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“So should I change the ones in the two bathrooms? I looked under the sinks before. I think they’re getting rusty, too.”
What a kid…wasn’t even asking me to do it. Figured he’d take it on himself after he watched me do one. He took the responsibility of looking after his mother pretty seriously. I was familiar with that and respected the hell out of it.
“That’s a good thought. I’ll check ’em out and see if maybe we should do that together.”
A little while later, his mind had obviously wandered. “Dad would’ve been cursing a lot if he was here.”
“Yeah? Well, between us, I curse sometimes, too.” Translation—a fuck of a lot.
“He gets mad a lot. That’s why he doesn’t like it here anymore.”
I stopped tightening the bolt and looked over at Owen. “All adults get mad from time to time. I’m sure your dad liked it here. It’s just that sometimes people need to be separate to like each other again.”
“Do you live separate from your wife?”
No, but I just ran two-thousand miles to get away from the woman I love.
“I don’t have a wife, buddy.”
“How come?”
“I just don’t. Sometimes it takes people a while to find the right person and know it’s time to get married.” I’m having this conversation with a six-year-old. While under a sink. Both of us shirtless.
“I’m never getting married.”
I chuckled. “That’s what I always said, too. But that might change when you meet the right person.”
After we finished changing the hardware under the sink, the two of us climbed out. Beth was standing in the kitchen and handed us each a towel.
I dried my hands and looked over at Owen. “Thanks for the help, O-Man.”
When my eyes returned to Beth, I noticed hers were not looking at her son like mine were. Hers were focused on my chest. It took a good thirty seconds for her to raise her eyes to meet mine. And then I saw her face.
Shit.
It was an expression I knew well. Mostly because I wore it every time Gia was around. I might’ve been full of myself, but I was pretty sure I knew the I want to lick your body face when I saw it. Normally, it was my favorite face on a woman when I was undressed. But not today. Not with this woman. I grabbed my shirt from the kitchen counter and slipped it back on, attempting to break the heavy feeling I suddenly felt.
“Owen here showed me how to fix the sink. Kid’s pretty smart. Must take after his dad.” I winked.
“Yeah. Mom can’t even fix the remote when the back falls off.” The kid had a great sense of humor for only six.
“Two wise guys. Just what I needed after the morning I’ve had,” Beth said. “What do you say, you go wash up, Owen, and we’ll go grab some lunch.”
“Okay. I’m really hungry!”
Owen took off and left the two of us alone in the kitchen.
Beth tilted her head. “You have a lot more tattoos than you did when I moved out here from New York.”
“Yeah. I’ve slowed down now. But there’s still a few more I’d like to get before my skin starts seeing its sagging days.”
“Trust me, you have a long way to go before that body sees any sag.” She looked down and then up at me. “You look good, Heath. Really good.”
And there went that feeling again. Like I was doing something wrong for her even saying that. It nagged at me, but I didn’t want to be rude. “Thanks. You look good, too.”
Luckily, Owen ran back to the kitchen. I was pretty sure he only had a chance to wash one hand, but he’d live eating dirty. “Mom’s paying…so what do you feel like? Caviar? Kobe beef?”
Owen wrinkled up his nose. “How about Taco Bell?”
“You got it, buddy.”After lunch, where Owen told me one bad joke after another, we went back to their house so I could finish up fixing the faucet. It turned out to be a bigger project than I anticipated, and I wound up going back to the plumbing store a few more times before everything was back in working order. My little buddy stuck to me like glue again.
Beth had been running some errands and came back with two sacks full of groceries. I walked to the door to grab them from her, and when I turned around, Owen had his hands in the air to give him one.
“Owen, I spoke to Jack’s Mom. He wants to know if you want to come over for a little while to play Xbox. He just got some new game.”
His eyes lit up, and then he looked at me. “Are we done?”
“Sure are. Why don’t you go have fun? You did a lot of work today.”
Ten minutes later there was a honk out front and Owen took off. He made it halfway down the driveway before he ran back to me. “Will you be here when I get home?”
