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“Dino nug!”
“Dino nuggets?”
He nodded, playing with a few plastic dinosaurs on the table.
“Did you have a good day today?”
He nodded again but didn’t answer verbally.
“Tell Daddy how you helped me,” Kennedy said, back to doing whatever she was doing with the pie.
“I yeet appppppples!”
I chuckled, his apples sounding like “a-pools.”
“Yes, you ate lots of apple slices, but you also helped me make the dough, right?”
He answered by holding up one of his dinosaurs in her direction. “Roar!”
“Yes, Rex helped too. We all got our hands and claws dirty mixing everything up.”
I swallowed down a bite of chili then grinned at her. Didn’t she see how I’d still be flailing about with a three-year-old running wild without her? Now, I was settled, confident, and so goddamn excited to tell her, “I got some good news today.”
“Yeah?” She washed her hands and turned to fully face me as she dried them on one of the checkered dish towels she’d bought with an embroidered pumpkin on the bottom.
“I’m going to be on the news on Thursday.”
“On TV?” When I nodded, her happy gasp morphed into a screech. “On that same show with…what’s her face?”
I laughed. “Yeah. I’m booked for another segment.”
She threw herself at me, practically sitting in my lap to hug me. “Oh my god!”
I wrapped my arms around her middle and didn’t deny myself the opportunity to curl one of my hands into her hair. “I’m sure they’ll bring up what happened last time, but now that you’re here?—”
“I won’t let anything ruin your interview.” She backed away, her fingers on my shoulders, her eyes drifting back and forth between mine. “I promise. Finn and I will be far,faraway.”
“Not that far, I hope. You’re my lucky charm.”
The tops of her cheeks reddened, and she stepped out of my grasp to place the pie in the oven. “What’re you going to wear? Are you gonna get your hair cut?”
“I haven’t thought about what I’m going to wear,” I said after another bite of dinner. “And is your asking if I’m going to get my hair cut a clue that I need to get my hair cut?”
“Well…yes.” She laughed as she slipped into the chair next to me, and Finn immediately crawled up into her arms. “I’m not saying I don’t like your look, because I do. Most of BookTok, GayTok, and MomTok likes your look, but?—”
“I’m sorry.WhatTok?”
She absently handed Finn one of his dinosaurs when he dropped it then waved her hand in the air. “You know… They’re the different, like, divisions of TikTok, according to what you’re into. Those are the three I’m into.”
“MomTok?” I repeated because that was the one that stuck out to me, and the way she leaned her cheek on Finn’s head sent my heart fucking galloping away.
“I peruse it to see what advice there is for me. I’m not Finn’s mom, but…” She lifted one shoulder and smiled down at him. “It’s not like I come up with all these games and schedules on my own.”
“I never would have guessed you didn’t.”
“You have too much faith in me.”
“You don’t have enough faith in yourself,” I shot back, and she inclined her head, agreeing with my point.
