Page 21 of The Fault Between Us
And what was so terrible about letting Dad buy them lunch?
It hadn’t helped that Jenny had been fussy during the night and Claire was up walking her back and forth in the tiny hallway. Bridget offered to help but Claire wouldn’t hear of it.
They’d gone to church this morning in West Yellowstone and of course Frannie spent the entire Mass fidgeting. When the last hymn was announced, Claire shot Bridget a smile. “Amazing Grace.” It was Claire’s favorite, and one they’d all sung together in the choir at St. Malachy’s. Those had been good days, before Frannie started acting up and Claire left them. Bridget had nudged Frannie. “Sing.” Frannie had stubbornly kept her mouth closed.
Now, Claire held the fretful Jenny against her shoulder and bounced gently. “I don’t want to leave Jenny or take her in the truckall that way,” she said in response to Bridget’s question. “I don’t know what’s wrong. She’s been sleeping through the night for weeks.”
Bridget was tempted to give Claire a well-deservedI told you so. If Claire had taken her advice about breastfeeding... but poor Claire looked at the end of her rope. “Try putting a warm hot water bottle under her tummy,” Bridget suggested. “If she’s still fussy tomorrow, call me at the hospital.”
Claire picked up Jenny and rocked her in her arms. “Do you mind terribly having Red drive you?”
“Of course not.” Bridget forced a pleasant expression onto her face. What else could she say? She had to get to her first shift at Mammoth Hospital, and she couldn’t very well hitchhike.
After a lunch of cold cuts and potato salad, Bridget repacked her bags and changed into an appropriate outfit of a navy pencil skirt and white blouse, just right for meeting her new supervisor. She came into the kitchen to find Red walking Jenny back and forth while Claire warmed a bottle on the stove.
“Frannie,” Claire called out, “do you remember how I told you to make the formula for Jenny yesterday? Could you make another batch, please?”
Frannie shrugged and slumped into the kitchen. “Sure, it’s not rocket science.”
Bridget watched Claire worry over Jenny. Dad was right, it was too hard to raise a baby without family. Claire should come home, where she would have help. If only her sister wasn’t so stubborn and her husband wasn’t so... hostile.
Claire sat down on the couch and Bridget watched Red settle the baby in her lap. Still, she admitted that Red was better with the baby than most fathers. He even changed diapers. Red didn’t like her—that was obvious—but he loved Claire and Jenny. Maybe she could make him see the sense of moving his family back to Willmar for their sake.
She said goodbye to Claire with a firm hug, kissed Jenny, and told Frannie to behave herself. “You’re sure you’re okay?” Bridget asked her sister while Red started the truck.
“I’m fine, Bridget. Red and I are fine. Everything is fine,” Claire said with a sharp note in her voice and weariness in her face.
Bridget didn’t believe it for a minute, and she was going to help her sister, even if Claire insisted she didn’t need help.
Red pulled the truck off the gravel road and onto the highway in silence.
Bridget smoothed her skirt and rolled up her window so as not to mess her hair. “I appreciate you driving me, Red.”
He gave her a curt nod and they drove in silence for what seemed like a very long time.
“It was good to see Claire,” Bridget tried again. “She looks wonderful.”
He nodded again.
The National Park Service ranger at the West Entrance waved them through when Red explained that he was driving Bridget up to her job in Mammoth. Then, there was nothing but the rumble of the road for over ten minutes.
Red wasn’t going to make this easy. But this was for Claire, so Bridget took a deep breath and turned to her brother-in-law. “Red, I feel like we got off on the wrong foot.”
He glanced sideways.
“I just want Claire to be happy,” she said. That was the absolute truth.
“You don’t think she is?” Red said without taking his eyes off the road.
Bridget said the words she’d rehearsed in her head. “It’s hard to have a baby and not have family around. She doesn’t even have any friends, even though she’s lived here for over a year.”
Bridget saw Red’s knuckles go pale on the steering wheel. “She has me.”
“That’s not enough.” Bridget regretted that reply immediately and tried to backpedal. “I mean—”
“I know what you meant,” he interrupted, his voice hard. “I’mnot enough. The house we live in isn’t enough. The life I’ve given her isn’t enough.”
The intensity of his words shouldn’t have surprised her after yesterday. “You’re putting words in my mouth.”
