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The song resumes mid-chorus, and Theo jumps right back in like the interruption never happened.
I already know she’s probably going to be pissed off and text something passive-aggressive about how it “only takes two seconds to answer.”
She’s off work today, which means she wants my attention.
And she knows it’s my days with Theo.
I grip the steering wheel a little tighter and keep my eyes on the road.
My phone lights up again on the console and I don’t even glance at the message before putting my phone on do not disturb.
“Daddy!” Theo shouts from the back. “Turn it louder!”
“Yes, sir,” I say, bumping the volume up another notch.
If Veronica wants to talk, she can wait until after I’ve made dinner, done bath time, read three books, and listened to Theo tell me why dinosaurs would win against sharks in a fight.
Chapter four
Blaire
“How was T-ball?”
Jamie’s already in my classroom when I walk in, of course she is.
She’s been teaching a year longer than I have and somehow still shows up every morning with as much enthusiasm as a first year teacher on the first day of school.
“It was good!” I say, forcing energy into my voice as I set my bag behind my desk. “Theo got a goal. Point. Whatever they call it. He actually ran in the correct direction this time and didn’t pick his nose on the field.”
“And how was Simon?” she asks, eyebrows wagging. I groan and grab a stack of graded worksheets just to have something to do with my hands.
“He showed up with hickeys,” I mutter.
Jamie gasps dramatically. “No.”
“Yes.”
“Like obvious?”
“Like a freshman after homecoming.”
She bursts out laughing.
“It wasn’t funny.” I say, even though the corner of my mouth twitches. “It was embarrassing.”
Jamie’s been my biggest support outside of my family.
I found out I was pregnant right after finishing college. Didn’t even have a job yet since I couldn’t start teaching until Theo was ten months old. Jamie was the first person to welcome me to the school. She’d already had a son, Hudson—two years older than Theo—and she’d been doing it alone from the start. Her ex is a mess. In and out of jail, other kids in other places, toxic when he is around.
Compared to her situation, mine looks almost ideal.
“You know,” Jamie says carefully, “it’s okay to be frustrated even if he’s a good dad.”
I nod, because that’s the part that’s hard to explain to people.
Simon isn’t a villain. He’s dependable, responsible, involved.
After the shock of finding out I was pregnant wore off, Simon stepped up. He signed up for parenting classes with me. Sat through weekly family therapy and still goes if I think we need to.
