Page 59 of Bountiful
“Davey,” she said by way of agreeting.
“Bessie.”
“Howareyou?”
“Fine.”
“Then why do you sound allbitchy?”
“You can tell just from the way I say ‘fine’?” I snapped, proving her pointforher.
“Did somethinghappen?”
“Nope,” I lied. “Do you have any news about mycontract?”
She was silent for a second. “No, honey. I just called to see how you wereholdingup.”
Great. I’d walked into this trap fornothing.
“There wouldn’tbeany news, though,” she said. “You were supposed to be thinking about whether or not you wanted to take the two-year or thethree-year.”
“I know that. But I thought maybe you’d had an idea for me. I was thinking about the no-trade clause. We could drop that for the third year, maybe. If they could trade me, they might paymemore.”
She sighed. “Davey, we already dropped the no-trade in year three. That’s how they’re offering you a third year at all. Didn’t you read the deal memoIsent?”
Awkward silence.“Not closely enough, I guess.” I hadn’t done a fucking thing since I’d come to Vermont except implode. “Nevermind.”
“Listen.” My sister’s voice went soft. “Maybe we don’t need to renegotiate your contract early. You have a lot going on. We could tell management that you’re having some unexpected family drama this summer and we weren’t as ready to negotiate as we thoughtwewere.”
I groaned. “But they’re not going to like me any better this winter. I should just sign the thing before we tell the PR department that I havedrama.”
“It’s not news, though,” my sister said immediately. “You have a child. Likeanyone.”
“Don’t blow smoke up my ass, Bess. You told me yourself that we have to warn the PR department.” If some internet rag decided to make Zara and Nicole into their next gossip nugget, I couldn’t have team management caught off-guard.
“We’re going to tell them about Nicole, but it’s not a big deal to them. Do you want me to postpone the contracttalks?”
“Don’t say anything to them yet. I’m stillthinking.”
“Okay,” she said softly. “Hang inthere.”
“Thanks,” I grunted. We said our goodbyes, and Idisconnected.
Then I whistled up Castro and took him hiking, hoping that the world would start making sense again soon. And in the meantime, I needed to go hiking and schedule another PT appointment inBurlington.
ChapterNineteen
Zara
“Why the long face?”Audrey asked the next day as we stood behind the counter at The Busy Bean eating lunch. The lunch was chicken salad with grapes and blue cheese, and it was just as fabulous as everything elseAudreymade.
“It’s not the food,” I said, shoveling another bite in. I could eat my weight in Audrey’s chickensalad.
“Then what is it? Mantroubles?”
“Sort of. I freaked out at Dave yesterday.” That was a horrible understatement. I was too embarrassed to tell Audrey that I had actuallyslappedhim.
“Why?”
