Page 90 of Townshipped
I pause on the porch before opening the back door. The monitor has gone quiet. Only the faintest sounds of breathing filter through the speaker. Em turns to look up at me, her face etched with an invitation.
I bend down, pulling her to me. She stands on tiptoe to meet my lips, looping her hands around my neck as I slant my mouth over hers. When we pull away she has a sated smile. I’m sure I look half-drunk on her kisses.
“We better not let Ty and Paisley see us being overly affectionate,” I tell Em.
She pauses for a moment and then says, “Yeah. Right. That’s a good idea. We don’t want to confuse them.”
“Exactly what I was thinking.”
She gives me a small smile as we walk into the house together.
31
“EM”
The distant rumble of the school bus can be heard from inside the kitchen. Aiden’s dressed. The goats have been fed. Ty and I are still in pajamas. Granger is sniffing his way around the island hoping to find a scrap from breakfast.
“Are you ready?” I ask Paisley.
She nods.
“Do you have your lunch ticket?”
She nods again.
“And the card with our numbers and address on it?”
One more nod.
“Your teacher has our information too. Don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried,” she says, her back straight and her face stoic.
She’s like a thirty-year-old tucked into a six-year-old’s body. Even though we’ve been connecting over the past three days, she’s facing a new school and a ride on the bus through town to get there. It’s a lot.
I begged Aiden to drive Paisley for at least the first few days. He said he wanted to start off with the routine they’ll be keeping rather than add one more transition he’ll have to hurdle later. I backed down.
These aren’t my kids and he’s not my … anything. He’s just the man who saved my life and has given me refuge. The man who stole my heart in the process. The man who kisses me in the dark of night and is somehow able to tuck that reality away when the sun crests the horizon.
We kissed. That doesn’t mean I’m a mom or a wife, or that my place here at the farm is any firmer than it was before last night. And his words on the porch echo through my head.We better not let Ty and Paisley see us being overly affectionate. His stance shouldn’t bother me. He’s obviously right. We need to put the children first and not confuse them. But, where do we stand in all this?
“Do you hab dat picture I dwawed you, Pay Pay?” Ty asks Paisley.
“I have it, right in here.” Paisley pats her backpack and leans over to give Ty a hug.
“Okay,” Aiden says, “Let’s walk you down the driveway.”
The four of us put on coats and boots and walk toward the bus idling where the gravel meets the road. Ty’s little legs slow him down. During the first moments out the door he stops to pick up random pebbles and draw with a stick in the mud.
“Let me carry you, buddy,” Aiden says gently.
I take in the sight of Ty reaching up to his uncle, Aiden hoisting him to his hip and then the two of them escorting Paisley down the lane together with Granger at their heels.
We stand at the end of the driveway until the bus is out of sight, waving like fools and shouting, “Have a good day, Paisley!”
Aiden spends the day in his office working. Ty and I play blocks, read, color, and then I let him watchWild Krattsand another PBS show before his afternoon nap. Around two, before Paisley arrives home, I get a text from an unknown number on my new phone.
Unknown:This is Laura. We want to take you somewhere special tonight. Tell Aiden he can live without you for one evening.
