Chapter 17: Half and Half

I had a hundred answers for Jamie, and every one of them was a lie.

I knelt on the floorboards of Leigh's hallway so my face would be level with his.

"Yes," I said.

"I was with her."

Jamie looked at me.

He did not cry, and he did not look surprised.

"I thought so," he said.

Leigh made a small sound behind me.

"Come sit down, bud," she said.

"Let's all sit."

We sat at the card table, the three of us, with the tulips in the middle and the pastry bag between Jamie's elbows.

He didn't open it.

"I want to say it all at once," he said, "so nobody has to ask me questions."

"Okay," Leigh said.

"Okay," I said.

Jamie put both hands flat on the table.

"I know Dad had a lady. I saw her name on his phone at Christmas, and I didn't tell Mom, because she was already doing the thing with her face."

"What thing?" Leigh whispered.

"The thing where you smile with your mouth," Jamie said.

"I know you wrote the binder. Grandma left the cover open on the island, and I read the first page."

"I know you were leaving a long time ago, because you started packing the little stuff, like your good scissors, and you thought I didn't notice."

Leigh pressed her hand over her mouth.

"And I know why I said Dad," Jamie said.

"Everybody thinks it was the video games."

"It was not the video games."

He looked at me, and then at the table.

"Mom had a friend. Dad had nobody. If I went with Mom, he'd be alone in that whole house, and he'd only have her."

"By her, I mean the lady."

"Jamie," I said.

"Let me finish," he said, and I shut my mouth.

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