Page 89 of The Stand-In


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She snorts. “It’s been so ingrained in me to be polite, to never make a scene. But fuck that. Maybe I should make a scene more often, especially when it comes to something I care about.”

“Fine by me. Now, are you going to tell me why you’re so tired?”

“My mother called today after I left the office. She’s always exhausting. Today, she was crying because her husband has been ignoring her, and she feels lonely.” London rolls her eyes. “She only calls me when she needs to be tended to. It’s really annoying and zaps the energy right out of me.”

“Maybe don’t answer the phone.”

Her eyes find mine again as I shrug a shoulder. “If she’s going to be that way, you’re not available. Save the energy.”

“You know, that’s an excellent idea.”

“I have something for you,”I inform Caleb the next night. We decided to start trimming the trees in the game room, and Caleb just hung the last ornament on his tree.

“It’s not even Christmas,” he says with excitement.

“I know, but this is important and goes along with what we’re doing.” I pass him the small red gift bag with gold tissue paper. “You can open this one now.”

It only takes him seconds to pull out the ornament I found for him when London and I were in Montana.

“It’s a controller,” he says, frowning. “But I can’t tell what kind.”

“It’s the original Nintendo controller, from way back in the day. Even before my time.” I laugh when his eyes get really big. “I thought you could add it to your tree.”

“This isawesome. Thanks, Drew.” He runs over and adds the ornament to the tree, and I look over to see London watching me.

“I found it in Montana,” I tell her. “Decided he needed it.”

“Thank you,” she says, her face all soft and gooey. The way to this woman’s heart is definitely through her kid. “I have to go make a quick phone call. I’ll be back in a few.”

“Mom, do you like where I hanged it?”

“Hung it,” she corrects him. “And yes, it looks great.”

London leaves the room, pulling her phone out of her pocket as she goes, and I decide now is the perfect time to have a talk with Caleb.

“Can I ask you something?”

Caleb looks over at me. “Sure. What’s up?”

Why does the kid sound thirty?

“Well, first, I want to tell you that I love your mom a lot.”

“Yeah, me, too.” He nods. “She’s pretty cool.”

“But I love you, too, Caleb. Not just your mom.”

That has him going quiet and his eyes sobering as he watches me. “You do?”

“Yeah. You’re a really great kid, and I like being around you both. So, I wanted to take a minute when it was just you and me to talk to you. Man-to-man.”

Caleb raises his chin and sits on the ottoman opposite of me. “Okay.”

“How would you feel if I stayed here sometimes? Like, overnight?”

“Why wouldn’t you just stayallthe time?”

I can’t help but smile at that question, already feeling a huge relief. “That’s a good question. If your mom and I decided that it was a good idea for me to move in here with you guys, would that be okay with you?”

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