He could have hugged her himself, because he could see exactly what she was doing. Even if Hailey hadn’t known it before—and he hadn’t thought to ask her how much she’d known about the precise reasons for Adrienne’s departure—it was clear from Adrienne’s body language and the way she’d spoken that she wasn’t in a forgiving mood. Yet everything in Hailey’s little admission—the tone, the words used—had been designed to weaken Adrienne’s resolve, to cast Finn in a different light. It was no less fraudulent than he’d been himself, but he was grateful all the same for the effort.
“You ran away? But why would you do that?” Adrienne put her hand to her mouth and said, “Of all the times for me not to be there.”
“Finn was there,” said Hailey, pushing home her message.
Reluctantly, Adrienne looked at him, as if still suspecting some sleight of hand on his part, and said, “You should come in. For now.”
Finn nodded, and moved aside so Hailey could go in ahead of him.
As they stepped into the hall and Adrienne closed the door behind them, Mathieu came in from the kitchen and looked at Finn with that odd parental expression of his, as if welcoming back a prodigal son for a second time.
“Hello, Mathieu.”
“Finn.”
Cecile, as if responding to the sound of Finn’s voice, also came out of the kitchen, but she saw Hailey first and Adrienne introduced them, Cecile becoming excitable, all three of them jabbering away in French. Finn spoke a little French, but not enough to keep up when they were talking fast and over the top of each other.
Pablo and Henri came tearing in from some other part of the apartment, jumping excitedly at Finn, asking to be picked up, though they were both getting too big for that now. For some reason, at Christmas they’d insisted on pronouncing his name like the French “fin,” but fortunately, and somewhat ironically, they’d forgotten about that and reverted to saying it properly, speaking slowly in French to him and mixing in bits of English.
After struggling to hold them aloft for a few seconds, he put them down and said, “Boys, this is our friend from Lausanne. She’s called Hailey, she speaks French.”
They noticed her for the first time, and as young as they were, became instantly magnetized by her, grabbing her by the hands, dragging her away to look at their bedrooms, still speaking slowly even though there was no need with her.
The chatter ebbed away, and the four adults were left standing there. For the first time, Finn noticed the smell of food coming from the kitchen. They were good cooks.
Mathieu said, “I overheard a little. The boys have their own rooms now, since the new year, but the guest room has two beds, so Hailey can stay with Adrienne. If you don’t mind the couch, Finn.”
Finn looked at Adrienne. “Do you mind me staying on the couch?”
“It’s not my apartment.”
He nodded and turned back to Mathieu, saying, “It’d be good for Hailey to be with other people tonight. I’ll come back and get her in the morning.”
He picked up his bag, but Adrienne, once again searching for that sleight of hand, said, “No, absolutely not, you don’t get to be so reasonable. Stay on the couch.” She said something in French, rapid and outside of his vocabulary, and marched into the kitchen.
Cecile gave Finn a surprisingly sympathetic smile, making him wonder all the more what Adrienne had just said or called him, then followed her in.
Mathieu said, “Go on through, Finn, and I’ll bring you some wine.”
“Thanks.”
Mathieu followed the women into the kitchen and Finn took his bag through, dropping it behind the sofa that would be his bed for the night. He sat down then, listening to the distant musical chatter of the boys as they vied with each other for Hailey’s attention.
From the kitchen, he could hear only the gentle percussion of food being prepared. Nothing was being said out there as far as he could tell. Then he caught a little movement in his peripheral vision, and Adrienne walked in carrying a glass of wine.
She handed the glass to him and then sat on the sofa opposite. Her face looked as if his very presence was an assault to her. He thought back to what Jonas had told him, about her tears, her complaints of his absence, and he could see it all in her face now, how much he’d hurt her without even knowing it, and he was afraid that he would never be able to fix it.
“I can stay in a hotel if you want me to. It’s not about being reasonable, it’s about not making anyone uncomfortable, and about not being uncomfortable myself.”
She shook her head, saying, “I’m sure we can all manage to get on for one night, at least.”
“I honestly thought we’d been getting on okay anyway.”
Even as he said it, he realized it was a mistake, not so much because it clearly wasn’t true, but because it seemed the biggest part of the problem had been his apparent ignorance of it.
She said only, “We’re not doing this now.”
“Okay. Thanks for the wine, by the way.” He sipped at it.
“Please explain to me what happened.” His spirits lifted for a moment, thinking she’d had a change of heart, but then she said, “Why did Hailey leave home? She didn’t have an argument with Ethan and Debbie?”