Page 74 of Love Me Gently

“You get hurt at work, Daddy?” As Ella asked, her eyes trailed over my face and the parts of my body she could see. “You look okay.”

“I’m good, Ella. Something else. I have a friend staying with me at my house for a while.”

“A friend!? Like Mr. Robbie or Eddy? Ilovethose friends,” June cried. “Eddy brings the best candy.”

“He does.” I chuckled and then shook my head. “No, it’s not Mr. Robbie or Eddy. It’s not someone you know, but it’s someone who was friends with Mr. Robbie and Miss Ashley and me all the way back when we were little kids.”

“Little likeme?”June pushed her frosting-coated fingertip to her chest on her shirt. Whoops.

“Kind of. We were all young when we were friends.”

“What’s his name?” Ella asked. I glanced at her, the quiet way she asked the question as if sheknew. And heck, maybe she did. She was always smarter than most kids her age.

I made sure to look her right in the eye. “Her name is Trina.”

Ella, definitely my quieter and more thoughtful one, took a second. But when she spoke, she shocked me.

“Is she like Mommy’s friend, Zack?”

“Who?” And I’m sorry…what?

“Mommy’s friend, Zack. He stayed at our house once, too. But he didn’t stay in the guest room. Mommy said sometimes friends like to have sleepovers.”

“I think that’s fun,” June said. “I can’twaituntil I’m old enough for sleepovers.”

Over my dead body would June have that kind of sleepover.

Words stuck in my throat and clawed their way out as I finally realized what they were saying. Marie hadfriends. Maybe that was why she wasn’t as hurt as I expected her to be about Trina. When she told me she was doing well and moving on, I hadn’t thought of exactly howfarshe’d been moving on, but this was good. Better than. Even if the awkward factor was skyrocketing.

“I think it’s good your mommy has friends, too,” I told both girls, choking down my surprise. “And right now, Trina’s just a friend to me, too. I wanted you to know because you’ll see her Sunday after church when I get you back, okay? And I didn’t want her to surprise you.”

“But I like surprises,” June said. Her bottom lip pushed out into a pout, and I really wished I had my phone to snap a pic and send it to Eddy. I was right.

Identical.

“Don’t worry, June. I’m sure there are lots more surprises coming your way some day.”

“Goodie.” She sucked the frosting off her fingertips, and I turned back to the front of the truck.

This had been easy.

Far easier than I expected.

Was it possible we wereallmoving on?

Lord, I hoped so.

It wasnormal for Marie to meet us at the door when I pulled up to the house. It wasn’t normal for me to follow the girls up, and as I did, with them barely stopping for hugs and kisses from their mom, her brows rose with a questioning look toward me.

“Everything okay?”

Oh. Everything was good. Just fantastic.

I smirked and leaned in, teasing her. “I hear you have afriend.” Her cheeks paled, and I kept going. “Andsleepovers.”

“Oh.” She huffed. Chuckled, and then her pale cheeks turned flaming pink. “Cole?—”

“With a friend named Zack,” I finished, and leaned back, smirking.

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