Page 48 of The Ex Next Door
“Does he ever find out what he did wrong?”
“I just make something up, like he left his socks a foot from the hamper.”
“Sorry, but that doesn’t sound healthy.”
“It works for us.”
And the casual understated note behind that statement was obvious. Amy was the one divorced, not Bianca. She and Mark usually couldn’t keep their hands off each other in public.
“Mom, can we go inside and play video games now?” Matthew asked.
Both boys had sweat pits under their arms and David wiped away a trickle running down his neck.
“Sure, let’s all go in. I’ll tell your daddy you did your workout today.”
Amy followed everyone inside, carrying the glove David had handed her. Bianca strolled to the kitchen and started pulling out snack food for the boys.
“We’re so excited about Matt. He’s really good, the coach said so. Got a heck of an arm, he said. He wants to work with Matt on pitching. Even Mr. Sheridan said Matt has potential.”
“Really? That’s amazing! I’m so happy for y’all.”
“Thanks. You know how it is. Strapped for cash. House rich, cash poor. Mark said we need Matt to get a scholarship because that would really help the family coffers. And now here we have the chance. We’re going to enroll him in Little League in the fall and also pay for a private coach. Mr. Sheridan already talked to us about it.”
Amy sincerely hoped that Rob didn’t hear about any of this from Mark or he’d want an athletic scholarship for David, too. Amy was all for financial assistance but she thought David had such good grades that if he continued, he’d probably get an academic one anyway.
“It seemed to work for Declan.”
“That’s exactly what we want for Matt. Do you think you could talk to him for us, get us some advice, now that you have such an in, so to speak?” Bianca arranged the Goldfish crackers on a plate with slices of apple and peanut butter for dipping.
“I’m not sure I have an ‘in’ any more than I already did, but sure, I’ll talk to him for you.”
“Youhave an ‘in.’ You were the ex, now you’re the potential new girlfriend. As long as you don’t scare him off by being too needy.” She put up a hand like a stop sign. “Don’t be too needy.”
“I’mnottoo needy, so that will be easy.”
“Oh, maybe we could all four go out to dinner one night, like a double date!” Bianca said this with the enthusiasm usually reserved for life-changing announcements.
“Um, sure. I’ll ask him.”
But they were very new. They hadn’t really talked aboutdating. They’d just kissed that one time, and then for a little while more the next night when she’d asked him to fix that squeak in Naomi’s door. She’d followed him next door afterward with some lame excuse to the kids and spent fifteen minutes in heaven. That was the extent of their dating life.
Her phone buzzed with an incoming message from Declan:
Carpool to work tonight?
She responded with a happy face.
Declan:
What are you wearing right now?
She smiled. Last night they’d texted for an hour, each one getting sillier than the last. Until they got racy.
She responded:
I took the kids to a playdate so what do you think I’m wearing?
Declan:
