Page 69 of Bountiful
For some reason I looked at my wrist, which was banded by a Timex on a canvas strap. “I wondered what happened to that. I thought I left it in the cabin. And when I called the rental company they said nobody had turneditin.”
“I’ll drop it off when I go to yogaagain.”
“Eh,” I hedged. “I never really missed it. That thing wasn’t really me. Just something I bought my first year making big money. Thought that’s what you were supposed to do. You guys should hangontoit.”
Zara didn’t say anything, and I realized that I’d just validated her original plan—to use an overpriced chunk of metal to explain an absent father to Nicole when she was a teenager. It wouldn’t go down that way now. I wasn’t going to cut off ties with Zaraagain.
Although, when I tried to look a decade into the future, I saw…nothing. It was all a haze—my career, my relationship to Zara and her child. What the hell would I be doing in tenyears?
The question scared the shit outofme.
“I got papers from your lawyer on Friday,” Zara saidsuddenly.
“Really? That was fast. What dotheysay?”
“Standard paternity request. I take a swab from inside Nicole’s cheek and mail it back to a lab. And that if I refuse to comply with the test, you can take me tocourt.”
“That’s just lawyers talking. You know I wouldn’t reallydothat.”
“I know.” She cleared herthroat.
“I think I got the same test by FedEx. Haven’t opened it yet. I’ll do it tomorrow. And if you don’t like the tone the lawyer takes, I can ask him tobackoff.”
“It’s really okay. Somehow I don’t think you’re about to surprise me with a request for fullcustody.”
We both knew that would never happen. But even I wasn’t a big enough ass to agree too loudly. Instead, I reached for her hand and gave it a quicksqueeze.
Her fingers closed around mine, and then I think she surprised both of us by holding on and interlacing ourfingers.
We sat in silence for a minute while I admired this quiet spot in my favorite state. “So when are pears harvested? There’s so many of them.” There were hundreds on each tree, still small. “They get bigger,right?”
“Sure. And the tree will shed fruit over time. The harvest happens in August, but the fruit is still hard and green when it comes off the trees. Pears are tricky. They’re not like apples—you don’t wait until they ripen topickthem.”
“Really?Why?”
“If you let a pear ripen on the tree, the texture is mealy at the core. They ripen from the inside out. So we pick them hard, chill them down to thirty degrees for a day and then shipthemout.”
“But how do you know when topickthem?”
“There’s some guesswork involved,” she admitted. “Some varieties are ready when the stem releases easily from the branch. Some never release easily, and you just have to go withyourgut.”
“Who knew?” She was still holding my hand, and I liked it waytoomuch.
“Hey,Dave?”
“Mmm?”
“I’m really sorry Islappedyou.”
“I thought we were going to forgetaboutthat.”
“But I just want you to know that the last person I slapped was Benito. When we wereseventeen.”
“He probably had it coming,” I said mildly. “Pretty sure I got into some scuffles with Bess.” I distinctly remembered locking her in her room when we were teenagers because she’d gotten into mystuff.
“Well.” She cleared her throat. “I would never hit my child,” she whispered. “Just putting that outthere.”
Wait,what?
