oval-shaped piece of brown felt. I watched as he attached it to the tip of a petal with a drop of glue. Then a huge smile crossed his face.
“My flower has a honey bee!” he said proudly.
The next thing I knew I was cutting brown felt for all the others until every last child had a honey bee on their flower. I showed them how to mark the body with a yellow felt-tip pen and we added tiny gold wings. No regulation honey bee would confuse these fabric imitations for sisters, but mine might be flattered to know they were so admired. I would tell them tomorrow.
When the class was over, I walked Hunter and Tyler home. There was a Mercedes-Benz with Ohio license plates in our driveway, so I knew Leslie had arrived. She was safe, so that was good. But there was a U-Haul trailer attached to the back bumper. Not good.
“All right, you two! I’ll see you later.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Tyler said.
“Are you coming for supper?” Hunter asked.
“I don’t think so, sweetheart,” I said. “My sister just arrived from Ohio for a visit, so I’m afraid I’ll be expected to eat with her. I’ll see y’all tomorrow!”
“She drove by herself from Ohio?” Tyler said. “That’s an awfully long drive!”
“Dad has a girlfriend,” Hunter announced. “She has two cats.”
“Excuse me?” I said too loudly as every hair on my body felt like it was standing on end. I was caught completely by surprise. “A girlfriend?”
“Shut up, Hunter!” Tyler said and looked at me, realizing, even at his age, that I was not delighted to hear it. “She’s not a girlfriend, if you know what I mean.”
What did he mean? Did girlfriend have a new definition?
“She’s a dentist,” Hunter said. “They got fixed up.”
“Well, that’s nice. I guess,” I said in a voice so low I could hardly hear myself. “Who stayed with y’all?”
“My teacher, Mrs. Hamilton,” Hunter said.
Hunter was oblivious to my feelings, but Tyler knew I was upset. When my eyes met his, I could see that he wasn’t too happy, either. It was odd for Archie to ask someone other than me to watch the boys while he went somewhere. Maybe he hadn’t wanted me to know he had a date. I regrouped immediately.
“Tyler? You know it’s good for your father to have some female company, don’t you?”
“Why? He doesn’t need anybody else,” he said. “He’s got us. And we’ve got you.”
I could almost feel my heart split in two. This little fellow in front of me had no idea about the needs of men. He was so innocent, but savvy enough to understand that a girlfriend threatened what status quo he had with his Dad and brother and yes, in his sweet mind, even with me. He liked things well enough as they were. A potential stepmother was very likely an enemy.
I knelt down to face him at his level and said, “And you will always have me, Tyler. No matter what happens, you and Hunter will always have me.”
Tyler threw his skinny arms around my neck and hugged me so hard. There was nothing to compare to a child’s pure affection, but more, this was a little boy who needed love he could rely on, too. He knew what he had with me. So did Hunter. I stood and ruffled Hunter’s hair and he looked at me with big eyes that told me he was pretty worried, too.
I smiled at them and said, “Listen to me, boys. This is not the time to panic. And there may never be a time to panic. If there is, I’ll let you know, okay? Now, y’all run on home.”
I watched them run up their front steps and when I knew they were safely inside, I took a deep breath and climbed my own. So, Archie was dating a dentist. Well, so what. At the moment, I had my own life to deal with. Drama was waiting for me in the kitchen.
My mother, in a bathrobe, of course, sat facing me as I came into the room. She had a very stern look on her face. Leslie’s back was to me, but I could see that she had her face in her hands and a box of tissues in front of her, and many balled-up ones were strewn across the table. Ew, I thought, nasty. If I’d ever desecrated my mother’s table with a used tissue, she would have chased me the whole way to Siberia with a belt.