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“Hey, Beautiful. How was your day?” he asked.
“It was fine,” I said, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. So far, so good. “Thanks for asking. How was yours?”
“It was ok but something has come up. Would you be ok with a slight change of plan?” he asked nervously.
I knew it! He is totally bailing,I thought before he continued.
“So, I had planned on Sloane and Harry watching the kids for us, but Harry just called and Sloane has a nasty case of strep throat, soooo since they are not an option, and I really want to see you, how does pizza and a movie with the kids at my place sound?”
I was so relieved that I could’ve cried.
“Pizza and a movie sound great,” I said, a huge grin spreading across my face.
“Awesome. And I know you just got off work so no rush. Take your time. Kenz and I will be here when you are ready. Oh, and tell Luca I have a surprise for him,” he said excitedly.
“A surprise?” I saw Luca smile when I said this, and I wished I had taken the call in the other room. Getting up off the couch, I walked into the kitchen and put my hand over my mouth to muffle the sound. “Zane, you really didn’t have to do that. You’ve done so much already.”
“I wanted to.”
“... Okay. But—well—just please don’t go to too much trouble. I don’t want Luca to think that he gets a toy or something every time he sees you…”
“Right, no, of course not… Don’t worry,” he said, although he sounded a little nervous all of a sudden. “It’s not a big deal really. Just a little dumb thing I picked up at the store earlier.”
“Okay then,” I said. “We’ll be over in a little bit.” We hung up the call, and I went to go sit back down on the couch.
I was still a little uncomfortable with the whole thing, but I tried to remind myself that it was a good thing how much Zane wanted to be there for my son. I was grateful for all that he’d done, for both me and Luca, but I also knew that eventually, we would have to move out and find a place of our own. I couldn’t expect Zane to continue taking care of us, it was too big of a burden, and I refused to become a charity case.
A little later, I took a shower and threw on some cute but comfortable leggings and a fuzzy oversized sweater. I had to admit, this is way better than having to put on makeup and fancy clothes. Not that I wouldn’t do that for Zane, I would in a heartbeat, but this was nice. Plus, I got to spend the evening with Luca as well, and I could tell he was excited for “our” date night at Zane’s. He packed his favorite superhero backpack full of his favorite things that he just “knew” Zane would want to see and we headed down the hall. I had to speed walk to keep up with Luca. His excitement was contagious. I knocked on the door and Zane answered a few seconds later.
“Oh hey, you made it,” he said with a smile. “How was traffic?”
I laughed. “No traffic at all.” I offered him my cheek and he kissed me, then invited us inside. I could tell he’d tidied up a little for us, which I thought was very sweet. “The place looks great.”
“Yeah, I did a little cleaning,” Zane said. Then his eyes widened and he looked at Luca. “You don’t have dirt on your shoes do you?”
“Uh—” Luca started to pick up his feet and check, but before he could say anything else, Zane picked him up and tossed him over his shoulder.
“Oh my god, he’s got the dirtiest shoes in the world! I can’t let him walk around like that.” Luca laughed and screamed as Zane spun him around the room. “I’m going to have to hold him up the whole night.”
I smiled. “Yeah, you just might have to.”
“My shoes are clean! My shoes are clean!” Luca said, and Zane chuckled and put the kid back on the ground. “See!” Luca lifted his foot up in the air. “No dirt.”
Zane pretended to scrutinize the shoe and nodded. “Yeah, okay. They look pretty clean. I guess you can walk around on your own. Now, I can’t remember, did you want us to have pizza for dinner or broccoli?”
“Pizza,” Luca said.
“Really? Huh. I could’ve sworn you said broccoli.”
“No! I want pizza!”
Zane clapped his hands together. “Okay, pizza it is. Good thing I checked, or else, I might’ve ended up just ordering three massive plates of broccoli.” He smiled at me, then Luca pulled on his sleeve and asked if he wanted to see what toys he brought over.
“Sure, buddy,” Zane said. “Let’s go sit in the living room and we can play until dinner.” The two of them walked over to the living room and sat on the floor. I sat in the chair next to Kenlee’s playpen and made funny faces at her.
“Look,” Luca said, pulling his action figures out one by one. “I brought my Batman and Spiderman to show you. Do you like them?”
Zane looked at Luca and in a very serious tone said,, “Luca, these are the coolest superheroes I have ever seen. Thank you so much for bringing them to show me. Do you know what else I think?”
