James looked at her. I'm not saying that's a reason for anything, Sophia said quickly. I'm not using it as leverage or as a reason for you to let me stay longer than you want to. I'm just Sophia. He said, "Yeah, get in the truck."
She got in the truck. He started the engine, pulled out of the parking garage. Got two blocks down the road before he said, "You're not going anywhere." She turned to look at him. "Not yet," he clarified.
"Not until you have what you need. The job starts when? 2 weeks. Then you stay until you have enough to move. And when you move, you stay in Charlotte.
He said it like a series of facts, not a request. That's what makes sense for Noah's case, for Ava, for all of it. Sophia was quiet for a moment. You've thought about this. I think about everything, he said.
You know that about me. I do, she said softly. I always did. They drove home through Monday morning Charlotte traffic, which was its own particular exercise in patience. And by the time they got back, it was 9:58.
And Evelyn had not only managed Noah and gotten Ava to school, but had also inexplicably reorganized James's pantry. He stood in the kitchen looking at this and said, "Mama, I didn't ask you to. "The pasta was with the canned goods," she said from the couch where she was sitting with Noah. "That's not right. It was right for me.
It was wrong, she said simply. And that was that. James looked at Sophia. Sophia was pressing her lips together very hard to not smile. He looked at the ceiling.
He accepted the pantry. Life continued. The next two weeks moved with a pace that surprised him. Sophia started her job on a Wednesday, which meant a scramble to find someone to watch Noah for the first few days before a daycare slot opened up the following Monday. Evelyn, without being asked, showed up Tuesday night with an overnight bag and said she would take the morning shifts.
Marcus's wife, Cheryl, who had met Noah twice and declared herself attached, took two afternoons. James adjusted his shop schedule and covered the rest. It was not elegant. It was not graceful. It was the specific organized chaos of real people solving a real problem with whatever was available.