AllFreeNovel
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I take the phone off speaker and hold it to my ear. “Thank you for agreeing.”
“Of course, girl! He’s so precious! Just text me the address and I’ll be over in a minute.”
“See you then.” Hanging up, I text the address to the 800 number, and she reacts with a thumbs up. “Alright, sweet boy. What are we eating?”
He pretends to think about it before yelling out, “Pizza!” Sounds good to me. I shot Josie a text, asking her favorite pizza. She responds with ‘I’ll eat whatever!’ so I ordered a large stuffed crust pepperoni and bacon, and a thin crust meat-lovers.
A little over twenty minutes later, Josie knocks on the door with the pizza in her hand. “Hey, girl! I pulled up at the same time as the pizza, so I figured I’d just pay and bring it up.”
“Oh my God. You didn’t have to do that!” I take the boxes from her, placing them on top of my dining table. “But thank you!”
She closes the door behind her, saying “It’s not a big deal. I like helping in little ways.”
Rellick comes running out of his room. “Ms. Josie! You’re here!”
Josie holds her arms out and Rellick runs into them. They hug each other tight as though they’ve known each other for their whole life. “Of course, I’m here! I loved hanging out with you at Jump Park!” She moves in closer to his ear and loudly whispers, “I think your mom is pretty cool, too.”
I pretend I cant hear them while I make Rellick a plate, cutting up his slice of pizza. I place it on the table and move to the kitchen, grabbing a yoo-hoo for him. “Want anything to drink, Josie?”
“Whatever you’re having is fine.” I grab two Sprites and move to the table. Josie makes a plate for herself, and I follow. We sit around the table, talking while we eat. “So, Rellick. What’s your favorite color?”
“Blue,” he says with a mouth full of food. “Mommy’s likes red. What’s yours?”
She thinks for a moment. “Hmm. Yellow? I like all the colors, but if I had to choose? I think it would be yellow.”
He nods his head and I smile to myself. I love that she’s speaking to him like an adult rather than a child. The Sins are also doing that too and it doesn’t happen often. Even the other ‘teachers’ at the daycare treat them like they’re babies rather than children going to school in the next year.
I tune back into the conversation to hear Josie say, “I have seven brothers.”
“Holy fuck,” I whisper at the same time Rellick says “wow!”
She nods her head. “Yeah, it can be pretty frustrating being the only girl.”
“The only girl?” Josie’s eyes close for a moment, her smile turning sad when they open again. There seems to be a story behind it, but I won’t ask in front of Rellick.
The small talk returns to shallow randomness until Rellick is finished eating. “Wanna play Lego with me? We can build a castle!”
“Sure!” Rellick runs to his room, coming back with his box of Lego blocks. He and Josie play on the floor of the living room while I put away the food.
Watching him play with another adult makes me wish that he had more child friends. I don’t allow the children at the daycare to come to my home, as I don’t want parents to know where we live. The amount of creepy dads or “Karen” moms is astronomical.
I lower myself to the floor and build with them. Rellick is building an actual building with structure rather than just stacking bocks. Maybe Josie is right in her career choice of helping others create.
After about half an hour, Rellick begins to rub his eyes. I know what that means. “Alright, sweet boy. I think it’s time for bed.”
“No, Mommy. I’m playing with Ms. Josie! We’re building Lego!” The whine in his voice gets more prominent with every word. For a minute, I wished Sleepy was here to help me put him to sleep. I love his help.
I love him… and half the other sins as well.
God, I’m fucked.
I lift Rellick up onto my hip and kiss his forehead. “We can ask Ms. Josie to come back another day.”
His eyes begin to water, causing Josie to stand. “Hey! I will totally come back to play with you whenever you want. Okay, buddy?”
Rellick nods his head, and they give each other a hug. After that, Rellick is easy to put to sleep. We brush his teeth and change into his pajamas. I turn on a random show on his TV, making sure he’s tucked in, then head back to the living room.
Josie is sitting on the couch with a glass of my cheap red wine. “I didn’t mean to snoop. I was looking for water and saw the wine.” She points to another glass on the end table, and I gratefully smile at her, taking it with me as I sit. “He’s such a great kid, Bree. You’re doing an amazing job.”
