Page 28 of Last Fall

7

ERIK

FoodisLove

Iwas definitelyan asshole for feeling jealous Zoe had a writing group to talk to. Of course she did. And who was I to be jealous of that? It was just that for a split second I felt like I had something to offer her. Something no one elsecould.

I really, really, inappropriately liked that idea. But that was what a man was supposed to do, wasn’t it? Be more than anyone else for hiswoman?

Fuck,I was back to thinking like a caveman. Zoe did this to me, over and over again, without even trying. All it took was five minutes alone with her andbamI was thinking about providing, protecting, and, to be perfectly honest, fucking hersenseless.

So yeah, for one second I was selfishly disappointed, but then I pulled my head out ofmyass.

“How much longer?” Max whined while bouncing off of every surface of theporch.

“You really want this,” I glanced at the box to find the name of it again, “Power DesertRider?”

“I’ve only been waiting foreverforone.”

One day she’d really know what it felt like to waitforeverfor what she wanted. I wouldn’t wish this fresh hell on anyone. When I thought about it, the fact that I’d been patiently waiting two years for this chance to date Zoe, it was a really longdamntime.

And I was stillwaiting.

Making progress if our conversation, hand holding, and longing looks said anything, but still nowhere near where I wantedtobe.

The screwdriver slipped out ofmyhand.

“Sheesh Uncle Erik. Youfeelingokay?”

I picked up the screwdriver and finished reattaching the battery door. “Where’s your dad anyway?” I always found it comical that Jake and his friend John were the only two engineers from his company that could put together toys. The rest were always baffled by the small parts and instructions that made little to no sense. So it was usually the two of them putting together the big complicated toys and me assemblingtherest.

She pointedpastme.

Jake and John were putting together some sort of sprinkler system water slide contraption that ended in the pool. “That looks...complicated.”

“It’s so cool. You run through an obstacle course and then slide down that ramp into the deep end of the pool. My friend Mara has the same one at herhouse.”

I hit the “on” button and the toy car cametolife.

Max squealed. “Thank you Uncle Erik! You always know whattodo!”

Greg had done a fantastic job of mixing up all the parts and losing the instructions. I had no idea how that man built complicated systems for a living if he couldn’t put together a toy. Or maybe toys were the kind of thing you really needed years of on the job training to understand. I had plentyofthat.

Max slid into the seat and pulled up at Nerf gun as she eyed her many possible targets across the pool. “So you and Aunt Zoe were holding hands.” She took a test shot at a palm tree and grinned as the red bullet bounced against the trunk and fell to theground.

“You noticed that, huh?” It wasn’t like I tried tohideit.

She shot another bullet at her mother who scowled good-naturedly at us. “You like myAuntZoe?”

She turned and faced me, letting her gun fall into her lap. I was willing to bet if she didn’t like my answer she’d shoot me. “I like herverymuch.”

Her little face twisted as she thought. What on earth a five-year-old could possibly have going through her head, I had zero clue. “She wassmiling.”

I nodded slowly as I thought back to the moment Max came around the corner. “Wasshe?”

Max rolled her eyes. “Duh. I just said she was. It was nice. Aunt Zoe doesn’t usually smile around othergrownups.”

And then she hit the gas pedal and took off screaming like a banshee as she targeted her friends with her new toy, leaving me grinning like the foolIwas.

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