The Escape Clause Read Online Free PDF Page B

“For you.”
    Avery folded her hands tightly in her lap. “Why for me?”
    “If you go to France, he wins over me.”
    Avery dropped her shoulders. “This has nothing to do with you. This has to do with me and my future. He happens to believe in me.”
    “Curtis, talk to her.”
    Avery’s father set his beer down on the table and turned to her mother instead of her.
    “Simone, you have to let her feel this out.”
    Her mother’s eyes grew wide. “You are on her side?”
    “I’m not on a side. I just know that she’s a lot like you. You’re telling her to stay and she’s only going to want to go more.”
    “I do want to go,” Avery interrupted. “Oh, Mom, it’s so beautiful there.”
    “You do not think I know that?”
    Avery stood from her chair to kneel down, on the hard cement patio, in front of her mother. “I know you know that. And I also know you think I can do this. But this ridiculous feud between you and Grandfather is what keeps us all apart.”
    “He disowned me.”
    “He said he made a mistake.”
    “But he did it. How do you completely forgive that?” Her mother’s hands rose in the air. “How do you excuse that?”
    “You don’t.” Avery took her mother’s hands in hers. “You let him in our lives. Let him in a little more.”
    “I let him in to see what a wonderful woman you were. To prove to him that he was wrong to treat me in such a way.”
    “Mom, he sees all of that. That’s why he offered this opportunity to me. Don’t you see that? If you hadn’t let him into our lives he wouldn’t know what I’m capable of. He’d never have known what you built. Mom, your organization is about helping those who need it. You know what it is to chase a dream and to give back. Well, now it’s my turn to chase a dream and give back to all of us. To pull our family together.”
    Her mother tugged her lip between her teeth in an obvious move to keep it from quivering. “We are a family. We never needed him.”
    “Mom, I needed both sides of my family. I want this.”
    Avery’s father wrapped his arm around her mother’s shoulders. “Simone, give her your blessing.”
    Her mother shook her head. “I cannot let you go.”
    “I’m going. Mom, this is an opportunity of a lifetime.”
    The first tear fell from her mother’s eye. “He will betray you.”
    Avery shook her head. “No, Mom. I don’t think he will.”
    “I’m going to check on the roast,” she said as she pulled her hands back.
    Avery backed up so her mother could stand and walk back to the house.
    When she was gone, her father patted the seat where her mother had sat in an offering to her.
    Avery took the seat and rested her head against her father’s shoulder.
    “Are you sure this is what you want to do?” her father asked as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
    “I do. Oh, Daddy, it’s so beautiful there.”
    “It’s beautiful here.”
    She nodded. “I know.” Avery turned to look him in the eye. “I want to try.”
    Her father kissed her on the head. “You’ll do a great job.”
    This was probably the first time her mother hadn’t just agreed with her father. But she understood. She knew her mother would be hesitant.
    After a long, quiet moment, her father asked, “What about Pete?”
    Avery sank back in the seat and her father was forced to move his arm from around her shoulders and readjust in the chair next to her.
    Pete.
    She’d thought of him. Of course her father would too.
    “I’m going to ask him to go with me,” she said softly and then looked up at her father. “Daddy, I love him.”
    A small smile curled up the corner of his mouth. “I thought maybe you did.” Her father patted her hand with his. “You think he’ll want to go with you? He has a lot of family here and a good job.”
    She looked away again and studied the swirls in the cement at her feet. “I’m hoping that I mean more than his job.”
    Her father sat back in his chair and tilted his head up as if to catch