first retort on his tongue: and you never did. “Yeah,” he muttered instead.
He leaned down, resting his elbows on Maggie’s door. He saw her recoil, then she made a concerted effort to move back a little closer. She faked a small smile, her body still held tense.
A couple of years ago, her reaction would have wounded him down to his soul. Hell, a few months ago it would have. But now he was a changed man. Maggie, his family—they had all hardened him a little. Even Josie had toughened him up, just by providing a point of contrast. He steered his own course now; he didn’t drift the way other people blew him.
“I got my apartment finished this week,” he said.
“That’s… that’s good.”
“Clarice has her own room and a bathroom.” He smiled a little. “I’m sure Clarice will tell you all about it on the way home. She was so excited, I had trouble getting her to do her homework. She may have a little left to finish up.”
“Um, okay,” she said warily.
“When did they start giving kids her age that much homework? It’s really ridiculous.”
“It’s been like that for a while.”
“She really doesn’t have time enough to play in the evenings. It’s like she goes to school twelve hours a day.”
“That’s what’s necessary to make them competitive, I suppose. We’re lagging behind all the other countries, you know.”
“Yeah, but they assign less homework, not more. Most of them, anyways.”
Maggie was silent for a moment. “Nothing we can do about it, I suppose. She’d be in trouble if she didn’t do it. And I don’t want her to be behind.”
Scott nodded a little. That wasn’t an acceptable answer for him, but he didn’t have an answer of his own yet, so it would do for the moment.
He glanced back to the office, but didn’t see Clarice. “Now that I have a room for her, I want her on the weekends, starting this weekend. You’ll need to get the bus to pick her up here every other Monday morning.”
“I said I would think about it when the time came,” she said.
“Um, no, you signed a parenting plan that said I could have her once I had a room for her. I now have one. …You’re welcome to come down and have a look at it,” he said, gesturing to the building.
“I was pretty sure that I said I would think about it,” Maggie insisted.
“And I’m pretty sure the parenting plan says you’ll do it. Want me to get you a copy?”
She frowned. “That’s not what we agreed to.”
“Of course it is. You signed it.”
“I didn’t know it said definitely. I thought it said what I said—which is that I would think about it.”
“You should have read it.”
She frowned more. “Is that what they taught you in law school? To hide stuff in the fine print and legalese so you can trick people?”
Scott leaned in a little more, just to get the satisfaction of seeing her flinch away again. “I don’t know. Did your divorced friends tell you how to get the right judge to screw me over?”
She didn’t respond.
His voice dropped lower. “One thing you seem to forget is that I have a right to see my child. And she has a right to see me. I’m not taking anything that’s not ours by rights. I’m sorry if you feel that us spending time together is somehow cheating you. But you know what? I don’t give a fuck about you anymore. I gave to you and gave to you and gave to you. I’m all used up. Now, I’m caring for only two people: me and Clarice.”
Clarice came running out of the office a moment later. Scott stood up and smiled, as if nothing was going on.
“Got all your homework and books?”
“Yeah,” she said, hurtling herself into him and hugging him around the waist.
He hugged her back and kissed her on top of the head. “Good girl.”
“Bye, Daddy!”
He opened the door behind Maggie. “See you Friday, princess.”
She hopped into the back of the car, then paused. “Really?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“Yep,” he said, shutting the door.
She grinned and waved through the window.
He tapped on the glass. “Seat belt.”
She hurried to fasten it, then waved at him again, still grinning.
He returned her smile and waved as they backed up and pulled away.
Episode 30: Bowled Over
Clarice was beside herself with excitement when she came tumbling down the stairs Friday afternoon. Scott barely had time to brace himself as she jumped into his arms.
“Hey, Daddy!”
He kissed her cheek. “How are you today, Princess?”
“Fine.”
He put her back on her feet. “How was school today?”
“Fine.”
Po was jumping up and down, trying to lick everyone. Clarice giggled, kneeling in the floor to pet him. “Did you miss me, Po?”
“He definitely misses you when you’re not here,” Scott replied. “He doesn’t want to play with me like he does you. I think he likes running around with you more than anything.”
“Well, I’m going to be here all weekend!” she said brightly.
“I know. Po’s going to love it.” He patted her on the shoulder. “I want you to get a start on your homework now.”
The light left Clarice’s face like a cloud passing over the sun. “Now? On Friday?” She sounded scandalized.
“Yes. I don’t want to leave it until Sunday. Besides, I have a treat for us later tonight. You might as well use your time to do your homework.”
The sun came out again. “What kind of treat?”
“You’ll see in a little while,” Scott said, smiling mysteriously. “Get your homework done so we can go.”
“Can I have something to eat first?”
Scott pointed to a shelf near the table. “I got some peanut butter crackers for you. And there’s some juice upstairs in the fridge. Do you remember where the kitchen is?”
She nodded.
“Go up and get you some.”
She ran up the stairs with youthful exuberance and returned a couple of minutes later with a Capri Sun. “That ought to hold you until dinner,” Scott said. “Now, get your work done so we can go out.”
She went to her room and diligently sat at her desk, mixing graphite and orange cracker crumbs on ruled paper. Po ran around a little while, excited, but when he saw that Clarice wasn’t going to play with him, he jumped up on her bed, curled up, and watched her.
Scott sat on the couch in the living room and watched the evening news. Occasionally he would get up and check on Clarice, keeping her on task and helping her where necessary. By the time Josie came down the steps a few hours later, Clarice’s homework was done.
Scott watched as she put it all away in her backpack. “Now, doesn’t that feel good?” he asked her. “It won’t be hanging over your head all weekend, so you can just relax and enjoy yourself.”
“Yeah,” she agreed with a smile.
Josie stuck her head around the door. “Ya’ll ready to go?”
“Yep,” Scott said.
“Where are we going?” Clarice asked eagerly.
“You’ll see,” Scott said, still being mysterious.
Scott had purposefully left his calendar free so he could have the evening with Clarice. In fact, he had told Josie to alternate his calendar so he worked Friday nights when he didn’t have Clarice and Sunday nights when he did. It had slowly but surely gotten around town that Scott was the only lawyer that operated after normal office hours, and his business had really picked up—and mostly from human clientele. It seemed many people were willing to overlook the fact that Scott was a vampire, so long as they didn’t have to miss any work to meet with him.
They got into Scott’s SUV and drove towards Columbia. The sky in the west still had a tinge of green on the horizon, but the blackness was overtaking it.
“So, where are we going?” Clarice asked again. It
was the same game she played at Christmas: constantly asking just to see if she could catch someone off guard.
“You’ll see,” Scott repeated. He was an old hand at the what-did-you-get-me game.
Josie just chuckled.
Twenty-five minutes later, they pulled into the lot of a neon-lit building, glittering and flashing in the night.
“What’s this?” Clarice asked, looking up in open-mouthed awe.
“Can’t you figure it out?” Scott asked, a little surprised. He thought the big white bowling pin, outlined in red lights, was a bit of a giveaway.
“A bowling alley?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Are we going bowling?” she squealed.
Scott got out of the car. “Well, we didn’t come here just to watch.”
Clarice scampered around him and Josie as they crossed the lot—running ahead, then back again.
Josie whispered to Scott. “She looks like Po.”
He laughed, taking her hand in his. “I was thinking the same thing.”
She glanced down at their hands. “Are we being obvious?” she asked, still whispering.
“Might as well. Everyone in town seems to know. Besides, Clarice already figured it out. She asked me if you were my girlfriend.”
“Did she? What does she think about it?”
“She likes you.” He grinned. “After all, who wouldn’t?”
Josie laughed. “Scott, you’re just so….”
“What?” he asked, when she didn’t finish.
“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “Not like anyone else I’ve dated, that’s for sure.”
He grinned and held open the door for her.
The lanes were dark. Overhead, the ceiling had long tubes of colored neon, and they were cycling through their colors in sync with the music blaring over the speakers. There were lines of white lights along the gutters of each lane that