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Warmth spreads low in my belly. “I mean, we could go back inside…”
“No!” Kit shouts. Standing beside her car with one leg in, one leg out, she points dangerously. “Get in the damn car before Bobby starts crying. Let’s go.”
“They’re so impatient,” I grumble. Shrugging, Jim simply slaps my ass and leads us to the Jeep. “Did anyone think to invite Lindsi and the kids?”
I climb in and turn to find Bean in her rear facing car seat. She’s awake and blowing spit bubbles in the tiny mirror. “Hi, baby girl. I bet you’re probably hungry, too, huh?”
Jim climbs in on his side and huffs. “I find it really fucking weird that you and Lindsi get along so well, Bubs.”
“Why? She’s a nice person. I’m a nice person–”
“Well, the bit about you is debatable.” He grunts in pain when I slam my fist down onto his thigh. “Ouch! I was just playing, psycho. And because she’s his wife! It’s weird.”
“It’s not weird. She’s a cool chick,andsoon to beex-wife.”
“Even so.” He backs out of our short driveway and we start moving forward as a convoy of cars on our narrow private road. “She was,you know… and her children are Bean’s half siblings. It’s just…” He shrugs. “Weird.”
“I get it, I do, but she’s a nice person. She’s not the enemy here. She needs somewhere to stay and her babies need a bed; we have homes and beds. It’s not forever.”
Sighing, he shakes his head. “You’re better than me, Bubs. That’s all I’m saying. I’d never be as understanding as you’re being.”
I turn to the side and take his hand in mine. “I think you underestimate yourself.” He loved me even when I was pregnant with another man’s baby. “I think your capacity to love is better than anyone I know.”
“She’s kinda nice though, I guess.”
I smile at his grumbled admission. He does like her, I know he does. He’s just too stubborn to let on. She’s nice, though quiet as a mouse and content with her own company.
We’ve been able to hang out with her and the kids this past week. Though the rest of the houses remained empty, we still grilled in Bobby’s soon-to-be backyard, hung out, and got to know the small family that suddenly found themselves in unknown territory.
The rest of us had to wait for the trucks, but Lindsi already had everything she needed in her car, and Bobby – the fixer that he is – had beds delivered for her and the kids before the paperwork was signed at the police station.
Benny – that poor soul that has to share his father’s name – is almost five, and Livi will be two in a few months. Despite the fact she’s just a baby, she has sass. Little Livi’s really trying to keep up with her brother.
“So?” I roll my eyes at his non-answer. “Did anyone ask Lindsi if they wanted to come?”
“Yeah, Kit asked while you were inside taking your sweet ass time. She said no thanks. She’s putting Livi to bed soon, then she wants to chill.”
“What are they having for dinner?”
He sighs indulgently. “I don’t know, Bubs, but she’s a big girl and probably knows how to take care of herself. I bet she has it under control.”
I frown. “You don’t have to be salty.”
“That’s seriously the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.Salty. What does that even mean? Call me an ass, or a grouch, orsomething. Salty’s just weird.”
“See what I mean! So salty.” My shaking head turns to a squeal when he reaches across to tickle my ribs. “Stop!” I snort like a pig. He’s turned me into a disgusting snorty giggler like all those bitches I hated in high school. “Stop tickling!”
“Well, stop distracting the driver, Isabelle.” He pinches my ribs one last time. “It’s dangerous.”
At the cutest tinkling giggle sound, I’m up on my knees on the seat and looking over at my happily babbling baby girl. “You’re giggling. She’s giggling!” My ass sways with the movement of the car. “What are you laughing at, Bean? Can’t be Daddy, because he’s not funny. He’s just a pest.” At the hard slap on my ass, I amend, “And salty. So salty it’s obnoxious.”
“Is it weird we never call her Lucy? Bean’s a weird name for a kid to grow up with.”
I turn and flop back down into my seat as we pull into the restaurant parking lot. “I don’t know. It’s not exactly conventional, but Lucy feels weird. Bean justfits, you know?”
Laughing, he pulls the keys from the ignition and studies my face. “Lucyis weird? Probably shoulda thought of that before you signed the birth certificate, dummy.” At my glare, he climbs out of the Jeep and rushes around and opens my door, then he goes to work unravelling all of Bean’s straps. Throwing his arm over my shoulders, we turn toward the restaurant with the hot pink car seat in his hand.
“Why are you people so fucking slow?” Bobby waves his hands at the entrance. “Let’s go. We trainedandmoved four houses worth of shit today. I need food every two hours or my body starts eating itself.”
“I wish you’d eat your own face,” I grumble as we pass. “Nobody stopped you from hounding the server in the twenty seconds it took you to wait for us.”
“Move your ass, Isabelle.”
