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“Then what?”
His eyes move away from me with a frown. “He told me to shut up, and I popped him in the lip.”
This isn’t the time to laugh, but I want to. I’m kind of proud of him. He’s going to run into a lot of Garrett’s type in the world, so I have to be dad.
“What did we tell you? Use your words, not your hands.”
“He made Jacob cry.”
“I know, buddy, but what if you would have hurt that boy?”
“He hurt Jacob, and you said it’s not all right for people to hurt each other. That if I see it I should do something about it, and I did,” he says with a pout, almost defiant.
“I know. It’s kind of tricky to figure out when you should get involved yourself when you see something wrong, and when to get the people in charge to handle it. I know it can be hard to control your emotions, especially when it’s someone you care about.”
He nods his head, lips squeezed together as if to say, “Yeah!”
Then he says it, and I laugh. “We’ll talk about this some more later, but no more fighting okay?”
“Fine.”
“Jackson.”
“Okay. No more.”
“Good. I am proud of you for sticking up for your friend.” He gives me a big smile at that and a hug. We go back to my place.
In the evening, on the way to The Office, he asks me if he could go over to Jacob’s to play. Said he misses playing with his best friend. I said I wasn’t sure about that yet, but I was working on it. By working on it, I meant everything I’ve done in the past few weeks, including moving out, getting my own place, and filing for divorce, which I did two days ago.
Then he said, “Don’t you miss Jacob’s mommy? You were friends. Jacob and me are friends again. Maybe you could be, too. When you are, it makes everyone happy because then we have more time to play together. Who wouldn’t want more time playing with their best friend, if it makes them happy?”
Out of the mouth of babes. Gotta love this kid. He’s so fucking right. Instead of pulling up in front of The Office, we’re in front of the restaurant. It’s early evening, and the dinner rush hasn’t made it in yet, so it’s kinda empty. The waitress I’m talking to tells me Lacey will be out in a minute. I ask her if she could give us the corner booth at the back, and if it was possible, could she send Lacey out to take our orders, but not tell her it was me. That we want to surprise her.
She smiled and winked at me, quickly agreeing. I only asked she did that because I wasn’t sure if she would come over if she knew who she was going to wait on.
She walks over to our table, pad in hand, a smile on her face, ready to take our order. Her eyes meet mine, and the smile falters but quickly reappears when Jackson cheerfully says, “Hi, Jacob’s Mom!”
“Hi, Jackson.” She smiles at him. “How’re you doing?”
“Good. My dad and I want to know if we can come over to play with Jackson and you?”
She looks at me, brows raised. “Is that what we’re calling it?”
I shrug with a smile. “If that’s what you want, as long as you let us come over and play.” I wink, and she blushes.
Yeah, we might have a chance.
“Do you think you can get a break and sit with us for a minute?”
“Give me a minute.”
She goes to the front and speaks to the waitress. Her boss, Sam, stops her to say something then gives me a look that, if I’m not reading wrong, says I’m going to kick your ass. He pats her on the shoulder then she’s back sitting across from me, next to Jackson.
“I heard what you did today. Thank you for sticking up for Jacob,” she says to Jackson.
He smiles. “You’re welcome. Jackson and I are best friends again.”
“I’m happy for that. You two make a good team.”
