Page 30 of Family Bonds: Alana & Brennan
“Two.”
“Perfect,” he said. “Why don’t you come around three? No pressure.”
Becca was jumping up and down in place. “Yeah, no pressure,” she said.
She was laughing when she said it, Brennan grinning at her, his eyes almost sparkling some.
Not that she understood what any of that meant, but it looked as if it’d be one less night she’d be channel surfing alone.
9
BEING NOSY
“You’re prompt,” Brennan said at three when Alana walked in his front door.
He’d seen her pull in and jumped up to get the door before she could ring the bell and wake Becca. He wouldn’t mind some time alone to get a feel for her.
Was she only coming around for his daughter or was there room for him in there?
He’d always had the worry before that it’d be all about him and the hope was there’d be room for his daughter, not the other way around.
Nothing he’d ever thought he’d have to worry about before.
“Bad habit. Normally I’m early.” She looked around his living room while she toed her shoes off. “Where is Becca?”
“Napping,” he said.
“Oh. You could have texted me and told me to come later.”
“It’s fine. I like to enjoy the calmness during these times.”
She laughed. “I guess I can understand why you’re thin. You probably never sit still.”
No dude wanted to be told they were thin.
Fit was a better word.
He worked hard to be in shape. One, to keep up with his kid. Two, to be healthy so he could be around for a long time for his daughter. Third, to help be attractive to a woman.
Thin didn’t scream attraction.
What the hell?!
“I don’t. Not when she’s awake. I keep thinking she’ll slow down as she gets older, but she only gets more energy. My mother claims it’s from me, but I don’t remember being like that.”
His memories as a kid were not wanting to wake up in the morning or begging to lie around and watch TV or play video games. He had to be pushed out of the house to run outside with his friends.
Looking back, it wasn’t the best usage of his time, so he was going to make sure Becca spent more time doing than sitting.
“I think we don’t remember our childhood the same as our parents. What do you remember?”
“Sitting around and complaining if I had to go outside. It’s not like we had much yard though. We lived in a condo.”
The older red brick row home he grew up in had three floors. They were in the middle. No backyard, not even grass.
But that three-bedroom two-bath place his mother and father bought when he was a baby was worth almost three million when his mother sold it over the summer. Best retirement fund she never thought she’d get.
It not only allowed her to buy her dream home on an island, but also gave her a much bigger cushion added to his mother’s federal pension.
