The Song Remains the Same

Chapter 8

Her plans for the evening, a deeply emotional conversation with her husband and their children about the divorce, had completely slipped Callie's mind until she reached the daycare to find Owen with the twins already climbing all over him. They'd worked out a tentative schedule on paper but needed to tell the kids before they could implement it. There were only so many times Callie could use the excuse that Owen had to work late with Allegra when he wasn't there for dinner. The boys didn't know why, just that their daddy wasn't home at night, wasn't the one who got them out of their crib in the mornings.

“Hey,” he greeted her with a small smile, standing up with Gavin over his shoulder and Angus wrapped around his left leg. “Are you ready for this?”

Callie sighed, shaking her head. “I let it completely slip my mind, actually. Sorry.” She grimaced.

“Well, I got the first batch of paperwork from the lawyer's office at lunch. If everything's good we can sign it tonight,” Owen said, reaching up with one hand to hold Gavin's back. “We'll still have ninety days before the judge will grant it,” he said, avoiding the word divorce for now. “But it's a start.” He'd left home three weeks before, was still staying with his mother, and they'd met with the lawyer over their lunch break Monday after his first weekend with the kids.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Okay.”

He was sympathetic but they couldn't put this off. “I think I found a place,” he said into the silence. “I thought maybe we could ride by and take a look at it later this week.”

“You don't need my approval, Owen,” Callie reminded him pointedly. “That's one of the side effects of this.”

“I know,” he said, tilting his head away automatically when Gavin's little hand swung toward his ear. “But I want you to be comfortable leaving them with me wherever.”

Callie nodded. “Okay.” She couldn't discuss this with him right now. “Let's go then. Where's Allegra?”

“I took her to Peds. She said her stomach hurt so Dr. Karev insisted on doing a followup check.” The corner of his mouth quirked just slightly. “I think he might have been coerced by someone.”

“Or Allegra has a crush on him. He's cute,” Callie said without missing a beat, not taking the bait. She and Arizona were close, had occasionally kissed. (Though not since that kiss in the hallway after Allegra's surgery.) It was none of his business. And she wasn't going to discuss it with him.

Owen's jaw tightened at the thought of his little girl finding any male appealing. “How about I'll take the boys and you get the princess? Meet you at the house? We'll do the thing after dinner?”

“Yeah, sure, sounds good,” Callie answered, narrowing her eyes at him. His jaw got tight every morning sitting across from Arizona at the meeting and he didn't look at either of them. Now he was deliberately sending her up there where he knew she'd see Arizona. She couldn't put her finger on what was going on with him exactly, but she couldn't deny her need to see her friend today.

He clapped his hand against Gavin's back. “Okay, Mommy's got your sister, so you're with me, troops. Let's roll out,” Owen said, his other hand reaching down to take both of Angus'. The little boy jumped and Owen swung him gently as he started walking. Both boys shrieked happily and Callie sent an apologetic smile to the nurses on duty in the daycare.

The elevator was empty, the ride back upstairs quiet. Callie knew they had to do this, the fundamentals of their children's lives were changing and they had to tell them, try and explain why. But she wasn't sure she could do it. It was one thing to know that she and Owen didn't work, to talk about divorce. It was something else entirely to move forward with that divorce, tell her kids that their father wasn't going to be living with them anymore, that they were going to be spending days and nights in a new place, their father's new house.