Page 37 of Penalty Kill

I smiled. “You’re right. Good job.”

He paused and looked up at me. “I need help.”

“N is next.”

He nodded, but didn’t write it. “Can you show me?”

I pulled a piece of paper toward me and drew a lower-case n. His brows scrunched together.

“That’s not what my teacher’s look like.”

Huh. Maybe she showed him the uppercase version? I drew that one and he perked up. “Yeah! That. Sometimes I do it wrong.”

“Here, you can trace mine a few times, then write it on the card.”

I slid the paper to him, and he carefully drew over my letter twice before pushing it out of the way. He wrote two perfect N’s on the card then looked up at me.

“That’s it. You did it!”

His smile took over his face. “Yay!”

“Do you want to write anything on the inside?”

He tapped his marker on the table. “Go Daddy and Olli.”

I had to bite my lip to keep from smiling. I loved that he had a favorite player already. He probably liked him from knowing him in the real world, but it was still cute. I was sure Olli would be happy when he found out.

“Do you want bubble letters like Milo’s so you can color them in?”

He shook his head. “I want to put stickers on.”

I wrote out his request and then passed it back. “All set for you.”

“Thanks.” He loaded the card with every variety of sticker, then leaned back. “All done.”

“It looks so good. He’s going to love it.”

He smiled and went to meet Milo on the carpet. I put the cards in the makeshift envelope and taped it shut.

I got down to play with them and several minutes passed before Brandon walked in.

“Hey, guys. What are you doing?”

They jumped up and ran to give him hugs.

“We’re playing race cars,” Milo replied. I was worried for a moment they would share our secret, but they seemed to have moved on already.

“Great. Sydney, can I talk to you for a second?” He didn’t seem as stressed as before, which was a good sign. I stood and followed him down the hall while the boys went back to playing.

“What’s up?” I asked, hoping this wasn’t a serious conversation.

“I didn’t mention this before, but while I’m away you’ll sleep in the guestroom so you’re closer to the boys.”

“Yeah, like I did last time.” It wasn’t like I was going to let them sleep in this huge house by themselves.

“Right, of course. Sorry, my head is in a million places. I should have assumed you were more on top of things than me.” The worry had returned, wrinkling his forehead.

“Is everything okay?”