Page 67 of The Bet
“Okay.” She took in a deep breath. “You know that Jacob is the most precious thing in my life, along with Tobias, obviously. And, I don’t want my son to feel pushed out.”
“Of course not.” She’d wanted to tell Savannah about the conversation with Jacob in the pool the other day, but hadn’t wanted to do it over the phone.
“I hate to do this,” said Savannah—and Izzy knew that a ‘but’ was coming—especially when Savannah couldn’t look her in the eye. “But I think it would be better—for the next few months at least—if I spent as much time as possible with Jacob.”
She could see that Savannah felt bad, even though she completely understood. It seemed that Jacob might have told her or hinted his worries and Savannah had picked up onsomething.
“I’m glad he told you,” said Izzy, feeling happy that Jacob had expressed his concerns to his mother. “That’s quite a mature thing for a young child to do.”
“Jacob didn’t tell me. Xavier did.”
“Xavier?” Why would he mention something like that to Savannah?
“He mentioned it, and I’m glad he did, otherwise I would have had no idea.”
“I was going to tell you,” said Izzy. “But I wanted to do it face to face, because I didn’t want you to worry too much, and I didn’t think it was the kind of thing to tell you over the phone yesterday.”
“I know you would have, but, now that I know, I have to fix it, and this is how I’m going to go about fixing it.”
She recounted the conversation back to Savannah. “I tried to tell him it wouldn’t be like that and that you would both continue to love him as much as you love the new baby—whenever it comes, but he seemed to worry most about Tobias not being his real dad, and not loving him as much as he would love the new baby, whenever that comes.” She looked away, and it was hard not to look at Savannah’s stomach, and try to guess.
“I feel bad I wasn’t there to listen to him, and I’m glad you were. I knew he would open up to you. He trusts you, Izzy, as I do, and that’s why this is so hard for me to do, to ask you to step away.”
It was going to hit her hard, losing the easy money that came from looking after Jacob, but it wasn’t Savannah’s fault, and it wasn’t hers. She would simply have to find a way around it. She didn’t blame Savannah, and if she was in her shoes, she would have done the exact same thing. Jacob was her priority, not Izzy.
“I’m sorry, Izzy. I hate to do this to you, especially since I was the one hounding you to come and work for us. I promise you it’s only temporary because I will need help in a few months’ time. Just not right now. Could you give me until after the New Year?”
“Sure.” She was being let go, and sweetly. While she could understand Savannah’s dilemma, her own dilemma was brewing up inside her. She tried to laugh it off. “Don’t feel sorry, I understand, and I have exams to cram for before Christmas. I’ll be okay.”
The fate of Shoemoney’s extra cash had been decided. It would go to the Izzy and Cara fund.
