Page 50 of Second Round

I leaned towards the laptop screen as if that could bring me closer toCharlotte.

“How did your project on tigers go?” Iasked.

She blinked, her mouth in a straight line, and her blonde hair shading her face. “Good. Madame Pinault said it was very thorough.” Then she looked down into her lap. It was always like this at the beginning of a call, she was very quiet. But soon she’d be bubbling up with things she wanted totellme.

As she turned her head, a glint caughtmyeye.

“C’est quoi, ca? Did you get your earspierced?”

Charlotte’s eyes widened in alarm. “Do you not like them?” She turned to the side so I could see the tiny stud on the perfect pale skin of herearlobe.

There must have been an angry note in my voice that she caught, so I tried to speak more pleasantly. “Not at all. Was this something you wantedtodo?”

“Kind of.” That made it hard to know if it was her decision or Sophie’s. The piercing did bother me. It meant she was growing up, but it also felt creepily premature—more for teenagers than young girls. Sophie would have a million arguments though: that all her friends did it, that it was for fashion, that she had her ears pierced at the same age. Besides, what was the point of arguing things that werealreadydone?

I felt the helplessness of being so far away. Mainly, it was the pain that again she had grown up in the short time since we last spoke. With adults, a month could go by and nothing new would have happened. But with Charlotte, every day brought somechange.

We chatted more about her friends and her weekend trip to a sugarshack.

“Oh Papa, they poured the maple sap on the snow and we ate it with sticks! It was so delicious. My stomach got happybumps!”

I laughed, and then a shadow appearedbehindher.

“Charlotte,c’est l’heure.” Sophie’s hand tipped with dark red nails appeared on Charlotte’s shoulder. My daughter’s face darkened a little. The time difference meant that our calls weren’t that long before she had to gotobed.

“Okay. Bye bye, Papa.” She leaned forward, and we both “kissed” each other through the screen. My lips felt the cold screen instead of her petal-softskin.

Sophie sat down in her place. As usual, she looked beautiful and slightly pissed off. I tried to present a neutralexpression.

“Alors,Leo, we need to discuss the schedule for this summer. After the wedding, Wes and I will bring Charlotte to Vancouver. It’s on our way to Hawaii, so it’s not too much of animposition.”

“Sophie, I told you, I’m happy to go to Montréal to pick her up. The season will be over, and I’ll have lots of flexibility. You’re the one who insisted oncominghere.”

“The original plan was that you were going to look after her in Montréal. You’re the one who changed that. I don’t understand why you’re not coming home thissummer.”

I had only explained this three times. “We have a lot to do for the upcoming season—planning, systems, building renos—so Chris and I will be spending the whole summer working. I could take a week off to pick up Charlottethough.”

Sophie waved that away. “C’est pas ça. Here, I know that your mother will look after Charlotte. How are you going to look after your daughter if you’reworking?”

“I’m going to hire a nanny. A friend is helping me find someone. A universitystudent.”

Sophie pounced on that. “A friend?Ta nouvelleblonde?”

I shook my head. Jackie wasn’t my girlfriend. We hadn’t even had the talk yet. Then I felt a flash of guilt. We should have had the talk by now, but I’d been putting it off. Being with Jackie was so pleasurable that I’d ignored the normal timetable for thesethings.

Besides, Sophie was overly interested in my personal life. “There’s no girlfriend. I will let you know when I have the nanny lined up. But it’s still threemonthsaway.”

She frowned. “Mon Dieu, don’t remind me. I have so much to do for the wedding, and we are so busy at work. I may be in Vancouver soon, we’re looking at sites for expanding into that market.Mais, c’est ridicule là,so expensive.” The Montréal hotel chain that Sophie worked for was expanding to new markets. “Which reminds me, you have enough room in your place for Charlotte,right?”

“There’s a room decorated especiallyforher.”

“You should send photos. I’d like toseeit.”

“I want to keep it as a surprise for her,” I replied. Sophie’s brows knotted. She liked to get her way even in the smallest things. We were both very stubborn, and that had caused many arguments. Luckily, her fiancé was very easy-going. I’d met Wes Graham twice, and he seemed like agoodguy.

Sophie’s face took on a knowing expression. “I can’t believe you don’t have a girlfriend yet. You’ve been there a month already,n’estcepas?”

I shrugged. “I’m busyatwork.”

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