Chapter 2

Chapter

Two

Victor

“Dad, this is so awesome,” Jeremy, my five-year-old son, said, halfway up the ladder of his new bunkbed.

“I’m happy you like it,” I said, ruffling his hair. My ex-wife, Mary, and I had been a little apprehensive about how our two children would handle me moving out of the apartment over the garage at the only house they’d ever known. So far, they seemed to be taking it well.

“Dad,” Marissa, my eight-year-old, said as she walked into her brother’s room. “I thought you said we could paint our walls.”

“We will, but I only closed on the house yesterday, so there hasn’t been time. I think we should wait until after we’re all settled in first.”

She pursed her lips, and I bit back a chuckle. She reminded me so much of her mother, who would always be one of my favorite people. “But my walls are so boring. They’re white.”

“They are for now, but I promise, you can pick whatever color you want after the holidays.”

“The holidays?” she screeched. “That’s like forever away.” Since it hadn’t even been a week since Halloween, that was a slight exaggeration.

My son nodded his head vigorously. “Forever,” he yelled.

Snickering, I put my finger to my lips. “Shh. Inside voice.”

He scrunched his nose, then stage whispered, “I want green walls. Dad, you promised.”

I held up my hands in surrender. “I did, and we’ll do all the things to both of your rooms as soon as the holidays are over. I want to get the rest of the house in order.”

They both groaned. Not gonna lie, but I’d considered taking a week off work and fixing their rooms completely to their specifications, but Mary had talked me out of it. We’d successfully co-parented the children for the last three years, ever since we’d admitted to ourselves and each other that the love between us had transitioned into the closest of friends, but we were no longer in love.

In that time, we’d given the kids a balanced life, and she was scared if I catered to their every little whim with this new move, that they’d try to get over on me. Since we’d both have them half the week, we planned to keep as many things as consistent as possible. I loved Marissa and Jeremy so much, but I didn’t plan to suddenly become nothing more than the fun parent.

That meant doing things to keep my sanity. I shrugged. “Sorry. I assumed you’d want a Christmas tree and to decorate the front of the house, which means we have to buy all new stuff for this house. I’m not doing that if the rest of the house isn’t in order. But if you want to skip decorating here, then we can?—”

“No,” they both screamed at the same time.

“We’re going to buy all new Christmas stuff for here?” Marissa asked.

“Sure. I’m leaving everything else with your mom, which means we need to shop until we drop.”

I had brought over a box of my own childhood Christmas ornaments, and Mary and I planned to divide the kid’s holiday treasures, but other than that, I’d have nothing. I’d given my ex-wife the choice of her being the one to start fresh, but she was as invested as me in the kids settling in here. Jeremy wouldn’t care as much, but Marissa loved to shop, so we both thought it would go a long way for them to feel comfortable here if they got to help with things like decorating.

Marissa tapped her index finger on her chin, under her lower lip, thinking. Yep, she really was a carbon copy of her mother. “Hm. That makes sense. You’re definitely going to need my help.”

Nodding my head, I agreed. “What would I do without you?”

Rob, one of my best buddies, walked into the room with a large rectangle box in his hands. “You just got a bunch of deliveries, but I think this one is for next door. You want me to run it over there for you?”

“No, that’s as good a reason to meet the next-door neighbor as any.” I looked at the kids. “You want to run this box over with me?”

“Yes,” Jeremy said, jumping off the ladder.

I pointed a finger at him, making a stern face. “I’m going to take that ladder off, and you won’t be able to use the top bunk if I catch you jumping from there.” This was at least the tenth time I’d warned him about that since he’d picked it out at the furniture store. God only knew how many times Mary had said it. I figured he’d probably have to lose it for a week at least once before he stopped.

“Sorry, Dad,” he said, hanging his head and kicking his foot at the carpet.

He looked so pathetic Rob and I side-eyed each other, then he thrust the box into my arms and booked it out of the room. No doubt, he was already laughing.

“Marissa, you coming?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

“Why not, indeed? Let’s go.”

After making the kids get their jackets back on, we made our way out of the house, stopping a couple of times as my other friends and coworkers asked the kids how they liked the new house. Mary and I were lucky to have so many good people in our lives. A few of our friends had questioned our living arrangements when we got divorced, but we’d been confident that we’d know when it was time to change things up. We’d been right.

She’d been dating Paul, who I happened to think was a great guy, for the last year. I’d been pretty confident that he was ready to take things to the next level, and I hadn’t wanted to wait until after he proposed or something to move out and let the children think he’d forced me out. I’d been right. As soon as he heard I’d found a place and made an offer, he’d talked to me about his plans with Mary. He didn’t need my approval, but I’d appreciated the frank discussion he’d had with me and given him my blessing. This next holiday season was going to be full of changes.

“Can I knock, Dad?” Marissa asked as we reached the neighbor’s front porch.

“Ye—” I trailed off as Jeremy pounded his little fist against the door.

Marissa rolled her eyes. “You’re so annoying,” she said to her brother.

“Am not.” He stuck his tongue out at her.

“Are, too,” she insisted.

Jeremy pounded on the door again, opening his mouth to continue arguing with Marissa, when it opened, revealing a scowling man with sandy-brown hair sticking up all over the place. Instead of a greeting, he grunted.

Holding the box up, I said, “This got delivered to my house on accident, but the address on top says it belongs to you.”

If possible, the man’s face contorted to be even scowlier, and his cheeks flamed red. He stretched out and grabbed the box forcibly from my arms, and threw it inside his house. “Thanks,” he muttered, starting to close the door.

“I’m Victor,” I said quickly. “This is my daughter, Marissa, and my son, Jeremy.”

He stopped and stared like he’d never been introduced to someone before. His gaze darted down to the kids and then up and over my shoulder to the right. “I’m Adrian.” Then he shut the door.

Baffled, I stared at the dark wood in the place where the guy had been standing, then glanced at Jeremy and realized we’d both tilted our heads to the left. I snorted. Like father, like son, I guessed. “Well…”

Marissa shook her head. “Guess he didn’t like you, Dad.”

Gesturing them off the porch, I asked, “Why does it have to be me? What did I do?”

“Mom says that the Thompsons don’t talk to us because Mr. Thompson doesn’t like you.”

She had me there, but he didn’t like me because I’d let him know in no uncertain terms that if I ever caught him mistreating his wife like I’d caught him one night years ago that I’d have no problem giving him someone his own size to fight. Since then, they’d stayed away from us, and we’d made sure to keep the kids away from them. Unfortunately, Marissa was a smart cookie, so she’d figure all of that out one day. No reason to rush it. “True. Is it my face?”

Jeremy giggled. “Definitely.” I wiggled my fingers like I planned to tickle-attack him, and he went running. Once inside of our new place, he took off to hang with some of his honorary uncles. I was pretty sure each one would be getting a tour of his room and the cool new bunkbed.

“I’m going to look at the backyard,” Marissa said, heading toward the French doors off the kitchen. That had been the biggest selling point of this house for me. Marissa loved nature, and our home backed up to the woods.

“Don’t leave the fence,” I said. She waved a hand over her shoulder and kept going. I swear she was eight going on eighteen.

Instead of going with her to explore, I headed over to the boxes that had been delivered and started opening them up while I thought about my new neighbor. He was a real cutie pie if I ignored the unexpected rudeness. I wondered what was up with that. Reaching a box that was similar in shape and size to the one we’d taken to Adrian, I slid my hands between the flaps on top and pulled, snickering at what lay within. Toilet paper.

Was that why he’d gone molten lava in the face? How cute was that? Everybody used the bathroom. He couldn’t be over twenty-four or twenty-five, so too young for me, but he was so my type. Grumpy for grumpy sake pushed all my buttons. It was going to be interesting living next to Adrian the neighbor.