“Daaaaaaaad!” Eric wailed. “Malcom hit me!”
“Hit him back,” he grumbled against my lips before pulling away and yelling up the stairs. “Kinda busy right now!”
“Daaaaaaaaad!” Footsteps thumped overhead, heading toward the stairs.
Slowly, I pried myself away from Trevor’s warm body, from the muscles that held me close and the lips that kept me there. On wobbly legs, I moved around the couch and walked into the kitchen while Eric made a beeline for his dad and threw his hands in the air in frustration.
Trevor got on his level. “You guys need to stop fighting.”
Malcom ran down the stairs yelling, “He said Mom isn’t ever coming back! Tell him, Dad, tell him it’s not true!”
Bella stood at the top of the stairway, tears in her eyes.
I wanted to fix it. God, how did I fix it?
I hated that Trevor was right. They were his number one priority. It would be selfish of me to ask for more, to ask for him to make space for one more when they were barely surviving.
“Bella, sweet.” I beamed up at her. “Do you want to help me make some cookies?”
Eric’s head whipped in my direction. “What kind?”
“Depends.” I crossed my arms. “Are you going to be nice to your brother?”
He seemed to think about it while Malcom wiped the tears on his cheeks.
“Tell you what. I’ll let all three of you help while your dad rests.” I gave Trevor a pointed look. “And while they’re baking, we can pick out a board game.”
“Yay!” Bella cheered.
Both boys shrugged, but I could see the excitement glimmer in their eyes. They were good kids, they were just hurting, and hurting people hurt people, didn’t they?
“Eric,” Trevor intervened. “Apologize to Malcom, please.”
Eric turned to his brother and sighed like the world was against him, his shoulders slumped forward. “Sorry I said Mom wasn’t coming back.”
“It’s okay.” Malcom sniffled. “Don’t you want her to, Eric?”
“No.” Eric said in an indifferent voice. “She used to make us be quiet and sit in front of the TV while she invited her friends over. She never played with us like Dad or Penny.”
I sucked in a sharp breath.
“She’s not good enough for us,” Eric added in a confident voice as he made his way into the kitchen and stared me down. “We need directions.”
And that was it.
I sent Trevor back to the couch and played with the kids. By the time we were done with the cookies, cleanup, and the board game, it was dinnertime. Trevor had fallen asleep at some point.
I ordered pizza.
He slept through it all, so hard in fact, that I walked by several times to make sure he was still breathing. The guy was exhausted, and I wondered if it had more to do with him being a single dad trying to do it all than the fact that he was feeling sick.
The guy probably hadn’t truly slept in years.
I pulled a blanket up over his body and gave a jolt when Bella appeared in front of me. “Are you going to marry my daddy?”
“Uhhhh.” I kept my voice low and smiled down at her. “Honey, your daddy’s wonderful, but we aren’t getting married.”
“Oh.” Her brows furrowed. “But you like him, right?”
