28. My Cute Girlfriend

28

MY CUTE GIRLFRIEND

“ N o fair,” Kelly said. “I came in last. You two kicked my butt.”

Ty was so excited that he beat her. By a lot too. She thought she was better at this but obviously not.

It hadn’t helped any that both Ty and Michael got a few hole-in-ones.

The four-year-old was jumping up and down and almost in tears with his excitement over the first one.

“I like golf,” Ty said. “I didn’t think I would. Can we do this again?”

“We can,” Michael said.

“He might have the magic touch,” she said. “Do you golf?”

“I don’t,” he said. “Only for fun, but I don’t even own clubs.”

“Cade golfs,” she said. “I know Cameron has tried it.”

“I’ll have to see if maybe Ty can tag along with Cade at some point.”

“He’d probably love it,” she said. “I know he likes to get out and golf early in the morning before the heat. If he can get out of bed. But with Jordan now, that might be hard.”

“I’m sure he’ll still get out if he takes the kids. But they are at daycare even with the baby home,” he said. “No reason for them to be dealing with three kids since they’ve got to pay for the slots at the daycare anyway.”

“Is that how it works?” she asked. “I wouldn’t know.”

“I get two weeks to take vacation and not pay them,” he said. “If I want to pull him more than that, I still have to pay.”

“Oh,” she said. “I suppose I understand that, but it kind of sucks too.”

“Kids aren’t cheap,” he said. Ty was still watching others golf while he and Kelly were talking and handed in the clubs.

“No,” she said. “They aren’t. Which is why it’s nice to plan if you can, but life doesn’t happen that way, as we know.”

“It doesn’t,” he said. “Are you in a rush to get home today?”

She looked at her watch. It was three. “No,” she said. “I know we didn’t plan on what to do, but I don’t want you to feel as if you’ve got to entertain me and keep me around. No reason to push the whole day on Ty either.”

“I thought for sure you’d want to get ice cream or something,” he said.

“I would love it,” she said. “But didn’t want to bring it up if you didn’t want Ty to have it.”

“Why don’t we go inside and play some video games,” he said. “Ty will love it and it will kill another hour. Then we can get ice cream and see about the rest of the night. He might enjoy watching a movie with us. If you’re up for an animation?”

“I think you just want some company so you don’t have to watch it alone,” she said bumping into him playfully.

“That’s a given,” he said. “But I gave up a long time ago on that too. I can look like I’m watching and enjoying it while my mind is on other things.”

“Like what?” she asked.

“Like my cute girlfriend who is teasing me.”

“Aww, aren’t you just full of sweetness?”

“Now I feel my balls shriveling up inside of me.”

“No reason to feel that way,” she said quietly. “I find it very sexy.”

He squinted one eye at her, but before he could say anything else, Ty came running over. “What are we going to do now?”

“I thought we could go play some games inside,” he said. “Do you want to do that?”

“Yes!” Ty said with a fist pump and ran ahead.

“Good thing you’re so tall so you can keep an eye on him. I can’t see him now.”

“He knows not to go too far ahead,” he said.

They got inside and Michael got a bunch of tokens and Ty led them to all sorts of games and the three of them had a wonderful time. She’d never been good at those types of things and got her butt beat by a four-year-old and didn’t mind in the least.

“Are they all gone now?” Ty asked when he wanted more tokens.

“They are,” he said.

“I could go for some ice cream,” she said. “My treat. Do you like ice cream?”

“I love ice cream,” Ty said. “Soft ice cream with sprinkles.”

“The best kind,” she said.

Twenty minutes later they had their cones in their hands and were sitting on a bench eating. “Can we do this every weekend?” Ty asked. “Or at least when I’m not at Mom’s?”

She looked at Michael. No way she was answering that question even though Ty addressed it to her.

“Kelly isn’t always going to be able to hang out with us,” Michael said. “And you know we don’t go out and do things like this all the time. It was a special day so you could spend time together. We are going to go home and watch a movie after dinner too.”

“I love movies,” Ty said. “This is the best day ever.” He turned to her. “Sometimes Dad has me watching movies or playing by myself when he’s doing things around the house.”

“Adults have responsibilities too,” she said. “We have to clean and do laundry and cook and go to the store. It’s fun to be a kid because you don’t have to do those things.”

“I have to pick my toys up,” Ty said.

“Which is good that you help your father,” she said.

“But if you came over more, then Dad wouldn’t have to do so much because he’d be spending time with both of us,” Ty said.

She licked her cone while she tried to figure out how to answer this. “But I’ve got those things to do too, so this way your father and I can both get them done and then maybe we can do fun things after. But being together can be fun without going somewhere too. Do you like arts and crafts? Or playing in the yard? Maybe baking cookies and decorating them?”

“I’ve never decorated cookies. Or baked. Dad does all the cooking and he buys cookies.”

She smiled. “I like to bake but don’t do it often. Then I have to eat all the cookies myself and I’ll get a bellyache.”

“Can I bake with you?” Ty asked.

“I think that might be fun,” Michael said. “Then I can eat all the cookies.”

“You have to share too, Dad!” Ty said. His cone was melting and running down his hand. She reached over with a napkin to wipe it up and wrapped it around the bottom.

“You’re good at that,” Michael said.

“Just saving you some hard laundry stains,” she said.

“I’m a pro at that,” he said.

Hours later, Ty was sleeping on the couch. They’d eaten a light dinner, just sandwiches that she’d put together for the boys. She was starting to think of them as her boys and had to tell herself to stop it.

Ty picked out a movie called Paw Patrol that she’d never heard of but had to admit it was cute and funny. But he’d fallen asleep before it ended and Michael had said they’d watched it so many times that he struggled to stay awake too.

“Are you going to leave him on the couch?”

“I’m going to bring him to bed,” he said. “I’ll change him and put him in. I’ll be lucky if I can wake him enough to go to the bathroom first.”

“Will he wet the bed if he doesn’t go?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “He’ll wake up if he has to go, but he’s got a strong bladder. Sometimes I have to force him to stand in there and try to go.”

“Must be a boy thing. I have to go if I even hear water running. I’ll clean up while you do that.”

He easily picked his son up and brought him upstairs while she grabbed the bag of chips, pretzels and empty juice boxes and brought it all into the kitchen.

Ten minutes later, Michael came back downstairs and she’d been just scrolling through her phone for things on social media. She was on it all the time for work, but her personal account she rarely posted anything and just read what her friends did.

Most were in relationships and tagging each other or posting pictures with their kids.

She had to admit that she felt as if she was at least getting close to having a really solid relationship with a clear future.

Then she had to remind herself it’d only been a few months. There was no such thing as a clear future.

“Sorry about that,” he said and sat next to her on the couch. “He did wake up and went to the bathroom. I had to steady him as he was going to fall back to sleep. He didn’t even ask about you and I bet he forgot you were here.”

“I won’t take offense to that,” she said, smiling.

“You shouldn’t. I appreciate the fact you tired him out for me.”

“It’s a lot of work, isn’t it?” She supposed she didn’t have a good understanding or appreciation of how Michael balanced it all.

But watching his interactions with Ty only made her love for him grow even more.

“It is,” he said. “Nothing about parenthood is easy. I didn’t expect it to be. Some people make it seem that way.”

“You almost do,” she said.

“Thanks for that. Then no one knows I’m like a duck in a pond.”

“What does that mean?” she asked, frowning.

“Looking calm while my feet paddle like hell under the water.”

“Boy, I know what that is like enough in my life too,” she said.

She hadn’t thought of it in years. Maybe looking on social media right now and seeing high school friends and their lives brought it all back.

Memories of Brian. What she’d loved and lost. How she had to keep it all together for him but internally wanted to break down.

His parents were doing the same thing and maybe she didn’t cut them enough slack either.

The whole thing was a horrible situation that she wouldn’t wish on anyone.

“But not now, right?” he asked.

“No,” she said. “I’d say I’m at a point in my life where I’m balancing it pretty well. You get what you see.”

“The same,” he said. “I’m tired of hiding it. I feel I can be who I want with you.”

She moved over and let him sit on the couch next to her, got under his arm and snuggled. “I want you to always feel that way with me.”

“I want you to feel it too,” he said.

“I meant what I said to Ty. I don’t want you to feel as if you have to do this every weekend.”

“I know,” he said. “I’ll talk to him about it tomorrow. It’s not attainable. There is just too much in life to do. But I do want to be able to have days like this. Or evenings. Maybe you come to dinner and he goes to bed after a movie and we get a couple of hours to just sit here and be. How does that sound?”

“That sounds just about perfect.”

And like the family she always wanted and couldn’t wait to have.