Page 71 of Small-Town Secrets
"Not if you don't want to. I know you're going to need some time to process all of this and—"
"Can I call you Dad?" Tyler cut in.
"Sure you can," I said, hiding my surprise at his request as best as I could. For all I knew, this was just his way of getting back at someone who had been mean to him. There was no way he was already seeing me as his dad, but that was okay. We had time. I wasn't going anywhere.
Tyler grinned. "Can I have a puppy, Dad?"
"Tyler!" Laurence admonished him sharply before I could even react.
"It's okay," I said. "We could adopt another dog or two."
Laurence sighed. "Don't let him wrap you around his finger so easily."
Was that what Tyler was doing? I had to admit, my brain had kind of stopped working right when he called me Dad and asked for a puppy. How could I say no to that?
"We're not adopting any dogs in the near future," Laurence put his foot down. He stood, pulling Tyler up alongside him. "We already have Sarge. That's plenty."
Sarge... shit. Where was Sarge? I vaguely remembered him running out of the car with us.
"He's outside," Chris said, as if reading my mind. "By the slide."
I followed his gaze, and there my dog was, marking the slide with his scent. A small weight fell off me. All I wanted to do now was to load my dog and my children into my car and take them all home.
"I'm cold," Tyler announced.
"That's because you went out without your jacket." Laurence shook his head at Tyler. "You're grounded for the rest of the week, by the way."
"No fair!"
"Yes fair. You know better than to run away like that. You should be glad I'm ever letting you outside again."
Tyler pouted, but didn't argue anymore.
"What do you say we go home?" I suggested. After all, the day had been long enough. "There's hot cocoa at home."
"Hot cocoa!" Tyler jumped at that, completely on board with my idea. Laurence gave me a smile, and his hand, as we left the playground, my dog following closely.
Only Chris hung behind a little bit. I tried not to be too concerned that. He had a lot to mull over in his head. He'd come around eventually.
Wouldn't he?
31
Aaron
The next daywas the boys' last day of school before the winter holidays and the day after that, we all drove out to pick a tree. Or rather, the twins picked a tree—and not without lots of squabbling between them. Tyler wanted a tall tree, Chris wanted one with thicker branches, and they argued over this so long that I wondered whether these two ever agreed on anything. In the end, though, we miraculously managed to find a tree that both of them were happy with, although I was sure this feat was only accomplished because Laurence promised them pizza if we could make it home before sunset.
Once we had the tree set up in the living room, Chris and Tyler immediately wanted to decorate it, but I had to disappoint them.
"I don't have any decorations here. We'll have to head out to buy some tomorrow."
"Why do you not have any decorations?" Tyler demanded.
"Can't we gonow?" Chris asked. "The tree is all naked."
"I can't. I have work scheduled in about an hour."
The twins turned to their daddy, but he turned them down too. "Tomorrow is soon enough. No more complaints or I'll reconsider the pizzas."
