Page 71 of The Ex Next Door
Amy quirked a brow. He must be joking.
“Fine! I screwed up, too.” He held out his palms. “Okay, I screwed upworse. But you have to admit, it wasn’t right between us for a long time. We weren’t… We weren’thappy.”
“Yes,” she said. “I know that now. You were right.”
“Wait.What?” Rob jerked his head. “I was?”
“I wish I’d seen it earlier. You weren’t happy and neither was I. Somewhere along the way we lost each other in the hustle and bustle of raising kids and putting them first. We’re both to blame. I don’t know about you, but I learned my lesson. I’m never going to take love for granted again. I’m going to—”
Rob blinked. “Love? You’re alreadyin lovewith him again?”
Until Rob repeated what she’d said back to her, she wasn’t even aware she meant the words. But they were true. How easily she’d slipped back into a love that fit like a worn-out glove. No, not a worn-out glove. Aseasonedglove. It fit. It was the perfect size and worked because it had molded itself to her soul early on. They’d failed for one reason only. They were too young.
“I… I don’t know. But let’s just say the possibility is there.”
Rob grimaced like she’d socked him in the stomach.
“Oh brother! Well, whatever you do, don’t saythatto thekids. It’s all they can handle with both of us seeing other people.”
With that, he climbed into his sedan and was off without another word.
Amy headed back inside, finding Naomi still on the couch but now she’d pulled out a book and was drawing inside it with her markers. She wondered if she should wait a little while before she told the kids about Declan. Rob had a point.
Amy sat next to her little girl, draping a hand around her tiny shoulders. “Did you have a good time yesterday after the park ordeal?”
“Shannon said I never have to call her Mom, that she’s not my mom and only wants to be my friend. I call her Shannon and she’s not Daddy’s friend, but she’s mine now, I guess. We played dolls for a little while.” She shrugged and used her blue pencil to color in the clouds she’d drawn over a little cottage.
“But David… He’s still upset?”
“Yeah.” Naomi sighed like the little worrier she’d already become. “I tried to tell him Shannon isn’t going to be our mom. He still doesn’t like her.”
Amy was about to go into David’s room to talk to him when he came wandering out himself, tablet in his hand. “Could I have a sandwich?”
“Sure!” She shot up. It seemed to be their way of bonding and talking. “How about you, Naomi?”
“Cookies,” she said. “And milk.”
David followed Amy into the kitchen and sat at their little table in the corner while she fixed him his favorite, a PB&J. He played a game on his tablet, the one with the annoying song on repeat.
“I’m so sorry about what happened yesterday,” Amy said,taking the peanut butter and spreading it evenly on the wheat bread.
He said nothing.
“Naomi said that Shannon explained she doesn’t want to be your new mother. Just a friend to you both. It’s nice to have another adult friend.”
David grunted.
“This is a lot of change to get used to. Daddy and I living apart, then we move to this new house. Now Daddy has a girlfriend. It’s a lot.”
“Yeah. It’s super stupid. At least you don’t have a boyfriend.” David snorted.
Amy froze in the middle of spreading the grape jelly. “W-why would that be stupid?”
“D-uh,” David said, his thumbs flying over the tablet. “Because if you have a boyfriend and Daddy has a girlfriend, then we’renevergetting back together.”
No. Not this. A sharp ache stabbed through her chest. Routines were good. They kept order in an emotionally chaotic world. Throat tightening, Amy cut the sandwich into four triangles, the way she did when her life was far less complicated. David and Naomi were little, and she could protect them. There was so much. Stranger danger, carbon emissions, dirty water, pollution. High-fructose corn syrup, food dyes and pesticides, overly processed foods, too much screen time and hormones in their milk. She’d done her best to keep them healthy and happy but that hadn’t been enough.
In the end, she’d ruined her children by being one half of the couple who had ruined their family.
