Page 42 of Dirty Puck

“Fine.” I harrumphed. “I’ll try to call you Baker.”

“I’d appreciate it.” He surprised me, pulling me close to his face by my chin and pecked a quick kiss.

A fun, playful Baker Reece. Now I betthatgot him a lot of “dates.”

We continued through the city until hitting the streets with homes. He turned down a couple of different streets beforepulling into the driveway of a modest brick rambler. It had a covered stoop with cement stairs and cute shutters on all three of the front-facing windows. The home had window boxes for flowers under each window and an attached garage. I bet the landscaping here was gorgeous in the spring and summer.

His mother stood in the open doorway. Reece—er, Baker—had his mother’s eyes. She smiled so big. I remembered how she looked from Sumpter. Her color was off compared to then. She lookedsickerthan two weeks ago. I wanted to blame a runaway imagination for thinking that, but I had a terrible feeling that this was reality.

I half-expectedBaker… His name was Baker and I needed to remember to call him that. Right, so I half-expected Baker to hop out of the truck and sprint over to her, but he surprised me by moving to the back seat of the rental to get Benny. I helped Miss Claudia out on my side.

We met at the back of the SUV to retrieve our bags. He grabbed his and Miss Claudia’s while I took the bag I’d packed for me and Benny. Then we approached the stoop as a group.

“You better get up here and give me a hug,” she said and when Baker—nope, can’t do it. When Reece skipped up steps to reach her, she shook her head, “I meant Bree. I always get to hug you.”

But I’ll note that while I walked up the stairs, she hugged her son anyway. “Hello, Mrs. Reece.”

“Please, it’s Charlotte. Actually, you can call me Char. All my friends call me Char, so I think I should extend that to my son’s significant other whom I hope will become a daughter-in-law.”

“Ma!” Reece barked.

“What? A mother can hope. And I already know she’s a keeper. Women can suss out other good women.”

She looked at me as if she hoped I’d side with her, but thatwas one lie too many. She’d probably ask us to get married so she could be at the wedding with my luck. So I simply smiled at the woman and said, “Char, this is my son, Benny, and my neighbor, but she’s really been like a grandmother to me, so I’m going to introduce her from now on as my grandmother, Claudia.”

Benny leaned against my leg with his arms wrapped around my knee, just taking all this in. As long as he had familiar people around,hispeople, he was a go-with-the-flow kind of kid.

Even in her weakened state, Char squatted down to Benny’s level. “Hi, Benny. My name is Char. I’m glad to meet you.”

He turned his face her way without looking her in the eyes. That was his hello.

Then, using the railing and one of Reece’s strong arms to help push up, she stood on slightly shaky legs.

Miss Claudia climbed to one step below Reece and me on the stoop to shake Char’s hand. “You have a lovely home,” Miss Claudia said.

“Thank you. Please, everyone, come in.” She held the door open wide enough for people and bags. The front door led right into a living room. “This is the living room,” she said. “It leads to the kitchen and the den, where we keep the television. We have three bedrooms, but the den has sliding doors to turn it into another room. The sofa converts into a comfortable bed. I tried it out to make sure. Do you think Benny would be comfortable on a twin air mattress? I don’t have a toddler bed.”

“He’ll be fine. We’ll figure it all out.” Then I turned to Reece. “Let’s put Miss Claudia in a bedroom. Benny and I can take the den.”

“You’re not sleeping in the den.”

“So you’re taking the den?” I asked because this struck meas odd. I figured he’d want to sleep in the bed he always slept in when he visited.

“No. But my mattress here is better than the sofa. I don’t want to sleep there.”

“You won’t.”

“Babe, I will. You’re in the bed, I’m in the bed.”

“This is a new environment. Benny will need some familiarity to sleep.” What I didn’t want to say in front of his mother was that I felt uncomfortable with Benny seeing Reece sleeping in the same bed as me. It may get confusing for him just having Reece around all the time.

“We can put the air mattress up in my room,” said Claudia. “He’s comfortable with me.”

“It’s not fair to put that on you.”

“Please, if I’m your grandmother, then let me spoil my great-grandson like a grandmother should. That includes getting to read him books before he falls asleep—and before you say anything, I brought them from home in my bag.”

“At least someone is prepared,” Reece said and I socked him in the gut. It hurt my wrist more than his gut, not that I meant to hit him hard, but he laughed at me.

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