Page 58 of The Wrong Track
Lulu, though, was a different story. She continued to drop by, to call, to text, to be a definite presence. She didn’t seem deterred that Tobin had told her that it wasn’t going to happen.
“I’ve said it about ten times,” he’d explained to me. “She says she wants to hang out as friends but Haze tells me that’s a bad idea.”
It was a very bad idea and they hadn’t seen each other, I didn’t think, but Lulu still wasn’t quitting. I’d given up pressing her case, though. A relationship where the feeling was all on one side—hers—wasn’t going to work at all and I wasn’t going to be her advocate. Especially after what I’d heard about the snide remarks she’d made about Hazel’s weight. And especially after Lulu had also made a remark to me the last time she’d “happened to be nearby” and had only wanted “to pop in and say hi.”
Tobin hadn’t been home, but I had been, and she’d wondered why. “Isn’t it time for you to get a life?” she’d asked me. I’d closed the door in her face and locked it with the deadbolt and also the second deadbolt that Tobin had installed. He’d seen that I thought that the existing one was a little flimsy.
He squeezed my hand again. “What are you thinking about?” I shrugged and he held up our arms to look at his own old sports watch on my wrist. “Is this working ok?”
I nodded. “I had my eyes on it for the last half mile because I thought it had broken. I was sure that I must have gone at least twenty miles and it only counted out one little tenth at a time.”
“You’re doing it, though. You’re going to be a runner again.”
“Maybe not as far. Definitely not as fast,” I cautioned.
“You’re doing it,” he repeated stubbornly. “You’re doing great.” He looked down at me. “There. You’re smiling again.”
I was, too.
“Tobin,” another neighbor called, and we stopped to talk to him.
When we finally made it home, I got into the shower and Tobin got ready for work. As one of the newest hires, he generally got the worst schedule, even now when he wasn’t actually going out on patrol. Plus, in order to accommodate Lulu and her needs when they were dating, he’d apparently traded around a lot and was still dealing with a very crappy set of shifts.
It meant that the baby and I had been alone for the past few nights, but Monica had come over two times to hang out with us, and so had Annie for one night, and then Hazel. It was kind of making me think that they didn’t trust me again, that they were worried about Ella.
So when they were there, I went into a total overload of my best-mother-ever act, like checking her diaper all the time, talking to her constantly, and repeating child-rearing facts like Tobin did. He always peppered them into conversation. Like, did you know that after two months, babies could recognize specific pets? I thought he might have said that but then wasn’t sure it was true when I told Hazel. She had been very excited and promised to bring her dog Russell the next time she came, because she was sure that he and Ella would be best friends.
But yes, I did think that everyone was checking up on me, so it made sense when Tobin casually mentioned, “I think my mom wants to stop by later.”
“Does she know that you’ll be working?”
“Yeah, she wants to see you and Ella, I guess.”
“Tobin.” I put my hand on his arm so he’d stop moving towards his car. “You don’t need to worry about me here. I’m ok.”
“I know that.” He put his hand over mine. “I know that you’re ok. I’m sure of it.”
He sounded like Hazel when she tried to convince herself. I nodded and the baby and I stood at the window to wave goodbye.
I had a lot to do before his mom arrived. Charlene didn’t miss much; she noticed when the stove was dirty, for example, or when there had been a little mildew in the shower in the bathroom. She didn’t say anything to me about those problems, but she’d scrubbed down the burners one night while she’d been visiting her son and she’d also dropped off a spray bottle of tile cleaning stuff for him.
Her eyes also took in every detail when I changed something in the house and the change that I was making today was a big one. I went into the bedroom/atelier and carried out the slipcovers that I’d made for the leather couch, using some fabric that Annie had ordered in the wrong color and then couldn’t return.
“Take it,” she’d told me. “It’s just crowding up the office.” She’d looked glumly around the mess that remained there even with that big roll of cloth gone. I hadn’t charged her for three projects to make up for what I’d calculated as the yardage cost.
I heard a car in the driveway just as I was zipping on the last cushion and Ella was getting fussy that I wasn’t paying her enough attention. Charlene had her own key but lately she’d been knocking, not letting herself in as I remembered from when I’d first moved into her son’s house.
“Hi,” I said and held the door open wide for her. I wasn’t sure what she wanted besides to check in and make sure that I wasn’t mistreating Ella, so I held up the baby and it was clearly visible that she was fine, even if the waning sunlight did show a faint stain on her onesie from spit-up that I hadn’t been able to get out in the wash. I should have picked a different tiny pink outfit.
“We’re totally good,” I announced, and hid the stain with my hand as she walked in past me.
Charlene stopped and stared at the furniture. “What have you done in here?”
“I made slipcovers for the couch and the chair as a surprise. I think Tobin will like it but if he doesn’t, I’ll just unzip them and put them away. I thought it looked ok.” I heard uncertainty in my voice because she was just standing there, not saying anything.
But then she did speak. “Wow. Wow, I can’t believe how nice these are. It looks great in here.” She picked up a pillow I’d made before and then looked at the bookshelf. “Are those pictures, too?”
“He takes a lot of them and there were boxes of old ones and empty frames put away in the basement. I just set some out and ordered a few prints.” There were pictures of his grandparents and other relatives and of Tobin as a little boy. The new ones were of him and Ella together.