Page 74 of The Moment You Know

“You’re not about to ruin it, are you?” he teased, after there was a bit of a pause on her end.

She laughed a little nervously. “I hope not.”

This time the pause was on his end. “So, what’s up?” he asked, his happiness becoming slightly tempered at her words.

“Well, I was hoping you could come over for dinner tonight.”

David could tell, by the way she specified ‘you’, that she didn’t want him to bring Ashley. Valerie had never really warmed up to Ashley, and vice versa. David knew part of the reason was because Valerie had adored Paige, but after hearing about the incident at Bender’s, his mother had deliberately avoided being around Ashley at all.

“Is something wrong?”

“I just need to talk to you,” she answered. “And I figured we could have dinner, too.”

“Okay, well, I’m on my way to get Jacob right now,” he told her evenly, despite the fact that he was now feeling decidedly uneasy. “I could stop by after that, if you want.”

“That would be perfect. Thank you.”

“It’s no trouble, Mom. I’ll see you in a half hour.”

After disconnecting with his mom, David then called Ashley and told her he and Jacob would be eating dinner at his mom’s house. She didn’t care that she hadn’t been invited, nor did she ask why she hadn’t been, which made things easy.

When he arrived at Little Hands Preschool (which was basically glorified daycare), David spent a few minutes covertly watching his son play for a few moments, something he always liked to do. Today, it amused David to no end to see Jacob being shadowed by two girls, Emma and Kelsey, while he attempted to play with his best friend, Patrick.

He watched until Jacob spotted him and waited while Jacob said goodbye to Patrick, ignored the two girls, then grabbed his backpack. On the way to the car, David asked how his day was.

“Patrick got a timeout for spitting on Kelsey.”

“Good. Spitting on girls is wrong.”

Jacob made a face. “She spit on him first.”

“Oh. Did she get a timeout, too?”

“Yes.”

“Then justice was served.”

“What’s justice?”

“It’s like … fairness.”

“Oh.”

Jacob proceeded to tell David about other highlights of the day, including the peanut butter and jelly sandwich he’d eaten for lunch, which was apparently the best one he’d ever had. It wasn’t until Jacob was secured in his car seat that David was able to mention they were going to Valerie’s for dinner and Jacob immediately pumped his fists in the air and shouted, “Yes! Macaroni and cheese!”

The kid had a one-track mind. “I don’t know if that’s on the menu, Little Man, but you know the deal. No matter what Grandma makes, you have to eat it all and tell her how good it is. You don’t want to hurt her feelings, right?”

Jacob pursed his lips before reluctantly shaking his head, possibly remembering the time Valerie had made tuna casserole, which hadn’t gone over well.

When they got to Valerie’s house, David kissed her on the cheek. At fifty-seven, she looked more like his older sister than his mother, especially with their strong resemblance to one another. He had gotten most of his features from her, as well as his hair and eye color, for which he was extremely grateful every time he looked in a mirror and knew he didn’t see his father looking back. He could think of nothing worse than having a constant reminder of a man who hadn’t hung around long enough to see his child born.

He could only assume that Valerie felt the same way.

“It’s good to see you,” she said with a warm smile when David stepped back.

“It’s good to see you too, Mom.”

“And how’s my boy?” she asked Jacob, bending down and proceeding to kiss and hug him into oblivion, finally turning him loose so he could empty his backpack of all the artwork he wanted to show her. It was somewhat of a ritual, with each piece of construction paper being carefully laid out on the kitchen table while Valerie listened as he told her about each ‘piece’ in great detail.

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