and slept on the couch in his small home office. Zoe didn’t try to convince him to sleep in their bedroom. She knew he needed time to cool off.
On Sunday, he told her he was taking Jaime to visit his parents at their house in Sag Harbor, and said in a stiff voice that she was welcome to come. But she knew that the time in the car with him would be tense, which wouldn’t be good for any of them, least of all Jaime, and she didn’t want to see his parents, particularly his mother.
“I’ve got some work to do,” she said quietly. “Why don’t you and Jaime enjoy your parents. Give them my love.” He didn’t argue with her or insist that she come, and he hadn’t asked her before he’d called his parents and suggested the visit. One of his brothers was going to visit them that day too, and it would be nice for Jaime to see her cousins, since Zoe never took Jaime to New Jersey or Connecticut to see them, and he always had to organize it. He and Jaime left half an hour later. He didn’t mention the ear tube incident again. There was nothing left to say about it, it was done, but he hadn’t swallowed it yet, which Zoe could see. She had no regrets about it, she still believed she had done the right thing, even if her methods had been somewhat dubious. She knew her motives were pure. It was all for Jaime’s good, which justified everything, even if Austin couldn’t see that. At least not yet.
Cathy called a little while later, as Zoe was working on some papers for the shelter.
“I’m calling as your friend, not your doctor,” she said clearly at the outset. “How’s Austin?”
“Not happy. He’ll get over it,” Zoe said coolly. “I gather he talked to you yesterday.”
“He did. Zoe, please don’t use me to justify medical procedures for Jaime unless you talk to me first. I would have tried to talk you out of it, which is probably why you didn’t ask me. It may prove to be the right thing for her, but not now, after only two ear infections in three years. It was way too soon.”
“I just didn’t want her to go through all that pain again,” she said with a sigh, “she screamed in agony for two days.”
“And it stopped when we got her on the right antibiotic. I just don’t want to get in the middle of things between you and Austin. I love you both, you’re my favorite friends, and the best parents I know. And the three of us trust each other. I want to keep it that way.”
“He’ll calm down,” Zoe said confidently, with no apparent remorse.
“I’m sure he will, but he sounded very pissed.”
“He is, or was yesterday. All I want is what’s best for Jaime.”
“I know you do. But you may have to go about it a little more openly, to give everyone a chance to vote.” Zoe didn’t answer. They talked for a few moments, and then hung up, and Zoe went back to the papers she was working on. They were applying for a federal grant, which would benefit the children they protected.
Austin and Jaime had gotten to his parents’ house by then. His brother and his family hadn’t arrived yet, and his parents were happy to see them.
“Where’s Zoe?” Constance asked as she poured apple juice into a glass for Jaime.
“She had homework,” Jaime answered her grandmother. “She said to send you and Grampa George her love.”
“Send her ours.” Constance smiled at her. Jaime went out to the garden with her grandfather then to play with their dog, a little Maltese named Molly. Constance looked at her son after they went outside. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“You look stressed,” she said cautiously, wondering what was going on, and why Zoe hadn’t come.
“I had a long week. I’m doing a bunch of pro bono cases for the shelter, with some nasty characters. They always are. By the way, Jaime had ear tubes put in yesterday.” He decided that he’d better tell her before Jaime did.
“Patrick has them too, and they were thinking of doing them for Seth. I didn’t know Jaime had ear problems, other than the infection she had a few weeks ago.”
“Zoe thought we should do it.” He looked tense as he said it, and his mother nodded and didn’t comment. At least Jaime hadn’t gotten injured recently, which