AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll miss Dad for sure …” He hems and haws for a minute before adding, “But it’s not that. I don’t mind leaving, I just don’t want to go to Illinois.”
“You think we should tell the movers to take our stuff to the Bahamas?” I tease him while pulling him into my arms.
I feel his head shake against my chest before I hear his muffled reply. “How about Alaska? We liked it there, didn’t we?”
Lily chooses this moment to walk into the room. “Yeah, how about Alaska? That would be the coolest! I could finally flip those pancakes and we could go fishing, and skiing, and camping, and …”
“I already told you guys. It wouldn’t be fair to Digger. I’ve caused him enough trouble.”
“But Digger loves us!” Lily maintains. “He gave me all those piggyback rides and was teaching us all kinds of cooking things.”
“I can help him out by driving the golf cart,” Liam adds quietly.
Digger McKenzie stole my children’s hearts in record time. He stole all our hearts. “Why don’t you guys write to him?” I shouldn’t encourage a deeper connection, but I hate to see how they’re yearning for him.
They’ve known their dad their whole lives, but due to Brett’s schedule, they’ve barely spent any time with him. Digger represents more than a father figure to them, he represents stability.
It’s been almost two weeks since my interview with Sophia Sato. Almost two weeks where Digger could have contacted me and told me if he still had feelings for me. No news means no feelings.
“Hey, guess what? Auntie Prisha is going to take you to In-N-Out Burger for supper tonight!” Changing the subject is my only option.
“Can I have a strawberry milkshake?” Lily asks quietly.
“You can have anything you want,” I tell her. “What about you, Liam? Are you going to get a shake, too?”
He nods his head sadly. “Vanilla, I guess.”
“After supper Aunt Prisha and Aunt Sheila are going to take you over to see Dad. That’ll be fun, won’t it?”
“Daddy’s learning his lines for his new movie,” my daughter announces. “He doesn’t have a lot of time to play with us.”
Typical Brett. He can’t “Dad” while he’s learning lines, he can’t do it while he’s getting into character, he certainly can’t do it while he’s filming. That leaves the short time between projects for him to show some interest in his kids. This is the very reason we need to get the heck out of Dodge.
“Your dad is working hard,” I tell them, hoping to instill a small amount of respect in them. Not that Brett deserves it.
“He has a new girlfriend,” Liam announces.
“Really?” I try to feign excitement like my son just told me that Santa Claus was moving in with us. “Well, good for him.”
“I don’t like her,” Lily says. “She’s got huge boobies and barely wears any clothes.”
“She’s really young,” Liam says.
I hate that Brett is already parading his hookups in front of our kids. It’s another nail in his coffin, as far as I’m concerned. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, but you should get that double-double for sure.”
The next two hours are spent half-heartedly cleaning out drawers and cabinets. We all work like automatons, but our hearts aren’t in it. I’m relieved when Prisha finally gets back.
“Hey!” she shouts from the front door. “I brought a surprise!”
The kids run down the stairs like a herd of buffalo are after them. After a few minutes without her saying anything else, I call out, “Is it Thai food?” My stomach rumbles at the thought. I can’t remember having eaten today.
“I hope it’s a little better than Thai food,” comes the deep, sultry voice I feared I was forgetting.
My body fills with chills that grow from tiny little goosebumps to ostrich eggs.
Digger McKenzie is in my house, in California.
Chapter40
