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“Hmm?”
I hesitate. We’ve said we’re not going to rush into things. But I’ve been dying to say these words for six years. Seven years, actually. It’s been that long. And besides, if I’m going to bring up the conversation Ryle and I had today, if I’m going to bring it up in hopes that she’ll say yes to getting married, I have to say it and the sooner, the better.
“I love you.”
“Truman.”
She squeezes her eyes closed again, and she makes this little noise, and I’m not sure if it was a laugh or a sob. I hold my breath and wait what feels like a million years before she opens her eyes again. Her lashes are wet with tears. I should’ve waited. I shouldn’t have pushed it. She’s going to run—
“I love you, too.”
She ends the call before I can say more, and I sit on the edge of my bed. Stunned. Elated.
“Daaadd!”
I jump to my feet and toss the iPad on the bed. I think I might have a cookie and some milk with Ryle. I find him at the counter on his knees, waiting for me. He’s wearing his Handy Manny pajamas, even though he deemed them too childish last night.
He watches me stick four cookies on a plate in the microwave.
“Why four?” he asks as I get the milk out.
“Two for you and two for me,” I tell him.
“Mom doesn’t zap them.” He sounds worried. I glance at him and see him watching the microwave.
“We’ll have to teach her to do that,” I tell him. “Then they’re gooey and warm like straight from the oven.”
“Grandma gives them to me like that.”
“Of course she does. Who do you think taught me to microwave them?”
I have no idea if my mom taught me that, but it seems possible.
Ryle grins.
“I wish Mom was here.”
“Me too.”
We’re having fun, but by now, I’m sure Ryle is missing Julie. He’s never been away from her for so long at a time.
“Is she having fun?”
“She told us she is, remember?”
“Is she tired?”
“I think so.”
“Tired of being my mom?”
I freeze at the microwave and turn back to him. “Why would you say that, Ryle?”
He shrugs. “Maybe she’s giving me to you now. So I can live with you.”
Oh boy.
I take a deep breath, get the plate from the microwave, and put it on the counter by my little boy. All that talk today made him seem so much older, but right now, he’s a sad, scared little boy who misses his mom, and doesn’t know how to tell his dad how much.
