Page 24 of Stay With Me
Now, it doesn’t feel so empty anymore.
Throwing the truck into park, I leave it running while I hop out.
“How was your day, ladies?” I ask as I walk toward the porch.
“Busy but good. Are you sure you’re okay to take her until I get back?” Luna asks, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“Of course. I’m excited to have dinner with just Jess and me and to hang out.” Turning to Jess, I ask, “Are you excited, Jess? We can see what kind of things we can get into before it’s your bedtime.”
“Yes, s—” She shakes her head and looks between us. “Yes, Noah. I’m excited to head to your house. Can you help me with my reading?”
My heart stutters in my chest, and I hear Luna’s sharp intake of breath. This is the most she’s interacted with us without us doing most of the talking.
“I would love to help you with your reading.” Smiling, I look at Luna. “See, she’s excited, and we’re gonna do some reading. It’s going to be a great night! Alright, squirt, say bye to your sister, and let’s head out. I’m so hungry I could eat a cow.”
“A cow is very large, and while you’re a large man, I don’t think you can eat a whole cow,” Jess says as she hugs her sister.
A sly smile crosses Luna’s face. “He is a rather large man, isn’t he?”
“Alright, it was a figure of speech. We’ll talk about it on the ride home. We’ll see you in a few hours.” I want to hug her, but Ann calls for her before I can.
Looking over her shoulder, she acknowledges Ann and turns back to us. “I can’t wait to hear what you guys get up to. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
I watch her walk inside and turn to Jess. “It’s just me and you. What do you want to eat?”
We get in the truck and drive away, talking about dinner options.
I pull into my driveway and turn the car off, hopping out to open Jess’s door for her.
“Did you figure out what you want for dinner, squirt?”
She looks at me and then looks at the ground before grabbing her backpack.
“Whatever you want to eat is fine,” she finally says.
We shut the doors and walk toward the house. “No, you get to choose today. I gave you a few options to help out, but the choice is yours. I know that before you came here, you only ate what you grew and harvested, but if you want to try something, we can try it.”
When we took her to the doctor for her physical and to start her shots, they told us to introduce processed foods slowly. I don’t see why I can’t offer her something new and make a salad on the side.
Balance.
“Really? I can try something new for dinner?” she asks as she puts her lunch bag by the sink.
“Of course. What are you thinking?”
She purses her lips as she grabs her workbook that we work on a little every night. The school put together a packet of testing prep stuff, starting with kindergarten and going up to fifth grade.
“I don’t know what it’s called, but I saw the cleaning man at school eating it when Ms. Cassidy and I were eating outside for lunch.”
With her not having a formal education, Cassidy is doing great at balancing between getting her used to the classroom but allowing her to be outside as well if the weather permits it.
“Well, what did it look like?”
“Well, it was… Um, not a square shape but like this.” She uses her hands to make a triangle.
“A triangle.”
“Yeah, that! And it looked like it was like bread, and it had cheese on top, but that was all I could see.”
