Ace walked Laura into her house the following afternoon after a brief interlude in his back seat that seen him finish what he had started yesterday. Caroline greeted them at the door and anounced she had some news for them.
"I have been accepted at a new job," she explained. "It pays four times what I am earning at the moment." she paused to let this fact sink in to her daughter. They had been struggling to pay bills ever since Laura could remember.
"That's great," Laura said, excited for her mother.
"It's in a retirement home," she explained, "Only drawback is it is in Clairmont."
"That's four hours away!" Laura said, did her mother not realise the travel time that would be.
Ace felt his stomach clench. Did that mean Laura was moving?
Correctly interpreting the look on Ace's face she reassured him, "I have no intention of moving Laura to a new school away from her friends and everything she loves," she said looking pointedly at him as she said this. "I have hired a lady as a housekeeper to take care of Laura through the week."
"What are you saying?" Laura asked.
"I'll be staying in Clairmont through the week," she explained, "the people at the home have kindly set up a room for me to stay in, they were quite desperate to have me," she went on sounding surprised by this. "It seems they are radically understaffed."
"But if you hire a housekeeper what does it matter if you are earning more, that will just spend all the extra money," Laura said, desperate to change her mother's mind. No pay increase was worth this.
"She was very reasonably priced," Caroline assured her, "There is still plenty of extra money that we could use." She looked at Laura, a pleading look in her eye asking her to understand.
"You don't need to hire anyone," Ace interrupted, "I'll take care of Laura, better than anyone."
"I know you would," Caroline assured him, "I know you'll look after her when I'm away but you can't look after her at home. You two are just teenagers, if you live together people will talk. I don't want my daughter to have to hear the things people will call her if that happens."
Ace remembered the hurt look on her face when that Mongoose idiot's father had called her a whore. Sure, he had let him have it but he knew how hurt Laura would be if she heard that again. He sighed audibly, he knew he'd have to back down on this point.
Caroline kissed Laura on the cheek before going to the kitchen to start dinner. Ace grabbed Laura's hands and placed them around his neck before moving his own around her waist. Laura buried her face in his chest, determined not to cry. This was big for her mother. So few things had ever gone well for her and she wanted to be happy for her mother.
"Are you staying for dinner?" she asked Ace who was being surprisingly subdued.
"Of course," Ace replied.
They had dinner with more breaks in conversation than usual. Caroline was feeling guilty about leaving Laura, especially since they so rarely seen each other at the best of times. It was always her job that had kept them apart. Laura was trying to be happy for mother, giving her half smiles and complimenting the dinner. Not fooling Caroline for one second.
Ace was thinking seriously. Would he have been able to take care of Laura anyway? He had no place for them to live independantly even if he wanted to, all the money he made came from stealing and boosting cars, he couldn't keep that up forever, could he?
He leant back in his chair. He didn't really want a job, who did? But what did that mean for him. Would Caroline never trust him to be able to take care of Laura? Truth was he didn't know.