The Problem with Sports - M.E. Clayton Page 0,34
no less.
“What’s up, kiddo,” I said, fist bumping him.
His green eyes looked up at him. “Are you busy?”
“Not too busy for you,” I said, telling him the absolute truth. “Wanna come inside?” Grant nodded and we walked into my place. “Want something to eat? Drink?”
“I could use a drink,” he replied, and I chuckled at how grown he sounded. Sometimes he sounded just like what an eight-year-old should sound like, and other times he sounded like a grown man.
I grabbed him a juice pouch (I started keeping some in my fridge once he started coming over more), and grabbed me a water, and met him in the living room.
“What brings you by?” It was Thursday afternoon, and I knew he’d be going off with his dad in a couple of hours, or so.
“Mom’s in the zone, and I thought I’d come hang out with you a bit before she has to take me to Dad’s.”
“Editing or writing?”
“Writing, I think.”
I nodded. “So, what’s up?”
“Are you dating my Mom?” And thank God I hadn’t taken a drink of my water yet or else it would have sprayed everywhere.
“Uh…what?”
“Do you like my Mom? Like to be her boyfriend?”
Holy fuck.
“Uh…why do you ask?”
“Because whenever you come over, I catch you looking at her like you like her,” he said, flooring the fuck out of me.
“I do?”
Grant nodded. “Yeah, you do.” Before I could think of a response, he added, “It’s okay if you like her. She’s nice.”
I looked at this kid who owned my heart, and hearing him champion his mother, telling me she was nice, I knew I didn’t want to lie to him. He’d never have any respect for me if I did, and he was old enough to remember me lying to him if he ever found out the truth.
“Yes, Grant,” I told him, hoping I wasn’t making a mistake. “I like your mom very much. She’s very nice, and pretty, and neat.” Neat?
He looked at me a long hard minute before saying, “I think she likes you, too.”
“What makes you say that?”
“She’s happy all the time now,” he explained, and I was ready to marry her and adopt him by the end of the week. Sure, Steven might have some objections to adopting his only son, but that was a problem for a later date.
“How would you feel if she was my girlfriend?” I was okay with admitting I liked his mother, but I wasn’t so clueless as to say more than I should without talking to Andie and/or Steven first.
“That’d be okay with me,” he said. “Dad has girlfriends sometimes, and it’s what grownup people do, right?”
“Well, I wouldn’t be your Mom’s sometimes boyfriend,” I tried to explain. “I really like your Mom, so I’d be her forever boyfriend.” Forever boyfriend? Christ, was I fucking this up?
Grant cocked his little eight-year-old head at me, and fucking killed me when he said, “That’d be okay as long as you don’t make her cry. My dad made her cry a lot when I was little, and I didn’t like it.”
I knew there were going to be days when I made Andie cry because I was a man and us men were fucking super stupid sometimes, but it’d never be intentional. However, Grant was too young to explain that to. So, instead, I told him, “I will do my best to never make your mom sad, Grant. You have my word.”
“And you and my Dad will be friends, too, right?”
And do you know how I knew it was over for me?
Because I looked this kid in the eyes and said, “Absolutely.”
Chapter 19
Andrea~
You have got to be kidding me.
It was late Friday afternoon, and Justin was about to get ready for the dinner and night crowds. He was offering his new dishes and drinks tonight, and I had stopped by to wish him luck. Rachel and I had given all three dishes the thumbs up, and most of the new drink concoctions, except for the Take A Guess disaster he had served up.
It had tasted like ass.
That hadn’t been washed in days.
But after making myself at home at the bar and abusing my perks for free appetizers and a drink, my phone has rung, and since it had been Steven’s name that had flashed across the screen, of course, I had answered, and now I was sitting down, stunned, at what he was saying.
“Are you…what?”
“Look, I’m not mad,” Steven said. “You’ve been completely honest about what’s been going on, Andie. I just would