Page 136 of Lost in Love

“Well, I’d entertain the idea of a kid, it usually comes with problems, asyoucan attest to. And I’mnevergetting married. They say marriage is like a prison sentence. It’s why you wear rings. They’re tiny shackles. Besides that, Grady seems to be as much as I can handle.”

He’s talking about Madison’s best friend’s kid. They’re not important right now. I’ll explain later.

“True.”

“So what did she say?” Brantley asks, flipping through a book of tile samples he has in his hand. “She give you a reason?”

I tell Brantley everything. Always have. If there’s anyone who knows me, it’s Brantley. We spend fourteen hours a day together. It’s safe to say he knows me better than anyone.

“She said she doesn’t love me anymore.” Do you hear the dejection in my voice? You should. It’s pathetic, and even I want to slap myself.

“Well, that’s just stupid.” He sets down the tile book and turns to face me as he runs his hand through his golden-brown hair. “Of course she still loves you. Maybe you need to do something to get her attention? I once knew this guy who had a star named after his girlfriend. My cousin, he named a black hole after his mother-in-law. You could do that too.”

Sighing, I glance at the inspector approaching us. “My life is a black hole.”

AROUND NOON,MADISON sends me an invite on my calendar. A meeting at Callan’s school. Immediately I call her because I have no idea why she’d send it to me, or what I’m supposed to do with it.

“What’s this meeting with his teacher?”

I wish I could see her face because just the tone of her voice is telling me something I should listen to. But I can’t, and I don’t.

“Apparently his teacher needs to see us.”

While I’m not wild about taking off in the middle of the day when I have the plumbing inspector meeting me here in an hour, I know this is what Madison was talking about and if there’s ever a test, this has to be it, right?

So the good husband and father I’m trying to be would go to the school conference, wouldn’t he?

“Yeah, I’ll make it work. Should we be concerned? Does he usually have parent-teacher conferences?”

She pauses, the line quiet for a moment. “Well, no, he doesn’t.” I can hear talking in the background, mostly women, I think. “His teacher made a special request to meet with the both of us today.”

“All right. About last night—”

And she cuts me off with, “I have a client in fifteen minutes.”

“A man or a woman?”

“Ridley, I don’t have time for this.”

“I’m just asking… man or woman?”

“Woman.”

Is she lying? Probably, but I’ll let her slide for now. What was I going to do, drive to her work and wait outside her door?

Well, I thought about it, but I can’t today. I have drywall to be hanging and a compliance inspector up my ass about not meeting electrical codes.

Seven

Are you smarter than a 7-year-old?

Take a look around.

Do you see those parents sitting nervously in the classroom? The onesnottalking to one another with an unspoken void between the two of them?

I don’t think there’s a void, but I know she does. When I look over at her, I feel it radiating from her. I don’t think she’s telling the truth about not loving me; she still does, even if I have to prove it to her, but there’s something else there I intend on finding out.

“Where’s Callan at?” I’ve never been to a parent-teacher conference, and I don’t remember having them as a kid. I remember plenty of student-principal talks. Surely that’s not what this is because we’ve never even had to punish Callan. We won’t talk about Noah right now.

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