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“Are you okay, Mama?” Sierra, always first to be ready for school, asked when she climbed up on the kitchen counter stool.
“I’m more than okay,” she said, leaning forward and kissing her daughter’s cheek. “I have some big news, but we’ll wait until your sister’s here to talk about it.”
“What news?” asked Savannah, climbing up to sit next to her sister. Both of them started firing questions at her.
“Is Mr. Monk coming back?”
“Is he going to live with us, Mama?”
“Will he be our new daddy?”
“Are you getting married?”
“Can we be flower girls even though we’re your daughters?”
“Stop!” Saylor shouted, immediately regretting her tone. “Look, my news has nothing to do with Mr. Monk.”
“Oh,” muttered Sierra. Savannah took a bite of her pancakes.
Saylor attempted her best fake smile. “I got a job offer.”
“What’s a job offer?” asked Savannah.
“It’s when someone wants you to work for them, dork,” said Sierra.
“Hey, now,” scolded Saylor. “That kind of talk isn’t necessary.”
Both girls were looking at her.
“Are you finished?”
They nodded and went back to eating.
“I’m going to be flying airplanes for Uncle Razor’s company.”
Neither girl looked up. Saylor threw up her hands and dug into her own pancake.
“Who’s pickin
g us up from school today?” Sierra asked when they got to the front of the car line.
“I am.”
Sierra looked at Savannah, and neither appeared happy about it.
“HAVE A GOOD DAY. SEE YOU LATER,” Saylor said once they arrived at school. “I love you,” she added, but the car door had already closed behind them.
She went back to the house and thought about trying to pull the dead plants from her neglected garden, but she was crying too hard to see what she was doing. Instead, she sat in the grass, lowered her head, and let the tears flow.
When she felt a man’s hand on her back, she knew it was her brother’s, as much as she wished it was Monk’s.
“What happened?” Razor asked, sitting down next to her.
“He hung up on me.”
“When?”
“You walked into the kitchen and heard me say I loved him too. He’d already hung up. And he didn’t say it first.”
