Page 40 of Summer with the Single Dad

“You never told me the Brooke you were mentioning was Brooke Barker,” Justine said to him, shaking her head. “Was quite a shock when she knocked on the door.”

“Bennett doesn’t see me as a famous actor. He sees me as the mermaid that washed up on his beach and made his brother turn into a lovesick idiot, right?” Brooke chuckled.

“You’re precisely right,” he teased, unpacking Aya’s lunch kit and tossing all the empty food containers into the sink. Emme was responsible enough to do that herself. She also put the plug in the sink and started to fill it up with hot, soapy water.

“Brooke’s been filling me in on all the island gossip. So Naomi, from the winery and her cousins, they’re all after the same plot of land as you guys?” She sipped her tea gingerly and his dick twitched in his jeans at the way her lips puckered so she could blow on the steam.

Glancing away from her mouth, he nodded and blew out a breath. “Yeah, them and over a dozen more interested parties. The women who run the cidery, the dads who run the distillery. It’s choice land and we all want it. We all need it.”

“I’m so glad you’re moving in with us, Justine,” Aya said. “We can stay up late and paint nails and braid hair. You can have breakfast with us and dinner. It’ll be great.”

“Well, Justine is here for a vacation. She’s just staying with us until her RV arrives. She doesn’t have to actually spend any time with us though. If she wants to sleep in, or go to bed early, or not braid little girls’ hair, that’s her choice and we need to respect that.” He grabbed the bowl of prewashed strawberries from the fridge and put it on the table for his girls’ after-school snack. “Healthy food first if you’re going over to Talia’s for cookies in a little bit.”

“Oh! Do I have a gaggle of children at my house right now?” Brooke asked, her green eyes widening. She took a big sip of her tea and grimaced. “Ooh, too hot for such a big sip. Ouch.” Then she stood up. “I should go before they eat all the cookies.” She leaned forward and rested a hand on Justine’s arm. “It’s so nice to meet you and I look forward to getting to know you better. Text me if you want to do something, like grab lunch or go for a hike. Now that I don’t have someone out there trying to kill me, I’m free to roam.”

“Like a free-range chicken,” Aya pointed out. “Shoes are optional.”

Brooke and Justine both snickered. Then Brooke waved and was gone in a flurry of blonde waves and generous hip sways.

Emme claimed Brooke’s seat and Bennett removed Brooke’s tea mug, adding it to the pile of dishes in the sink.

Emme and Aya dug into strawberries.

“You can have some too, Justine,” Aya said with her mouth full.

“Aya, close your mouth, please,” Bennett asked. “Emerson, do you have homework?” He shifted his gaze to his older daughter.

“Just spelling words, some math, and I need to label this body diagram.” She pulled out a sheet of paper which had a human body silhouette on it and the organs exposed. Straight lines with arrows pointed to the various body parts, both interior and exterior.

“Justine, you’re a doctor. You can help Emme, right?” Aya asked with enthusiasm. “You know all the body parts. Like even what this is called?” She pointed to an arbitrary spot on her neck. “Like this, here. What is this?”

“Uh … your neck?” Justine asked.

“No, but like, what’s on the inside?” Aya probed.

“That side of your neck has your jugular veins. There are three pairs of them. So six in total. They are the interior, exterior, and anterior veins, and they return deoxygenated blood from your brain back to your heart.”

Aya blinked at her. “Yeah, but like, what is it?”

“I … I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“Like what is the thing called that helps you breathe? And helps the food go from your mouth to your belly?”

“Oh! Well, the trachea is your windpipe. So it carries oxygen to your lungs and then carbon dioxide out of your lungs. And your esophagus carries the food down from your mouth to your stomach. So you actually have two different tubes in your neck.”

“A kid in my class is allergic to strawberries, and he has a special pen in his backpack. He says if he eats a strawberry, it’ll make him stop breathing. Is that true?” Aya’s eyes were wide with wonder.

Justine nodded. “That’s called anaphylaxis. It’s very dangerous. If you’re allergic to something and anaphylactic, your tongue and throat could swell and cut off your airway. So the pen he has in his backpack will give him medicine to help open up his throat again.”

“What’s that word again?” Aya asked. “Esparagus?”

Justine and Emme both giggled. “Esophagus,” Justine said. “But that’s the one that carries food to your stomach. The trachea is the one that carries oxygen.”

Aya’s eyes squinted and slowly nodded. “Esophagus. Es-o-pha-gus. Okay.” She stared fiercely at Emme. “Write that down.”

Emme looked at her sister like she’d lost her damn mind. “That’s not one of the options. There’s no arrow pointing to the neck.”

“Well, there should be,” Aya argued. “Mr. Flannagan is a bad teacher if he doesn’t think the neck is important. Add it anyway.”

---