What's Life Without the Sprinkles - By Misty Simon Page 0,14

Tickle Maruchan.”

“Yes, I know I cannot kill the all-powerful, immortal Master Zofo, but I may vanquish him with tickle.”

The doorbell rang, breaking Nate’s concentration. It cost him. He tried to crawl to the door, but Justin held onto the back of his thigh and gave a war whoop as they inched their way to the front door. When fingers dug into his ribs, Nate yelled, “Help!” still laughing.

Then Claudia walked in, bent down, and tickled him, too.

“That’s not what I meant,” he gasped as her fingers assaulted his ribs. He almost got an eyeful of boob when he tried to sit up. But she backed off with a half smile and a flip of her blonde hair.

He cleared his throat and shuffled Justin off his body. “You’re no help.”

“I wasn’t trying to be.” The smile stayed in place, kinking up the side of her mouth. “You’re a big strong man. I thought you could take it.”

Pulling Justin up by his apron strings, Nate set him on his feet and brushed him off, using the time to let his pant legs fall back down from his knees. He tried to figure out what had made that smile different from the ones she normally wore. He was used to her playfulness. How couldn’t he be, after almost twenty years in each other’s pockets? But there was something vaguely unsettling about that tiny crinkle on the left side.

“Before you ask how the date was, don’t.” Claudia held up a hand, and her bracelets clinked as they slid down her arm.

He got Justin on his way to the kitchen with a swat to his rear end and told him to get his stuff together. “That bad, huh?”

“Didn’t I just tell you not to ask?” She crossed her arms over her chest, cocked a hip out to rest against the doorway to the living room, and flipped her hair back over her shoulder, again.

“Sorry, I just thought you’d want to talk about it.” Like you always do, he thought but didn’t say.

Part of him felt sorry for her. She’d invested a lot of time into that relationship. But the other, bigger, part of him was glad she’d finally realized what an ass the man was. Edward had never been good enough for her, just like all the other men who had come and gone from her life.

“At least that’s over,” she said, breaking into his thoughts. And then she started blinking really fast and dipped her head down.

“So no more Edward, at all?”

More fluttering eyelashes. Was she having a problem?

“Nope. Edward has gone the way of the cream-filled doughnuts I tried to make in twelfth grade.” Crossing her ankles, she bumped the hip out some more and shrugged her shoulder.

“Well, I’m sorry to hear it.”

“No, you’re not.” She tapped him lightly on the arm and stuck her tongue out at him. “You hated him just as much as Zoe did. Don’t try to pretend differently.”

Thankfully, he was saved by Justin running back into the living room with his arms full of all his stuff. His plastic sword stuck up from his back above his ear, his comic books were crushed against his thin, young chest.

“Ready, Mom. Let’s go, let’s go!” As Justin ran back and forth right next to Claudia’s non-leaning hip, he nearly knocked her over.

“In a minute,” she said, batting her eyelashes again.

Finally, Nate had to ask. “Can I get you something for that?”

The batting stopped, and her gray eyes opened wide. “For what?”

“Well, I think it’s stopped. It looked like you had something stuck in your eye there for a minute. I didn’t know if you needed to wash it out.”

She heaved a sigh, and her eyes went back to normal. “No. No, nothing in my eye, but thanks for the offer.” Her shoulders drooped, then she seemed to shake off whatever it was and stood straighter. “Hey, thanks again for watching him on such short notice. It may be a while before I go out on any dates again, so I won’t impose on your time.”

He ruffled Justin’s hair. “You know it’s no hardship to watch my guy. It doesn’t only have to be when you need to go out, does it?”

“Um, no, of course not.” She uncrossed her arms. He’d never seen her so stiff before.

“Are you sure something’s not wrong? You look uncomfortable.” He laughed to release some of the weird tension in the air. “Or is it just the new shoes?” He hadn’t seen her wear heels on