She asked about you at Thanksgiving planning. I said you were doing better and there was a reason. Maya looked up. I didn't say anything specific, just that there was a reason. He looked at his daughter.
You are 9 years old and right, she said again. He picked up a pair of scissors and started helping with the leaves. The weeks that followed had a different had a different texture than anything that had come before. Not smoother. Smoother was the wrong word.
More honest, more willing to be imperfect in front of each other. Clare pushed too hard one evening when Darius came home from a brutal 12-hour commercial job and she'd let herself into the backyard to start fixings in the garden gate hinge he'd mentioned. He walked in and found her there with his tools and felt something he didn't expect to feel, which was a surge of irrational anger that had nothing to do with the hinge and everything to do with the fact that for 4 years he had been the person who fixed things. And the fixing was one of the ways he held his life together. And having someone else fix something felt irrationally, like being seen as incapable.
He managed it wrong. He was short with her. Clipped. She felt it immediately. I was trying to help, she said.
I know. He took the screwdriver from her hand too quickly. She let go of it, stepped back, watched him for a second. Darius, I just He stopped, pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead. I just needed to come home and find my house the way I left it.
That's all. A pause. Okay, she said. Her voice was careful. I understand that.
I'm not saying you did something wrong. I know you're not. And I hear you. She picked up her jacket from the garden chair. I'll give you the evening.
Claire, I'm not leaving because I'm upset. I'm leaving because you've been on a rooftop for 12 hours and you need to decompress. And I inserted myself without asking first. She met his eyes. That was mine to own.
I'll own it. He stood there with the screwdriver in his hand. You're not going to fight with me about this, he said. Do you want me to? He thought about it.
No. Then I won't. She touched his arm briefly. Eat something. I'll text you later.