I heard Cooper shout again in the background.
“Can we go to the beach?”
“Of course you can,” I said, though he had not been speaking to me. “The beach is still there.”
Brenda lowered her voice further.
“Are you doing this to punish us?”
I thought carefully before answering.
“No. If I wanted to punish you, I would spend the weekend thinking of ways to make you unhappy. I don’t want that. I want to stop pretending I’m comfortable with the way things have been.”
“What way?”
That question stunned me.
Not because it was cruel.
Because I believed she meant it.
“You truly don’t know?”
Another silence.
Douglas said something in the background.
Then Ellen’s voice drifted closer.
“I can come back another day.”
“No,” Brenda told her.
I heard footsteps.
“Mom, can you tell this woman to leave?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I asked her to be there.”
