Page 50 of The Manny

“He looks mad all the time.”

Jack did need to learn to smile more. On the rare occasion I’d seen his smile, it had been breathtaking. “Maybe you can help him.”

“How?” She frowned. “I’m just a kid.”

I laughed. “Yes, but you know how to have fun. Jack needs to learn how. I don’t think he has enough joy in his life. We can help him with that.”

She glanced up. “We can?”

“Sure. We’re kind of experts at having fun, right?”

She giggled. “I guess so.”

“We laugh all the time. Just be your normal self with Uncle Jack, then he’ll see how easy it is to be happy. Will you do that for me, Mia?”

“I… I’ll try.”

“How about we do an experiment?”

Her eyes lit with interest. “What do you mean?”

“I want you to try to get Uncle Jack to laugh three times today. If you can do that, I’ll buy you a hot fudge sundae tomorrow.” I grinned. “What do you say? Do you think you’re up for the challenge?”

She frowned. “Three times? One time will be hard. He’s so grumpy.”

“Nah. He’s just shy around you.”

“I’ll do my best.” She sighed.

“That’s my girl.” I smiled and moved to the door. “I’ll see you when I get home.”

“Bye.” She looked small and forlorn standing alone in the foyer.

I pushed away my guilt at leaving her and closed the door. I needed time for myself too. Working all the time wasn’t mentally good for me. By the time I got out front, my Uber driver had arrived. She chatted cheerfully as we drove to the movie theatre, where I was meeting Aiden.

Aiden was standing out in front of the theatre talking on his cell when I walked up. “I love you too, Percy. Talk to you soon.” He hung up and tucked his phone away. “Percy asked me to say hi to you.”

I smiled. “He’s six going on thirty.”

“Truly.” He gestured toward the theatre. “I already bought the tickets, so we can go right in.”

I frowned. “Oh, in that case, dinner is on me.”

“Uh, the tickets were matinee pricing. They didn’t exactly break the bank, Thomas. We can go Dutch on dinner if that makes you feel better.”

“Deal.” I held the door open for him. Originally he’d wanted to date me, but I had no idea where things stood with him and Barb at the moment. We hadn’t discussed anything particularly personal since Percy’s birthday party. His invite to the movie and dinner had been casual, so it hadn’t given me any insight into what his feelings were toward me now.

We got popcorn and a drink, and then made our way into the dark, mostly empty, theatre. There were still about fifteen minutes until the movie started, so we chatted about life as we waited. At one point, he cleared his throat.

I glanced over, taking in his tense expression. “Everything okay?”

“Uh, yeah.”

I smiled. “You look kind of uptight.”

Wincing, he set his popcorn on the ground near his feet. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Go for it.”

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