Locked-Down Heart by Tarina Deaton

Author:Tarina Deaton [Deaton, Tarina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780997885668
Publisher: Tarina Deaton LLC
Published: 2017-11-27T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 16

“I like Mr. Chris,” Kimber said.

Denise looked down at her. “You do?”

“Uh huh.” She swung their hands as they walked.

“What do you like about him?”

“He makes good eggs.”

She smiled at the simplicity of Kimber’s statement. If only the rest of life was as simple as whether or not someone could scramble eggs.

“Did he ask you guys any questions?”

“Yes,” Kaden said.

Her stomach dropped and she worked to control her initial reaction. She hadn’t expected the answer to be yes. Had he used her oversleeping as an opportunity to get information from the kids? “What kinds of questions?”

“How we like our eggs,” Kaden said.

The sense of relief was instant and almost euphoric and she hated that for one short instant she’d doubted his intentions, but old habits died hard. Expect the worst and you won’t ever be disappointed. Funny…she’d still been disappointed when she’d thought the worst.

“He had to ask where our plates were,” Kimber added. “And he didn’t want to do my hair.”

The image of Chris trying to braid Kimber’s hair flashed through her mind. A small, hard knot in her chest unfurled at the picture it created. She mentally shoved the whole idea back into its metaphysical corner.

“Is he your boyfriend?” Kaden asked.

Denise coughed, choking on the spit that found its way down the wrong pipe with her surprise. “Why would you ask that?”

“‘Cause he was asleep on the couch.”

“No. He’s not my boyfriend.” Truthfully, she didn’t know how to describe Chris. They’d had something a few months ago that could have been more. They had…something…now, but she had no idea what it was or how to categorize it. All of which was too complicated to tell a nine- and eight-year-old.

“He’s just a friend.”

“Oh,” Kimber said with a good deal of disappointment.

“Why do you say it like that?” Denise asked.

“Amber’s mom has a boyfriend and he takes them to dinner and movies sometimes.”

“Do you want to go to dinner and movies sometimes?” Of course they did. Damn, she hadn’t really done anything fun with them, had she? They’d been so focused on getting through Sarah’s cancer, she completely forgot they were just kids and needed to do fun things.

“Tell you what—how about tomorrow, I pick you up from school and we go see a movie and then go someplace fun for dinner?”

“Chuck E. Cheese?” Kimber’s eyes lit up with delight.

The corner of Denise’s eye twitched at the thought. “We’ll see about that. I don’t know if they would allow Sprocket in there with us and I’d need to take her to a place like that.”

“Oh, yeah,” Kaden said. He looked around Denise as they stood waiting for the bus. “Kimber, Mom said loud noises and stuff like that bother Aunt Denny, remember? We should pick something else.”

“It’s okay, Aunt Denny. We don’t have to go there,” Kimber said.

Great. Now her PTSD was affecting them. Awesome. She knelt down so she was eye-level with Kimber. “Sweetie, it’s not your job to worry about me. I love that you care enough

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