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It didn’t work out nearly as well as everyone had hoped that it would.
After the first hesitancy Liz and Nick jumped into a relationship head first, with all the passion that they had previously had and twice the ardor, because now they had the common bond of their children, their beautiful, adored daughters to hold them together.
A romantic notion, but unfortunately it strained under the reality of the situation.
First Liz and Annie visited Nick and Hallie in California for a few months. It was a carefree time, with space enough for the girls to avoid their parents’ romantic exploits. But Liz found it irritating to work so far away from her staff, and Annie missed her grandfather.
So they all went back to London for a visit.
That, however, worked even worse. Nick spent half the time on the phone with Jorge, his foreman, which annoyed Liz to no end, but she was too well bred to quarrel about it.
It was Grandfather who finally brought the situation to a head. He pointed out that one of them would have to move. As happy as he was to see his daughter in a loving relationship again, he could tell that things were deteriorating.
Liz and Nick looked at each other in miserable silence. The girls looked away from each other and Chessy and Martin clutched each other’s hands. To give up the ranch was unthinkable, but Liz couldn’t work in California, and even if she could, would they leave Grandfather? Take him away from his ancestral home, from England?
Eventually Liz got up and said distractedly that she and the girls had been going to go to the zoo, and did they still want to go?
They jumped up with a clamor. Of course they did, if only, each thought privately, to avoid the inevitable question. It was back for Liz and Nick, who had to make the decision, but worse for the twins, who could feel a terrible, ripping pressure, but were unable to do anything about it.
Children whose parents split up do not usually think, ‘It’s my fault.’ They think, ‘I’m not the most important thing in my parents lives anymore, because if I were, then they wouldn’t do this.’ It’s a terrible blow to their self-importance. But Annie and Hallie’s situation was unique. Each twin was thinking of their newly known, but much beloved parent. How much did that parent really care for them? Twin hearts beat in staccato unison.
Liz was thinking about her business and employees, and Nick about the years of work put into his ranch to make it successful, and neither one of them paid much attention to the animals until they came to the cat exhibit.
There was a crowd gathered in front of one of the windows, people whispering to each other. One of the Jungle Cats had unexpectedly given birth, and all the other cats in the exhibit were being removed except her mate.
“Jungle Cats,” said the zookeeper, almost offhandedly, “are one of the only species of cat where the parents raise the kittens together.” He continued along that vein, but Nick was already leading the family out into the sunshine.
“Liz,” he started to say, but she had spoken at the same moment, and the verbal clash left them both with smiles. Nick’s faded. “I could sell the ranch,” he said quietly.
“I could move,” she said, and then they started arguing, but it wasn’t a bad sort of arguing, and Hallie and Annie flashed each other brilliant grins, hearts relaxing one beat at a time.