All Consuming (Brotherhood by Fire #3) -Jaci Burton Page 0,28
huge to her.
“Please, Mom?” Oliver asked.
“Fine. Go on and get in.”
Kal grinned, opened the back door of the truck and helped the boys climb inside. He made sure their seat belts were buckled, then opened the door for Hannah and held his hand out to help her climb in.
She had to admit, the truck was very nice on the inside. All the gadgetry and nice soft seats, and since it was humid out, the air-conditioning was a great relief. There were even vents blowing in the back for the boys, who were busy playing together on Oliver’s tablet and completely ignoring her and Kal.
He climbed in and buckled up. “Okay?”
She smiled. “Perfect. Also? Nice truck.”
“Thanks. Hungry?”
“Starving. Let’s go eat some pizza.”
He grinned and put the truck in gear, then backed down the driveway.
She’d initially had reservations about doing this, but now she was looking forward to it. Plus, she was hungry, and she loved pizza. The pizza place was kid friendly with arcade games to keep Oliver and Jeff busy, as well as a nice seating area where the adults could sit but still keep an eye on the kids. All in all, kind of perfect.
They ordered their drinks and pizza, then found a table with a great view of the arcade, so Hannah let Oliver and Jeff wander off.
“I’ve never been here before,” Kal said.
“No reason for you to, since it’s mostly an adults-with-kids kind of restaurant.”
“It looks fun. Want to play some games?”
She laughed. “At the moment, I’m happy being off my feet and drinking my soda. If you want to play, by all means go and join the boys.”
“At the moment, I’m happy sitting next to you.”
His statement warmed her. “Thanks. I like having you here next to me.”
“How was your day?”
“Crazy busy. But my last appointment canceled, so I got to pick Oliver up from school.”
“That was nice. I mean, not the canceled appointment, but it was good you got to pick him up and spend more time with him. I’ll bet he was excited to see you.”
“He was, actually. Though probably more excited to see Jeff.”
Kal shrugged. “Hey, he’s seven. Hanging with his friends is everything.”
She looked over to the play area to see Oliver and Jeff nudging each other while they played an arcade game. Her little boy was growing some long legs. It used to be he was barely tall enough to reach the controls. That wasn’t the case anymore. She sighed. “They grow up fast.”
“He’s a cute kid, Hannah. He looks a lot like you.”
She dragged her attention from Oliver and looked at Kal. “You think so?”
“Yeah. He has your eyes and your smile.”
That made her happy. She’d compared their baby pictures a few times and tried to gauge who he looked like. Her mom said he looked like her, but she wasn’t sure. “That’s nice to hear. Thanks.”
She took a sip of her soda, then asked, “What did you do on your day off today?”
“Went to the gym and worked out, then washed the truck and did some grocery shopping.”
“How very domestic of you.”
He laughed. “It was my week to buy groceries. We take turns.”
“I see. So you all make a global list and then one person buys?”
“Usually. Though sometimes we’ll run out of something in the middle of the week, or someone will want to make something specific for dinner and they’ll pick that up at the store. But yeah, it’s one list and we all use it, then we take turns buying. It works out.”
“Like a commune.”
“Funny. Actually, more like a family. We all share duties.”
“Was it always like that? When you were growing up?”
“Yeah. We each had a chore list. Mom made sure it was split evenly. Someone had to empty the trash, one of us had to unload the dishwasher, stuff like that. And then we’d all argue over who had more work to do.”
She didn’t have any siblings, so she didn’t know what that would have been like. It had always been her parents and her, and she’d been assigned chores when she was a kid. But she’d had no one to share the chores with, to argue with.
She glanced over at Oliver. He had chores to do as well, but no one to fight with, to play with other than his friends. She wished she could have given him a sibling, but it hadn’t taken her long to figure out that Landon wasn’t the best father figure and she didn’t want to bring another child