Page 8 of The True-Blue Romance

“She’ll want to get a slushy from Tom’s.”

“And she can have one.”

Lee turns toward me in the guest room doorway, all happy puppy eyes. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, sure,” I say with an easy smirk. “If you pay.”

Lee laughs loudly and disappears into the guest room to shower and change. I head into my room, rubbing my hand over my chest. I don’t know why Lee’s laugh does that to me, makes me feel like I could pick a car up and throw it. Savannah’s laugh does the same thing. I’ve given up trying to explain it. Must just be because I love them both the most out of everyone in the world.

By the time we’re both showered and dressed, it’s time to go get Savannah from school. Lee sits in the back seat of my SUV because that’s tradition when he’s with me to pick up Savannah. When the three of us are together, I take a back seat and Savannah becomes the focus of Lee’s world, which has always made me feel something inexplicable that I can’t really explain. It’s lovely to know that my best friends love my little girl almost as much as I do.

I keep glancing in the rearview mirror to watch the excitement on Lee’s face grow the closer we get to Savannah’s elementary school. On her first day of school, he’d joined us, and I’d caught him surreptitiously wiping away tears when we drove away. Lee feels so much but keeps it all buried down as far as he can, where he thinks it’s safe.

As we pull into the car line, I slip the hanging sign onto the rearview mirror so the teachers can see Savannah’s information. Not that I really need it. All the teachers smile and wave as I make my way slowly through the line. I flick my eyes up to the rearview mirror to catch Lee rolling his eyes—he’s always found all the attention I receive annoying. Sure, I’m pretty, but it’s important to not be an asshole. I know I’m good looking, and half of it is my smile and me not being an asshole. That’ll get you very far in life.

Savannah walks out, gripping a teacher’s hand, as I pull up to the front doors of the gym at the car loop. Savannah’s blonde curls glint in the sun and I grin at her while waving. The teacher assists in opening the door while Savannah is busy talking her ear off, only noticing Lee once he’s helping to buckle her into her booster seat.

“Unc-Lee!” she yells while grabbing his shirt and tugging him close for kisses.

My heart swells and my stomach trembles at the sight, so I turn my attention back to the road and guide us out of the school parking lot. Savannah combined Uncle and Lee as a kid, turning his name into “Unc-Lee,” which is far cuter than I ever could’ve imagined.

“It’s a full moon tonight, Mom told me,” Savannah says very seriously.

“Well, I know what that means,” Lee says just as seriously back.

“You have to sleep at our house so that the werewolves don’t get you. Those are the rules.”

“Hmmmm… but I didn’t pack a bag.”

“That’s okay,” Savannah says sweetly, clearly angling to get her way. “You can wear some of Daddy’s clothes.”

“Savannah—”

“You can!”

“I’ll spend the night, sweetheart. I have spare clothes.”

Savannah gasps in clear shock. “But you were arguing!”

“I was teasing,” Lee carefully clarifies. “I’ll stay the night. We’ll have fried catfish and hush puppies for dinner.” The car gets quiet and I can hear Lee leaning forward as I pull onto the county road that’ll take me back downtown to my homely little bungalow that feels a lot more like home when they’re both there with me. “And maybe Daddy will make those double chocolate cookies that we both love so much.”

Savannah gasps again. “Daddy! Please!”

“Maybe,” I say, but really, I’ll make them anyway just to make them both happy.

I pull into the drive-through for Tom’s Diner and order them both dark cherry slushies, not even having to ask Lee his order after all these years and knowing that Savannah will just want the same thing as Lee. I get a blue raspberry slushy for myself. Once we’re back on the road, everyone is quiet as they sip their slushies, and when I pull up back at the house, Lee helps Savannah out of the car and grabs her backpack for her. My heart trembles at the sight of them holding hands and heading inside, no doubt getting ready to head into the backyard to play in the dirt.

“Can I come see the goats this weekend?” Savannah asks before taking a loud sip of her slushy. “I think they miss me.”

I rest my hand on her head. “We’ll have to see if I can do a trade with Mommy so that you can spend Saturday with me.”

“It’s okay. She has a boyfriend, so she won’t mind.”

Well, that’s news. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, he sleeps at the house now.”

“What?”