listening to her iPod. She takes the earplugs out of her ears as soon as she sees Daff and, for once, looks contrite.
“Oh Jess.” Daff sinks down and takes her in her arms, and Jess allows herself to be rocked like a baby.
“I’m so sorry, Mom,” she says. “I didn’t think about the things that could happen. I just wanted to see Dad.”
“I know. But please don’t ever do that again.”
“Did Dad talk to you?”
“About living here?”
“Yes.”
“You want to?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to live with you,” Jess says, looking like the five-year-old she once was. “It’s just that I miss Dad so much. I want to live here for a bit.”
“I said I’d think about it,” Daff says, blinking back the tears as she looks around the room. “Hey, I love this room. Who painted that mural?” She points to a mural of Hairspray.
“Carrie did,” Jess says sheepishly. “She knows that’s my favorite movie so she painted the mural as a surprise.”
“Wow! She’s really good.”
“She helped me decorate the room too.” Jess points out the futon, the pillows, the bookshelves. “We went to Ikea to get the stuff and it was so cool. I didn’t want to tell you”—she looks awkwardly at her mom—“I mean, I didn’t know what to tell you. About Carrie and stuff.”
“It’s okay,” Daff says. “I’m happy that Dad has a girlfriend. Do you like her?”
Jess shrugs. “Sometimes. I mean, I like her when it’s just her and me, but I don’t see why she has to be Dad’s girlfriend. I don’t think he needs a girlfriend, but maybe they can just be friends after a while, and that would be much better.”
“I understand that,” Daff says. “It must be very hard to share your dad.”
“Yeah. Now that they’re living together she’s always around and there’s no special time for just him and me. That’s why I want to be here, to live here, I mean, because that way I’ll get tons more ordinary time with him.”
“You think so?”
“Oh yeah. He already said. So can I, Mom? Can I come and live here? I’ll still see you all the time, but can I be here? Did you think about it yet?”
“Not yet.” Daff smiles, rubbing her daughter’s back and thinking how lovely it is that they are even able to have a conversation. It has been months since Jess talked to her about anything without a sneer, and for her to reveal how she feels about Carrie is huge. Maybe this isn’t such a bad idea after all. Maybe they could try it out over the summer, see how it goes.
But then that leaves Daff. On her own. What on earth is Daff supposed to do all by herself?
The answer comes to her as she drives home. She is thinking about work, what she has listed, what she can do to market her properties, when she remembers the pictures she was looking at in that house. Nantucket.
Why not go to Nantucket? This is the first time in thirteen years she doesn’t have to think about someone else. She could have an adventure. Go somewhere new. Meet new people.
And making a mental note to Google Nantucket and find out about rentals, Daff finds herself smiling all the way home.
Michael walks in the apartment to the smell of melting butter and garlic. It smells wonderful, smells like he has made a mistake and walked into someone else’s apartment, or the restaurant on the corner.
“Hello?” He pokes his head tentatively into the kitchen, for he thought Jordana was leaving today, was going off to stay with friends, a hotel, something, and he’s not sure he can bear the guilt now that Jackson has chosen him as an unwilling confidant.
Jordana looks up from where she is sautéing onions and garlic, in the corner of the tiny kitchen, pleasure in her eyes.
“I thought I’d cook you dinner,” she says. “To say thank you for taking me in last night.”
“I didn’t think you’d be here,” he says. “I thought you were going to a hotel.”
“I am,” she says, her face falling at Michael’s lack of pleasure. She thought he’d be thrilled—what man, what self-respecting bachelor wouldn’t be thrilled to have a beautiful woman cook him dinner?
What Michael so clearly needs, above all else, is a woman to look after him. She hasn’t just shopped and cooked—and her cooking days in Great Neck were long gone—she has dusted the apartment. She needs Michael to realize how wonderful she is, how good