Page 23 of A Valentine's Day Gift
“Bye, Dad!” Luke said, rushing out the door.
“Bye,” Gabe said to his dad sullenly. He probably knew better than the younger two that they were in big trouble.
She waited until they were out of the city, where she could focus on them better, and they were all trapped in the car so they’d have to listen to her. She turned off the radio. “Boys, your dad told me a hair-raising story of your visit this weekend, and I’m not at all happy.”
“Sorry, Mom,” Gabe said from the passenger seat next to her. The other two quickly chimed in from the backseat with their sorrys.
“Is it true?” she asked. “Jared, you set a fire, Luke, you stole money, and the three of you ran around like hoodlums in the city?”
“What’s a hoodlum?” Jared asked.
“Shut up, idiot,” Gabe said. “Mom, I kept a close eye on them the whole time and got them back to dad’s apartment no harm done. I memorized the map of the city.”
She ground her teeth. Gabe at thirteen sounded a little too proud of his supervisory role. He should know better than to run away like that without permission. “I just can’t understand why you would act this way. Were you mad at your dad?”
Silence.
“I want answers, you hear me?” she barked. “Jared, why did you start a fire?”
“Distraction,” he said.
“Distraction for what?” she asked. It was like pulling teeth, but she’d get to the bottom of it. “Jared, answer me right now.”
“Luke told me to make a distraction so he could get the money.”
“I didn’t say start a fire!” Luke snapped.
“Ow!” Jared exclaimed. “He hit me!”
A rustling and grunts started up in the backseat as the two boys smacked each other around.
“Knock it off!” she hollered at the top of her lungs.
Silence.
She took a deep calming breath. “Luke, why would you steal money?”
Luke responded like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “If we didn’t have money, we couldn’t ride the subway. And we definitely had to buy hot dogs from the sidewalk cart. Dad never lets us and they smell so good.”
“I still don’t understand,” she said, barely hanging on to her patience. “Why did you have to run out of his apartment in the first place?”
“We didn’t like the lady,” Jared said.
She looked in the rearview mirror at her youngest boys and glanced over at Gabe, all three of them screwing up their faces in disgust. She swallowed hard. William must’ve wanted to introduce his girlfriend (or mistress) to the boys. He might’ve mentioned that glaring fact to her, or better yet, given her a heads-up so she could prepare the boys. Clearly the kids weren’t ready to think of their dad dating someone that wasn’t their mom.
“Boys, your dad and I are divorced now. He’s single and free to date another woman. I want him to be happy.”
“She reeks of flowers,” Luke said.
“She called me a cute little boy,” Jared said. “I’m not little!”
She looked to Gabe. “Who was this woman?”
“Dad said she was his friend, but we all saw her kiss him on the mouth.” Someone made a retching sound from the backseat. “And he was so busy talking to her, we didn’t think he’d even miss us.”
She took a deep breath. “Okay, first of all, your behavior this weekend is unacceptable both to me and your dad. You’ll be writing him a letter apologizing. I expect you to act just like you would at home when you’re at his apartment. You all know the rules.”
“Are we grounded?” Gabe asked.
