Page 61 of When Morning Comes Around

“I can’t! I already told you, I’m helping in the garden center today.”

“And if I call Grandpa and tell him what I just told you, do you think that he’ll want you to do that? Or do you think he might tell you the same thing that I just did? You need to get on it, Mom.”

She frowned. “Do I? Does it really matter who files first? We both want the same thing. We want a divorce. What do the details matter?”

“Mom! It’s all about the details. I honestly don’t know if it matters who files first – but I have a fair idea that there must be some benefit to him in doing it, otherwise he wouldn’t bother, would he?”

“No, I suppose not.” She sighed. “I’ll get on it on Monday. It’s Saturday now. It’s not as though…”

“I think that’s a mistake.”

“You might be right, sweetheart, but as far as I’m concerned, it’d be more of a mistake to let Grandpa down.”

“Do you want me to call him and ask him? See what he’d rather you do?”

“No. You don’t need to do that. I know that you’re only trying to look out for me, but no matter what trick he might be trying to pull, he’s the adulterer. I might not know how it all works – I’ve never gotten a divorce before – but I’m fairly certain that in the eyes of the law, I’m the wronged party.”

“Yeah, I guess. Unless he thinks that he can deny it and get away with it, somehow.”

She let out a short, bitter laugh. “He can try. Trevor already told me that he’ll back me up if he tries to weasel his way out of it.”

“Yeah, at least Dad can’t deny it.”

“He can’t.”

“Sorry, Mom. I don’t mean to upset you.”

“It’s okay; I’m not upset. I just want to put the whole thing behind me. If your dad filing first speeds things up, I don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing.”

“Maybe, but will you promise me that you’ll talk to a lawyer as soon as you can?”

“Okay. I will.”

“Are you ready to go, Sadie?” her dad called as he opened his bedroom door.

“Nearly,” she called back. “Grandpa’s ready to go out, Josh. I need to go.”

“Not yet. Put me on speaker for a minute, would you?”

“I don’t need the two of you ganging up on me.”

Josh chuckled. “Are you telling me that you don’t want me to talk my grandpa?”

She shook her head with a smile. “Okay! Hang on.” She put the phone on speaker.

Her dad appeared in the doorway to the kitchen and smiled when he saw that she was on the phone. “Is that Dom? What time’s he coming? And you know, you really should take him out to dinner again tonight. You guys don’t need to stay in with me.”

Sadie’s heart leapt into her mouth when Josh’s voice came out of the speaker, and he asked, “Who’s Dom?”

Her dad’s eyes widened as he met Sadie’s gaze. “Hey, Joshy. I didn’t realize it was you.”

Josh laughed. “So I noticed. How are you doing, Grandpa?”

“Better every day. How about you?”

“I’m good, but I’d be better if someone told me what’s going on.”

Sadie took a deep breath. There was no way she was going to hide anything from him. Her dad raised his eyebrows, and she nodded.

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