Page 11 of Spit Screen

“Vicki, I would never leave you.”

“Yeah, I know. You don’t want to leave here.”

“I like being home with you,” I reply.

Vicki shrugs.

“Are you sick of me being home?” I tease her.

“No. But you can leave us, you know? I mean, to work. Me and Hannah will help with Noah.”

“I know you will. Don’t worry so much about me.”

“You miss work.”

“Sometimes. But I miss you when I’m working,” I tell her.

“Yeah, but me and Hannah will be at school all day next year.”

“Did Momma or Grandma say something to you?”

“Nah. They don’t talk to me about that kind of stuff. I can just tell. You’re bored.”

Bored? I may be a bit restless. I don’t have the time to bebored.“I don’t think I could ever beboredin this family.”

Vicki looks at me, purses her lips, and then folds her arms across her chest. I raise a brow at her.

“It’s because we’d have to move, huh?”

It isn’t often my children stun me into silence. I have no idea how Vicki would reach that conclusion.

“It is,” she says.

“Vicki.”

Vicki shrugs. “Uncle Jeff moved. Amber moved.”

Amber is Vicki’s friend from school. She moved last summer to New Hampshire. They take turns calling each other on Fridays after school, and they also write and send each other photos through an email account we set up.

“That’s true,” I agree. “But this is our home.”

Vicki shrugs again.

“Vicki?”

“Don’t you ever miss our old house?”

My heart clenches. There are still moments when I wish I could gohometo the house we had in Los Angeles. And sometimes, as much as I enjoy visiting Tam and Christie, it’s hard for me to walk into our old home and see their furniture. It was my first house. It was the place where Addy and I began our relationship and had our first two children. Every nook and cranny of that place holds memories for me. I sometimes forget it’s a place that also holds special memories for Vicki. I know my kids adore their grandparents, and they enjoy spending time with my brother’s family, but listening to Vicki, I’m beginning to understand she misses our old life more than I realized.

“Sometimes I do miss it,” I admit.

“Me too.”

“You miss the pool,” I say with a wink.

“Yeah. But I miss Tam and Christie the most.”

“I know you do, Sprout.”

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