And my parental credit actually diminishes more than I ever thought it could. And it was pretty low to start with.
“You could get him a fishing pole. One of those kid poles that are lightweight.” She picks one up and tests the weight of it. “I think he’d want a big kid pole and not one of the ones with the cartoon characters on it. What do you think?” She holds it out to me.
“A fishing pole,” I say, and it actually sounds like a good idea. I take it and pick a simple reel to go with it.
“Where’s he going to sleep?” she asks me.
I scratch my head. “In my tent, of course.”
“I know that, but where?”
“In the tent,” I say again, not understanding.
“Where do you sleep?” she asks. “In a sleeping bag?”
“No, I went for comfort and got an air mattress,” I admit.
“Fancy.” She grins. “So does it have enough room for him too?”
“I guess it depends on how much space he takes up.”
“Well, kids tend to become all elbows and knees when they sleep, so if you have room, you might think about getting him his own twin mattress. Your tent is pretty big, right?”
I know she has seen my tent. It’s one of the big walk-in tents with sectioned rooms. “Big enough.” I walk over and pick up a twin-sized air mattress.
“You’ll need sheets,” she says. She grabs my arm and drags me to the tiny little housewares section the tackle shop boasts. She gets some generic sheets, a blanket, and a pillow.
“You’ll need to wash these before using them tonight.”
I nod. I can do that.
Suddenly, she freezes. “What’s your money situation like?” she asks. She lowers her voice. “I mean…can you afford all this?” She looks around to be sure no one can hear us.
“I can afford it.” The Jacobsons pay a fair wage, and I save almost everything I make. I have been giving my mother just over half of my earnings ever since I got a paycheck, even though she told me I didn’t need to, but it felt like the right thing to do. The only thing I really have to buy is food and supplies. My tent spot is free since I work in the compound. “Of course I can afford it.” I pretend to scoff, offended, as I pick up a big stuffed fish. “Do you think he’d like that?”
She shakes her head but she’s grinning. “No.”
I chuckle as I put it back. “What else?” I look around.
She walks over to the small area in the store where the toys and games are located and picks up a couple of decks of cards and tosses them into the basket too.
“You think he’ll want to play poker?” I say.
“Poker,” she says as she rocks her head from side to side, “I doubt it. More like Go Fish.” She grins at the look on my face. “You do know how to play Go Fish, right?”
“I can google it,” I say. Then she makes a face at me. “What?”
“Nothing.” She smiles. “I think you’re adorable.”
“Well, I think you’re sexy as fuck,” I whisper back to her.
She freezes, and immediately I worry that I just made a mistake. Then she keeps walking like nothing happened. Suddenly, she turns around and marches back to me, stopping so close to me that I can feel the heat of her and smell her lemony scent. She sticks her finger in my face and glares at me. “You don’t get to do that,” she says.
“Do what?” I ask. I have no idea what I did wrong.
“You don’t get to turn me on in the middle of the store by firing stupid compliments at me.” She glares some more, which makes me smile. She’s so indignant right now that it’s funny.
“My comment wasn’t a compliment,” I clarify. “It was the truth.” I reach behind her and grab a tub of bait worms from the shelf. My arm slides along hers as I reach. “And its purpose wasn’t to titillate you. It was just to tell you how I feel.”
She scrunches up her face. “You just used the word titillate in a sentence. Are you for real?” She backs up to look at me like she has never seen me before.
“I read. And I know things,” I fire back. I stick my tongue out at her, which makes her laugh. I reach out and tug a lock of her hair. “And you are sexy as fuck.”
She stops moving, closes her