A Second Chance in the Show Me State - Jessie Gussman Page 0,34
driven the wagon alone. Maybe she would like to spend the evening with the kids by herself.
They seemed to love to do whatever he was doing. Emerson might not believe he hadn’t monopolized both of them on purpose.
She grabbed the pepper and handed it over, and he shook some on his hamburgers before taking the spatula and flipping them.
“There is a single dads meeting in town tonight I was thinking of going to. Are you okay with the boys?” he asked.
“I think I can handle them just as well as you,” Emerson said, taking the pepper from him and setting it down.
His hand paused midair. It seemed like everything he said, she took offense to it.
Maybe she didn’t mean to. Maybe she just didn’t understand. “I didn’t mean that you couldn’t, I was asking if you minded if I go.”
That was better, he thought. But it would be nicer still if she would give him the benefit of the doubt and take his words in the very best way possible. She seemed to look for ways to get upset rather than ways to give him grace.
That’s because her emotions are the same as yours.
He shoved that thought aside. One of these days, he was gonna figure out how to gag that little voice in his head.
“The answer is the same whatever you meant. They’re my children, and I don’t have a problem watching them.”
She reached over, grabbing the lid on the counter beside her and handing it to him. He fitted it on the skillet. Reid leaned over to grab the rolls from the top of the fridge, handing them to Emerson. She turned and gave them to Dallas, who set them on the table.
“I’ll plan on going, then.” He thought to do it more to be considerate of her, but the way he felt now it was more to just get out of the house.
How were they ever going to manage to live together for a month? Especially if she took everything he said and turned it into the worst meaning possible.
Living together without killing each other, anyway.
He didn’t want her to leave though. The idea of her getting a hotel or staying with someone else made his heart beat sickly in his chest.
He was such a basket case. He didn’t want to live without her; he didn’t want to live with her. And couldn’t say anything without offending her.
She handed him the slices of cheese from where they sat on the counter beside her as he lifted the lid off the skillet.
He took them, putting one on each burger and an extra two on the patty she would eat.
If she noticed, she didn’t say anything. He always teased her that she liked a little hamburger with her cheese.
Maybe he should have asked if that was the way she still felt, but he hardly doubted that her taste had changed.
Setting the lid back on, he said, “Usually people start showing up in town around seven, although there’s really no set time. So I’ll just eat, then run up and get a shower. The boys know where their schoolwork is, and I’m only saying that because you haven’t been here.”
“Thank you,” she said, although she sounded almost grudging about it.
“Hey, Dad?” Houston asked. “Dallas and I can do our schoolwork ourselves if Mom wants to go with you.”
“Yeah. Mom hasn’t been in town yet since she’s got here, and she probably wants to go see everything. She hasn’t met everybody, and she probably just wants to go with you and check things out,” Dallas added.
Reid narrowed his eyes and tried to keep the suspicion out of his voice. “This is a single dads meeting. I’m pretty sure your mom doesn’t want to go.”
Both boys stood looking at him blinking before Houston said, “Well, a lot of the guys there are our uncles, aren’t they? That means they’re like Mom’s brothers too. So...it’s kind of like a family thing. Right?”
His brothers used to go all the time, but they hadn’t been going very regularly since they’d all gotten married.
He was married too, of course, but... His thoughts trailed off.
People would probably make fun of him because he was there without his wife when his wife was finally here in the states and actually staying with him. Although they all knew the story. Maybe none of the details.
“No. Not really,” he finally said to Houston. “Actually, I don’t think any of my brothers were there the last time. Although, with the rain,