Scarlett Rose's Arc

Chapter 57 of 57

The rule held for six Fridays. On the seventh, Rose came up the drive at seven in the morning with the twins asleep in their seats and her eyes rimmed red. Scarlett met her at the door with coffee. Rose set the seats down in the hall and did not take the cup. "I can't do every Friday," Rose said. "I love them. I'm burning out." Scarlett set the coffee on the table. Azure stirred in her seat. Skye did not. "How long," Scarlett said. "Four weeks I've been lying about it. Last night Skye cried from two to four and I sat on the kitchen floor and cried with him. I'm forty-one, Scar. I'm not their mother. I shouldn't be the one deciding if you get a night with your husband." "You should have told me at week two." "I know." Clayton came in from the barn and read the room in one look. He picked up Skye's seat and carried it to the living room without a word. Rose sat down at the table and put her face in her hands. "Every other Friday," Scarlett said. "Starting now. And not you alone." "Every other still ends me." Scarlett picked up the phone and called Maya. Maya came in an hour with her braid still wet. She looked at Rose at the table, at the twins on the rug, at Scarlett standing in the kitchen with her arms crossed like she was holding herself up. "Split it," Maya said before Scarlett spoke. "I take two Fridays a month. Rose takes one. We skip the fourth or Mom takes it. I already asked her Tuesday. She said yes and told me to quit stalling." Scarlett stared at her. "You asked your mother." "I saw Rose at the feed store last week. She looked like she'd been hit by a truck. I wasn't going to wait for the phone call." Rose lifted her head. "You could have told me." "I'm telling you now." They wrote it on the calendar in pencil. Maya took the next Friday. Rose took the one after. Clayton's mother took the third. The fourth stayed blank until they needed it. Rose drank her coffee. Some color came back into her face. At the door Rose held Scarlett's arm. "I wanted to be the one," Rose said. "I wanted it to be me every week." "I know." "I'm sorry I broke it." "You didn't break it. You made it bigger." Rose went down the steps. Maya stayed to help with the morning feed. Scarlett watched them from the porch, one going, one coming in, and understood that the marriage she was fighting for now belonged to more hands than two. She had wanted it kept small. It would not stay small. She let it get bigger and went back inside to her children.