Read Online The Steps by Rachel Cohn - Free Book Online

possible.”
    I repeated my original point. “I think you should move back to New York.”
    He had let me get in one mean comment, but he wasn’t going to let in another. “Enough,” he said, and I knew he meant it. “Besides, what would you have me do about Penny, Lucy, Angus, and Beatrice?”
    â€œThey could come to New York too.” I thought this was a pretty generous thing of me to say.
    Jack said, “Would it surprise you to know that Penny and I considered that option?”
    I nodded. I was surprised. Seemed to me like they had just decided to live their lives without consulting me, or Lucy, and asking what we thought the best options were.
    Jack continued, “New York is a very expensive city. And Lucy and Angus have already gone through so much, Penny thought it would be too much of a move to take them so far from home. Besides, I love it here. I’m happy here. Can you understand that? Penny and I hoped that you would like it here and maybe you would consider spending part of the year, during your summer and Christmas holidays, with us in Sydney. Be a part of this family, as well as the family you have with Bubbe and Angelina.”
    â€œThen, why do you always treat me like a guest?” Jack looked totally shocked by my question.
    I never got a chance to hear Jack’s answer. The phone rang. Jack answered it. The voice on the other end pained him even more than what I had just been telling him. His face took on that confused, sad, irritated look I remembered from Manhattan.
    He handed the phone to me. “It’s your mother,” he said. “We’ll finish this conversation in the morning, young lady.” What was up with the “young lady” business? Jack was only in his mid thirties. This new language was way too radical for someone so young. Australia and too many children had turned Jack into one big S-Q-U-A-R-E.
    Jack went upstairs, his shoulders slumped. Angelina also walks away in misery after she talks to Jack on the phone. Whatever is between them, they hate having to talk to each other.
    â€œAngelina!” I said into the phone. I was so excited to hear her voice, I didn’t care about the tears that had just been pouring down my cheeks.
    â€œBaby, baby, baby!” she screamed. The cutest thing about Angelina is that when she is excited, she talks a mile a minute. Also, you never met anyone who loves talking on the phone as much as Angelina. One time while she was waiting in a hallway for an audition, she was talking to me on her cell phone. The audition was for a telephone commercial, and she got the part because the producers heard her yammering on the phone outside their offices, and when they came outside to hear who was making all the noise, they were amazed that someone could be that pretty and also so excited about talking on the phone. Justine, Gloria, and Keisha still call Angelina “the fast-talking telephone lady” because for a while you could not turn on your TV and not see Angelina selling you a long-distance service.
    â€œYou’re not going to believe what I have to tell you!” Angelina squealed.
    â€œWhat time is it there?” I asked her. I was used to talking to Jack on the phone from another hemisphere, but not Angelina. It seemed hard to believe that she could be in Hawaii, thousands of miles away, across an ocean and above the equator, and I could hear her like she was standing next to me.
    â€œIt’s late night here. But I couldn’t wait to tell you what happened. Harvey proposed! We’re getting married!”
    I was so shocked I didn’t know what to say. This was welcome news— not! It was one thing to date Wheaties’ dad, but to marry him? And not ask me first? This felt worse than Jack moving to Australia.
    â€œAnnabel? Are you there?”
    â€œI’m here,” I said, very quiet.
    â€œAre you happy for me, baby?” Happy for you? I thought.