Mrs. Haynes watched her husband walk out of the room, then she sighed and bowed her head.
Lauren frowned. They acted like a decision had been made.
David came over to her. She’d never known his eyes could be so sad. He took her hand, squeezed it. She waited for him to say something; her need to hear I love you was near desperate. But he said nothing.
What was there to say? There was no A answer out of this situation, no road that didn’t lead someone—mostly Lauren—to heartache. She wasn’t ready to make this decision yet.
“Let’s go, Lauren,” Mrs. Haynes finally said, standing.
“I can drive her home, Mom.”
“I’ll do it,” Mrs. Haynes said in a voice that, even in its ragged state, brooked no disagreement.
“Then we’ll all go,” David said, taking Lauren’s hand.
They turned and followed Mrs. Haynes out to the garage, where the glossy black Cadillac Escalade waited.
The scene of the crime.
David opened the front passenger side door. Lauren wanted to protest at sitting up front, but she didn’t want to appear rude. With a sigh, she climbed into the seat. The CD player immediately came on. The lonely, haunting strains of “Hotel California” filled the car.
David told his mother to take the highway west; other than that, they didn’t speak. With every second that passed in silence, Lauren felt her stomach tightening. She had a terrifying feeling that Mrs. Haynes wanted to see Lauren’s mother, that it was the whole reason for this drive home.
What could Lauren say to that? It would be almost midnight by the time they reached the apartment.
“My mom is out of town on business.” Lauren said the lie in a rush, hating how it made her feel.
“I thought she was a hairdresser,” his mother said.
“She is. It’s a convention. One of those things where they show them all the new products.” Lauren remembered that her mother’s boss had sometimes gone to conventions like that.
“I see.”
“You can let me off here,” Lauren said. “There’s no point—”
“At the Safeway?” Mrs. Haynes frowned at her. “I don’t think so.”
Lauren swallowed hard. She couldn’t find her voice. From the backseat, David gave directions to the apartment.
They pulled up in front of the dilapidated building. In the moonlight, it looked like something out of a Roald Dahl novel, one of those a poor, pathetic child lives here kind of places.
David climbed out of the car and walked around to the passenger door.
Mrs. Haynes hit the door locks, then turned, frowning.
Lauren flinched at the loud click.
“This is where you live?”
“Yes.”
Amazingly, Mrs. Haynes’s face seemed to soften. She sighed heavily.
David tried to open the door.
“David’s the only child I could have,” Mrs. Haynes said. “He was a miracle, really. Maybe I loved him too much. Motherhood … changes who you are somehow. All I wanted was for him to be happy, to have all the choices I didn’t have.” She looked at Lauren. “If you and David get married and keep this baby …” Her voice broke. “Life with a baby is hard. Without money or education, it’s worse than hard. I know how much you love David. I can see that. And he loves you. Enough to walk away from his future. I guess I should be proud about that.” She said this last part softly, as if she wanted to feel it but couldn’t.
David pounded on the glass. “Open the door, Mom!”
Lauren understood what Mrs. Haynes wasn’t saying as clearly as what she was. If you really love David, you won’t make him ruin his life.
It was the same thing Lauren had thought on her own. If he loved her enough to give it all up, didn’t she need to love him enough not to let him?
“If you need to talk about any of this, anytime, you come to me,” Mrs. Haynes said.
It surprised Lauren, that offer. “Thank you.”
“Tell your mother I’ll call her tomorrow.”
Lauren didn’t even want to think about that conversation. “Okay.”
She didn’t know what else to say, so she hit the door lock button and climbed out of the car.
“What the hell did she say to you?” David said, slamming the car door shut behind her.
Lauren stared at him, remembering how his mother had cried, so quietly and yet so deeply; as if her insides were breaking. “She said she loves you.”
His face crumpled at that. “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know.”
They stood there a long time, staring at each other. Then, finally, he said, “I better go.”
She nodded. When he kissed her good night, it was all she could do not to cling to him. It took pure willpower to let him walk away.
Lauren found her mother in the living room, sitting on the sofa, smoking a cigarette. She looked jittery and nervous.
Mom put her drink on the floor. “I meant to go with you today.”