she said. She hooked a finger toward the door. “Is Bea going to church in a limousine these days?”
“What?”
“There’s a limo parked outside your front door. Did Bea hook up with a millionaire?”
He shrugged. “This neighborhood’s gotten fancy in the past couple of years.” He asked her to wait while he grabbed a shirt. He came back out a few seconds later, his pants zipped, wearing a plain white undershirt. He had taken a few seconds to brush his teeth and hair as well.
Christine was still standing close to the doorway, a paper bag in her hands. Sometimes, he forgot how small she was, a full foot shorter than his six and half feet, to be exact. And after all of the years since they had first met, he still found her beautiful, her short black hair, blue eyes, and pale skin exactly the same as when she had been a teenager. “I brought breakfast.” She walked to the round table that resided between the galley kitchen and the living room and spread out some bagels, coffee, and a couple of cheese Danish. “Plates still in the same place?”
“I’ll get them,” he said, and went into the kitchen. Sleep finally released its hold on him and he realized that he had no idea why she was in his apartment. “Were we…” he asked, pointing between the two of them.
“Supposed to have breakfast?” She finished his sentence. “No. I needed to talk with you so I figured I would come down and drop off the girls. They’re having breakfast in the coffee shop on Ninety-sixth. I told them that we’d meet them in about an hour.”
He put the plates on the table and held a chair out for her. He took a seat across from her and opened one of the bagels, wrapped in paper and slathered with cream cheese. “I need this. Thanks.”
She handed him a cup of coffee. “Here. Looks like you need this, too.” She opened the wrapper that held her bagel and took the lid off the other cup of coffee. “How was the wedding?”
He took a huge bite of bagel. “Great,” he mumbled.
“The girls said that Fred married your friend’s…” She hesitated, blushing slightly. “Alison’s friend. Max?”
He looked down and studied his bagel. “Right.”
“Do you like her?”
He thought for a moment. “Max? She’s an acquired taste.”
She laughed. “That doesn’t really tell me anything.”
“How do I describe her?” He looked up at the ceiling, thinking. “She’s smart, gorgeous, and adores Fred. That alone makes her suspect.”
She took a sip of coffee. “Give Fred my best.”
He nodded. “I will.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes. He started to come back to life after half a cup of coffee and the bagel. He looked at her and smiled sadly, sensing a little distress beneath her calm exterior. Her eyes filled with tears.
“I have to let you go,” she said quietly. She put her hands around her coffee cup and looked down at the table. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t do this to you anymore.”
He reached across the table and took her hand. He felt tears pressing at the corners of his eyes. “What do you mean?”
She swallowed and choked back a sob. “I’m sorry, Bobby. I’m not going to stand in your way anymore. I’ve talked with Father Kevin and told him to forget about the annulment.”
He was stunned. “What? You don’t want an annulment?”
She waved her hand dismissively. “Only if you want it. It doesn’t matter to me.”
He didn’t understand her change of heart and didn’t want to pry. He didn’t know if she had met someone else and that precipitated her decision, and he didn’t want to know. “Do the girls know?”
“I told them,” she said. “They’ll be fine.” She took a sip of her coffee, more of a time killer than anything else. She wiped her eyes with a napkin and blew her nose.
“Christine, I don’t know what to say,” he said.
She gave a sad laugh. “Just say that you’ll help me put them through college and everything will be fine,” she said, smiling. “Meaghan’s decided she wants to go to Stanford, so unless she gets a basketball scholarship, you and I will be living on peanut butter and canned soup for the next four years.” She turned the empty bagel wrapper into a ball and held it in her hand. “Just help me with that.”
“Of course,” he said, nodding. “That goes without saying.”
She nodded. “I know it does. You always do the