Bad Business by Elise Faber

Author:Elise Faber [Faber, Elise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781637490860
Publisher: Elise Faber

Nineteen

Ro

“Oops,” I heard as I pushed through the door and into the mudroom off the garage.

I paused then, having been a parent long enough to know that the tone of the oops wasn’t a good sign, sped up, moving down the hall, intending to relieve Tricia from whatever chaos that Jack was creating.

Jack, with whom I’d reached a semi-tentative peace—this because of Maddie, of course. Those tickets to the soccer game, the VIP experience she’d had a hand in getting Jack, had worked some kind of magic, even though I’d mentioned Maddie had gotten them for us.

I couldn’t lie to my son about that.

And…I think in telling him that, in not trying to take credit for shit I hadn’t done, he’d thawed.

No more fights at school.

No complaints about homework or getting off his video games.

No more telling me he hated me.

We were going on almost a week of me not hearing the H-word.

So, I didn’t need to lose my babysitter and throw a wrench into the whole system, not when it was finally working.

Only, when I moved into the kitchen, it wasn’t to see Tricia cleaning up some chaos that Jack had created.

It was to see Jack and Maddie creating chaos together.

I froze, almost staggered back, my heart thudding, my head spinning.

“That’s okay,” Maddie said, reaching around Jack and using her hands to guide his as they—I leaned to the side—piped frosting onto the top of a cupcake. “Just like that,” she was saying. “Slow and steady wins the race.”

Jack nodded, fully focused, teeth nibbling into his bottom lip as, together, they carefully squirted frosting onto the cupcake.

“There,” Maddie said, releasing his hands. “Ready to try the next one on your own?”

Jack, still nibbling at that lip, nodded.

Maddie moved a cupcake toward Jack. “Okay, bud,” she said softly. “Give it a try on this one.”

Another nod. Supreme focus.

And as I stood there, heart pounding, watching Maddie help my son ice a cupcake, watching her encourage him to do one on his own, watching them just have a quiet, normal moment, I was rocked to my core.

Because this was everything I’d ever wanted.

A family of my own.

Walking into my kitchen after being at work and seeing the woman I loved with my kid, smiling and sharing a moment—

Jack groaned. “That one looks terrible.”

“We can fix it,” Maddie said, picking up a butter knife and smoothing it over the surface. “See?”

“Whoa.”

“Sometimes the best things aren’t what we planned.”

Jack paused, seemed to take that in. A second later, he glanced up at her and smiled. “Can we put sprinkles on them?”

Maddie smiled back. Then she reached over and tapped his nose, leaving a dollop of frosting. “Absolutely.”

Jack scooped the dollop off, plunked his finger in his mouth, and I watched, heart squeezing, as he did the same to Maddie, breaking into peals of laughter at the sight of her with chocolate icing on the tip of her nose.

She waggled her brows as she wiped it off, licking it from the tip of her finger.

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