Page 16 of Cross-Checked

I sit on the floor next to Abby, and she crawls up into my lap, standing on my legs and stretching up toward my face. Tilting my head down toward her, I pucker up for what I know will be a sloppy kiss. And the girl doesn’t disappoint. I have what feels like a gallon of drool on my lips and chin. A year ago, that would have made me want to throw up, but now it just leaves me with the goofy grin I can never get rid of when Abby does something cute.

A few minutes later, the grin is gone. Lucy’s now half an hour late. I pick up my phone, watching Abby standing on her knees and swinging her favorite stuffed puppy around by his floppy ear as I dial Lucy.

She sounds both surprised and confused when she answers with a startled, “Hello?”

I pause, noticing the music in the background. “Where are you?” I ask the question, even though I’m afraid I already know the answer.

“I’m at Tim’s grandma’s party.” Her voice still carries notes of confusion, like I should already know this and she’s not sure why I’m calling.

“You were supposed to be here half an hour ago, Lucy. I have a game tonight.”

“No, I texted you three days ago and told you I wasn’t going to make it back to Boston until tomorrow. I said to let me know if you wanted me to see if one of my friends could watch Abby, and I didn’t hear back, so I figured you were all set.”

“What the actual fuck are you talking about?” I ask.

Lucy knows I needed her here. When I offered her the week off, I made it perfectly clear that she needed to be back here today in time for me to leave for my game. She happily agreed, and I’d been able to get a woman, Tammy, who used to watch Drew and Audrey’s son, to come babysit Abby the two mornings I had practice. But since I knew Lucy would be back today, I don’t have anything lined up for tonight.

“I don’t understand.” Lucy sounds genuinely confused. “If it wasn’t okay for me to stay, why didn’t you say so.”

“I did.” The words come out in a roar that scares Abby, and her lower lip starts to wobble as her eyes fill up with tears. The last thing I want to do is upset my daughter, so I scoop her up in my free arm, holding her to my chest and giving her a quick kiss on the forehead, before lowering my voice. “Ididtell you that. Both times you asked. And then I gave you a paid week off to make up for you having to miss tonight’s party, and you agreed to that under the condition that you’d be back in time for tonight’s game.”

“Well, I changed my mind, and I gave you three days’ notice.”

“No, you didn’t. And it wouldn’t have mattered if you gave me three weeks’ notice, Lucy! I don’t have anyone else to watch Abby, and I’m supposed to be at the rink, getting ready for my game. This is a job. You don’t get to just show up when you feellike it. You show up when you’re scheduled to work, because that’s what I’m paying you to do.”

I can’t even imagine what was going through her head when she made this decision. This isn’t just about me and my job. Abby is a baby, totally helpless and dependent on the adults in her life to take care of her. That’s when it hits me. While, legally, Lucy may be an adult, she certainly doesn’t know how to act like one. And I’m at fault here because, even though I had reservations, I hired her.

In the background, I can hear someone say something to her, and Lucy hums in acknowledgement.

“I don’t appreciate your tone,” she says. “You’re acting like I didn’t tell you.”

I ignore the comment about my tone because, while I think she deserves it, I’ve been told before that I’m way too “grumpy and growly.”

“Because youdidn’ttell me.”

“Hold on, I’m going to send you a screenshot of the text.” There’s silence for a second, and then she grunts out, “Shit!” Another pause, then she’s back and tells me, “The message didn’t send. It has that little failure notification next to it, which I didn’t see until now.”

It doesn’t matter what happened; the issue is that she’s not here now. “What the hell am I supposed to do with Abby tonight while I’m playing?”

“I don’t know, Mr. McCabe, but I can’t do anything about it from Nantucket.”

I can feel my whole body tensing up, and I don’t want to hurt Abby where she’s snuggled against me so I force myself to relax. “Here’s a piece of advice from your former employer. Next time you feel like not coming into work, make sure you get approval from your bossbeforenot showing up.”

“Myformeremployer?” she squeaks out. Did she think I’d keep her after this stunt?

“Don’t have anyone call me for a reference. And don’t expect a paycheck for this week.”

“But you said I could have a paid week off!” Her voice is awfully whiny when she doesn’t get her way.

“I said you could have a paid week off,as long asyou were back here for tonight’s game. Which you’re not. Enjoy Nantucket.”

Hanging up, I look down at Abby where her big blue eyes are focused up on me. Maybe one day we’ll look back on this night and laugh.

“Guess you’re coming to work with Daddy.”

Chapter Eight

AJ

---