey,” I whispered and opened my eyes. “I think I should do this just him and me.”

“I’m on call, you need me.”

“You sure?” I asked.

“Fuck yeah,” he answered. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Ash and Pippa,” I told him hesitantly.

“Baby, I can’t say I don’t got an issue with your girl. But the way you laid her out, thinkin’ things are gonna change at school on Monday. Ash shared. Whatever went down in your girl’s room, she’s actually more worried about your daughter than she’s pissed or fucked up about what she did. She says this Polly kid is a fuckin’ mess, a freshman and she rules the school, within months of it starting, through sheer venom, which was apparently the way in junior high too. She’s gonna strike at Olympia and it isn’t gonna be pretty.”

“Wonderful,” I mumbled.

“Girl like that needs a lesson more extreme than the one you delivered to your daughter, babe,” he told me. “She hands it out, you go to the administrators. This shit needs to be stopped. I talked with Ash about that too. She said that would not be good in the way of the high school world, but I don’t give a fuck. Kids don’t dictate the way it is. This isn’t Lord of the Flies. Shit goes down that’s unacceptable, adults step in. This little bitch doesn’t back off Ash and steer clear of Olympia, she can’t continue her bullshit. She doesn’t do both those things, her rule is over.”

“They seemed to be getting along okay during dinner,” I noted hopefully. “I mean, Ash isn’t super talkative and it was a little awkward. Pip was obviously embarrassed and didn’t know how to behave because she’s usually really social but that wouldn’t be appropriate. But it wasn’t the Antarctic.”

“Don’t wanna hurt you, Amy, but I’m not thinkin’ those two are gonna be in the same crew. Ash told me her friends think your girl is a bitch by association so her eyes may have been opened to the way of things but it’s not likely they’re gonna open arms to her.”

“Right,” I murmured.

“She’ll find her way with better guidance from a mom who gives a shit than a dad who’s all about his dick.”

That, I hoped, would be true.

“Just to say, not to take any of the blame off Pippa, who deserves it—” I started.

“You kinda made that clear,” he interrupted me and I heard humor in his tone, which gave me hope.

“Yeah, I definitely did that,” I agreed. “But anyway, during our chat in my bedroom, Ash shared that the struggles she’s experiencing aren’t just about being picked on at school. It’s about her mom.”

“No offense, but no shit, Amy.”

I took no offense and soldiered on, hesitantly, “Also looking after her mom in the way you did when you were married, hiding it from Cillian.”

There was a moment’s silence then a soft, wounded, “Fuck.”