Page 57 of Playing With Temptation

I bet Janis loved that her grandson called her Grammy J.

“Grammy J says that Cole acts just like daddy, too. She calls Daddy Thing One and she calls Cole Thing Two.”

That seared through me, too.

I could totally picture Janis calling her boys Thing One and Thing Two.

Juni swiveled her whole body to face her dad and asked, “Can we get ice cream now, Daddy?”

Daddy.

Jase was a Daddy.

Of course I knew this. He had children, but yeah, knowing it and hearing it were two very different things.

Instead of answering Juni, he opened the door, which was an answer, just not a verbal one, but the kids didn’t mind. They piled through the door.

As soon as I was through the door, Jase stopped me with a hand on my hip.

“You okay?”

No.

I was nowhere near okay.

“Yeah.”

One side of his mouth hitched up.

“Liar.”

I shrugged and made my way to the counter. I didn’t do this to evade further conversation. I did it to stop my son from ordering a triple scoop.

He was a good kid.

The best.

But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to get away with shenanigans.

With ice creams in hand (shake for me) we followed Colson who had beelined it to a table in the back corner.

The kids all bunched together around the curve of the table—Lucas, Juni, then Colson.

Jase and I sat opposite.

This was unfortunate for Juni, because it put her in the middle of the boys. Which meant Colson was leaning in on one side and Lucas from the other side and they were talking about some skate park Colson liked.

I was sipping on my shake, intently listening to the boys. My heart filling with every word they said. My son was smiling, happy to have a new friend. Colson was smiling too, looking like he could talk about his skateboard all day.

On the other hand, Juni didn’t look happy.

“Hey Juni Bug,” I stage-whispered.

As soon as the nickname passed my lips, I froze.

Welp, nothing like a huge serving of what-the-hell-did-I-just-say with a splash of audacity thrown in there for good measure—giving the girl a nickname during our first outing.

“Hey!” Juni exclaimed. “That’s what Granny J calls me. Do you know my Granny J?”