Page 18 of A Better Place

“I mean it. I just needed to sit here to get away, I guess.”

“Get away? From who?”

“Jack. I’m fine. I just needed to have a minute or two alone. And to tell you how proud I am of you. You’re a good kid, you know that?”

“Thanks to you,” he tells me, making my heart squeeze.

“So, what’s the plan for tonight?” I ask him, officially changing the subject.

He gives me a hard look, which I return, and he sighs heavily. “I think we’re going over to Blake’s house for the after-game-supper-thing that some of the parents do, which you’re welcome to come over for, you know that, right? Christine comes a lot.”

“I know. I appreciate it. Maybe next time, okay?”

“Mom, you say that every week,” he groans.

“Jack, don’t start.”

“I just don’t understand why you won’t get to know some of the other parents. It’s been three years.”

“My job is to keep you safe. If that means I need to keep my distance and not get to know people, so be it.”

“He’s not going to come here.”

“You don’t know that. Just, trust me, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Are you going to see Maggie?” I ask, changing the subject, my voice teasing.

He smiles brightly. “I don’t hide it very well, do I?”

“Not really.”

“I don’t think I will tonight. She told me at school today her parents are back home now, and I think she wants to hang out with them after the game. Soon,” he says, his voice confident.

“James tells me it might be a challenge,” I say and immediately regret it.

His eyes widen. “James, huh? As in Maggie’s uncle?”

“Mm-hmm. Yup.”

“When did you talk to James? Or better yet… when did you meet him?”

Before I can stop them, a flood of nonsensical words spill from my mouth. “Umm, he dropped off Harper, Maggie’s little sister? You know her? At school this morning since her parents were gone, and she had broken her arm. Did you remember that? Anyway. He dropped her off then came back and had lunch with her, then I saw him at the game. He’s a nice guy, I suppose. He played soccer with Harper’s classmates and had lunch with her — I think I said that already — and we sat by each other at the game tonight. But yeah, he said you might have a challenge ahead of you. Sounds like she’s got some overprotective older brothers and stuff.”

Ho-ly. Crappola. I just rambled for a ridiculous amount of time. And not a single bit of it made a lick of sense. Of course he knows Harper. Of course he didn’t forget something that happened just last night. Jack’s eyebrows have shot clear into his hairline, and he covers his mouth with his hand to stop from laughing directly at me.

“I think I understand now.”

“Oh, shut it.”

He laughs out loud at me. “Mom. What’s the deal?”

“Nothing,” I say, my voice embarrassingly high.

“Really? Because it seems there’s some deal happening over here.” He motions his finger in a figure eight in my direction.

“I’m not ready,” I say quietly.

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