Page 97 of Knot What I Expected

Mrs. Donnelly picks him up every afternoon because my shift at The Joint overlaps dismissal. I pay her, despite the fact that she tried refusing the money three separate times.

I won.

Mostly because I threatened to find someone else. She called me a stubborn pain in the ass.

Takes one to know one.

And school? School has been great.

His teacher seems to adore him. She was surprised by how well he reads.

That irritated me a little.

Okay.

It irritated me a lot.

I might be a waitress. I might sling burgers during the day and beers at night. I might live above somebody else's garage and drive a car that sounds like it needs last rites every time I turn the key.

But I’m not stupid. And neither is my son.

I taught Matteo to read. I taught him to write his name before kindergarten age.

We read together every night we can.

Books were always the easiest things to carry when we moved. Stories gave us somewhere else to go when our real life felt too frightening.

Dragons.

Knights.

Dinosaurs.

Pirates.

Faraway planets.

Places where monsters could be defeated and good people usually won.

I hope I gave him that love of stories. I hope I gave him something besides fear.

That thought catches somewhere inside my chest.

Because there are things I know I gave him that I wish I hadn't.

The backpack packed with everything precious. The way he asks if we're coming back whenever we leave for more than a day. The fact that he knows how to get dressed quickly when I tell him to.

Things a six-year-old shouldn't have learned. But he’s learning other things now, too.

Friends.

School.

Birthday parties.

Sleepovers.

Normal.