He nods and shoves the last bite of his cone into his mouth, smiling around the thick chocolate base and crunch of the cone. It makes me happy that he gets enjoyment out of my gift. It’s one of the few things I can do to thank him.
As soon as he’s done, his smile fades. He runs an assessing glance all over me, hovering especially over bruises or injuries. I know what’s coming before he can open his mouth.
“Are you going to tell us what happened after we left?” I notice he saysus. Though Dax isn’t here, he’s letting me know he’ll be reporting every word back.
“I don’t think now is a good time,” I say and pointedly glance at the kids.
He sucks in a breath to argue, but TJ beats him to the punch.
“Daddy punished Juju because he’s bad.” He slurps a spoonful of vanilla. “He had a food fight too.”
Shit, they saw all of that? I thought he’d only been looking for a second.
Aiden’s brows shoot straight up. “Food fight? Ah the groceries,” Aiden sighs, putting two and two together in the wake of my silence.
I nod.
“He punished you for the groceries? Why?”
I can’t hide it now, but I can tell it quickly. Rip the band aid off. “I thought I could sneak them in. He caught me. If I told him the truth about where I got them, he’d have…”What? I have suspicions, but no concrete evidence that he would have done anything differently. He wanted that fight today. He’d have used any excuse. “I don’t know…”Accused me of all the same shit, probably, only, instead of sleeping with Charlie and Koko, I’d be Dax’s whore.I shake my head. There is no point trying to explain any of that. “So, I lied and said I stole the money and bought them.”
“Why? Is it a charity thing? Pride?” He’s asking if my dad is too proud to accept their gift. What a joke. My dad would exploit it — them and me — for more.
“Pride? My dad? Are you kidding? My dad has no pride. He’s a selfish, no good…” AJ scratches at his wrist. The frantic back and forth of his nails create little red tracks, so I stop and breathe hard before continuing. “My dad isn’t a nice man. He thinks my earnings are his. We need permission to buy food.”
“Is that why your cupboards and fridge are bare?”
He must have looked while he was in there. I nod again.
“And why you earn breakfast…for the kids?”
Another nod.
“When was the last time you ate something?” he asks knowingly.
I shrug.
“Today? Yesterday?” he drives. I punctuate each query with a headshake. He pushes his seat back from the table and gets up. “Wait here.” He marches outside and turns left before vanishing from view. No doubt he’s buying food. I don’t think I could eat anything right now. Even the float feels too heavy.
“Juju?” TJ’s voice shakes me out of my head.
“Yeah?”
“Can I get another?” I want to say no. They need proper food, not sugar, but after the day we’ve had, I can’t bear the thought of denying them anything. Even if I know one of them will inevitablypuke by the time they’re done.
“Sure, but I need you to listen to me first, okay?”
“Okay.” He crosses his arms in front of his chest like a little man, and I fight the urge to laugh. He’s showing me he’s taking our chat seriously and I don’t want to demean that.
“About what happened…what Daddy asked you to do.” Both boys clam up and look anywhere but at me. Casey has no idea what’s going on. She’s too busy hunting the chocolate drops out of her bowl of ice-cream soup. “He asked you to do something bad,” I continue.
“He made us hurt you,” AJ voices.
“Yes, that’s what he wanted, but that’s not what you did. You know that, right?”
“We stomped on you,” AJ insists.
“I know, and you should never stomp on someone deliberately…but…just this once, it was a good thing. Yousavedme. Both of you. Daddy was going to hurt me really bad, and you both saved me.”
