great and the conversation was as fluffy and inconsequential as a mouthful of cotton candy, which was exactly what I needed. If Calvin had pushed away his plate, looked me squarely in the eye, and said, “So. How are you?” I would have burst into tears. Again. Cotton candy conversation about jumpsuits and Honey Boo Boo came as a relief.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t thinking. Calvin is always thinking.
AROUND ONE IN the morning, there was a knock on my door. It was soft, more a tap than a knock. If I’d been sleeping, I probably wouldn’t have heard it. But I hadn’t been sleeping. My brain was too busy thinking about everything that had happened, trying to sort through my options, none of them attractive, and getting nowhere. Calvin, apparently, had been doing the same thing. But unlike me, he’d actually reached some conclusions.
“Are you okay?” I asked after opening the door and finding him standing in the hallway, dressed in blue striped pajamas and a white bathrobe with a monogram—CLG—in the same shade of blue as the pajamas.
“You travel with your own bathrobe?”
“Shut up. The hotel robes are never big enough to go around.” He walked in without waiting for an invitation and took a seat on the edge of the bed. “Listen, I’ve been thinking it over.” He took a deep breath. “You should stay in Charleston.”
“What?” My mouth dropped open, shocked that he’d even suggest such a thing. “Why would I do that? My whole life is New York.”
“Wrong. Your job was in New York. So was your marriage. But those are over. So what’s keeping you?”
“My friends, for one thing.” I paused for a moment, considering how many people I knew in New York that I truly cared about. “Well, you, anyway. What’s going on? Are you trying to get rid of me or something?”
He shook his head. “Celia, what’s the one thing you want more than anything in the world? A baby, right? A family. You’ve been talking about it for as long as I’ve known you. Now, after all this time, you’ve got a chance. You can’t walk away from that.
“First thing tomorrow, you should hire a crew to clean out Calpurnia’s house and fix it up into a real home. It’d be a great place to raise a kid—plenty of room, nice garden, nice neighbors. Well, except for Happy.” He shuddered. “When the lawyer comes for the home visit, steer her clear of the charming Mrs. Browder.”
“Calvin, I—”
He shook his head, harder, and held up his hand to cut me off. “Think about it, Celia. The birth mother won’t care where you live as long as the house is nice. The place is a wreck right now but it could be gorgeous. Unless you win the lottery, you’d never be able to afford anything that nice in the city.”
“Well, okay, but right now it’s a wreck. Where am I supposed to get the money to fix it up? We’re not talking about a little paint, some new throw pillows, and a trip to IKEA. This is going to involve lumber and electricians, possibly a backhoe. All that takes money. I’m out of a job, remember?”
Calvin looked at me square on. His expression was uncharacteristically serious and, I thought, a little sad.
“Take the money, Celia. Sign the stupid separation letter and take the severance. It’ll be enough for you to remodel the house and then some.”
I gasped. “And let Dan McKee get away with it? You heard Trey Holcomb, he said he’d help me go after McKee and won’t charge me anything unless we win!”
“Yeah, but you’re not going to win. Cupcake,” he said in a flat, get-real tone, “I understand McKee was sneaky and underhanded, but you should have read the damned contract before you signed it.”
I set my jaw, irritated that he was throwing that up at me. It wasn’t like I hadn’t told myself the same thing about two zillion times but wasn’t he supposed to be on my side? Whatever happened to loyalty?
“So, you just expect me to give up on making him have to face up to what he did? Give up on—”
“On Calpurnia. Yes,” Calvin said, nodding. “Honey. You don’t need to be her anymore. You’re so good at being yourself. Or you would be, if you’d just give it a chance. Don’t you see? This is the only way. You don’t get to be Calpurnia, Celia, and a mother all at the same time. You have