Page 38 of Summer with the Single Dad

He blinked. She blinked.

His smile was small, and it came and went like a zephyr. Then he walked out of the bedroom, leaving her alone with her pain and her tears … and for the first time in a very long time, with hope.

CHAPTER NINE

At least one of them always tried to meet the kids at the bus stop and walk them back up to the houses. This time, Bennett made a point of being the after-school greeter.

The kids were usually exhausted, until they got a snack in their bellies. Then that second wave of energy turned them into little wildlings. He was thankful every day for their acreage and how safe it was. Now that Emme was nine going on fifteen and super responsible, she was able to look after her sister and cousins for a few hours after school, until Bennett and his brothers finished work. When the weather was nice the kids could roam the hillside behind the houses for hours and burn off steam. They picked wildflowers, caught grasshoppers, came up with games, and sometimes just lay in the grass, and watched the clouds float by. And almost all of this was done without shoes on, and in some cases—depending on the heat—shirts too.

“Hi, Daddy,” Aya greeted him as she stepped off the bus, appearing to be in a much better mood than she’d had been that morning.

“Hey, Little Bug. Good day?” He held her hand while the rest of the children, including Emme, walked and chatted behind him.

She shrugged her boney shoulder, hitching up her enormous backpack. He’d tried to talk her out of such a massive thing, but she refused to hear reason. It was not a hill he was interested in dying on. “Not bad. Carnation pushed me off the play structure at recess.”

“Give me that thing,” he said, taking her backpack from her and slinging it over one shoulder. “Tell me more about Carnation and the pushing.”

Carnation was a girl in Aya’s class and she was known to be a bit of a bully. He and the girls had numerous discussions about how to handle Carnation, and how to avoid Carnation.

Aya shrugged again. “Yeah. I mean, I’m tough. So it didn’t hurt when I fell. Just made my knee a bit red. Then I told her that was unkind and I asked her why she was being unfriendly. Like you’ve told me to. She said it was because she wasn’t friendly. That she doesn’t want to be my friend, so she’s not going to be friendly to me. She’s going to push me.”

“Oh, wow. Then what happened?”

“I told her she’s going to have a hard life if she keeps treating people like that. And if I become a doctor and she comes to my hospital, maybe I’ll chop off her leg when she’s sleeping as payback.”

“Oh shit,” Bennett murmured, dragging his hand down his face. “Okay.”

“She laughed and said I can’t be a doctor because I’m not smart enough.”

“Mhmm.”

“I told her I am smart enough, but if being a doctor means I have to go to more school, then maybe I’ll become something else, like a police officer, and I’ll arrest her. Or a firefighter. Then I won’t put out her house if it catches fire.”

“Mhmm.”

“She told me she didn’t care. I told her I hope her arms fall off and she has to wipe her butt with her feet. Then the bell rang, and we ran back to class.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah.” She didn’t seem worse for wear. So although Bennett was still processing everything he heard, he pushed it to the back of his mind, nodded at Emme to come join them and took both his daughters’ hands.

“So, I have something to tell you both.”

They blinked at him, waiting.

“Cabin five, which is where Justine is staying, had a big flood today.”

“Oh no! Did Justine drown?” Aya asked, exaggerated fear in her soft-brown eyes.

Emme snorted. “Probably not.”

“No, she didn’t drown. But she can’t stay there until we fix the damage.”

“She can come stay with us!” Aya announced. “I can sleep on the couch and she can have my room. I’ll clean my room real good, Daddy. I promise. Pick up all my stuffed animals off the floor and put them in their hammock. And I’ll throw all my boogie tissues in the garbage.”

“Well, you should do that anyway. But believe it or not, she actually is going to stay with us until the RV I’ve rented arrives on Saturday. She’ll be in my room, and I will sleep in the study and use your bathroom. It’s only right that we give the guest her own room and bathroom.”

Emme’s eyes glowed and Aya started to jump up and down.

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