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“I kissed her.” Justice blurted it out as we were sitting on the couch watching the evening news after dinner.
“What?” I jerked away from the screen where one disturbing crime after another rolled, more taken aback by what he said than by the evil capabilities of my fellow citizens. “When?” And why hadn’t I done it first? Or second? Or at all?
“Yesterday. I came home and ended up sitting with her on the patio, sharing a glass of wine.”
I had been inside, bathing Koby. Unlike tonight, he’d agreed to let me do it. “When I was putting Koby to bed. But how did it happen? I didn’t think—that is, did she like it?”
He blinked at me, smirking. “If you’re asking if I’m a good kisser, you’ll have to check with Livvy. But if you want to know if she slapped me or told me not to do that again, the answer is no. So I assume she liked kissing me.”
“That’s great.” It was a step in the right direction. “Do you think I should do it next?”
“I don’t know. It wasn’t part of a grand plan or anything. You said we should come in for dinner, and we stood up and then…well…it happened. And, Sloan, she feels about as great as I thought she would. She’s so soft and cuddly and I really hope we can get past this in-name-only thing.”
“Me, too.” I threw my head back against the sofa. “I am thinking of her at work and dreaming of her at night. But we were the ones who set the terms. And she’s seemed perfectly fine with them.”
“True, she has.” He stayed silent for a moment before going on. “But I’m not. And I don’t think she is truly. She kissed me back.”
“I need to come clean.” The bath noises were quieter now, and she was probably drying him before bundling him into his pj’s. “I almost kissed her the other day. I chickened out.”
“Maybe don’t next time?” He winked. “Or are you afraid you won’t come out well in comparison?”
“I’ll have you know, I can kiss with the best of them,” I began to protest, but the sound of Livvy’s footfalls in the hallway shut me down. “We need to talk to her.”
“Soon,” he agreed.
Chapter Twenty
Livvy
Some people liked the rain. Those people were lovely. And didn’t have toddlers with the energy of a lightning bolt.
“Why it has to wain?” he asked, pressing his sweet little nose against the windows that I had cleaned the day before. “Why? Why you have to wain?”
His favorite question. At least he was asking the outside now and not me. I had explained rain until I hurt.
I pulled out a puzzle and began flipping all the pieces to reveal the picture side. “Whatcha doin?” he asked, turning around.
“Seeing if I can put this puzzle together.”
“You can’t. I wost a piece. It’s gone. Like this.” He made a whooshing sound and moved his fingers.
“You made it disappear?” I asked, feigning awe.
“No. I wost it.”
“Okay, well, how about drums? Have you ever played pot drums?”
He giggled and shook his head.
“Well, let’s get to it. New things.”
Koby and I lined up pots upside down and I gave him two wooden spoons. He plopped down in my lap, because thunder, and bashed on those things until his tummy rumbled. I would have to keep that one in my entertainment lineup. He beat those pots to death for almost two hours. He beat my sanity into the ground, too, but it was okay.
“What do you want to eat today?” I asked as I put the pots away. He helped me. It was nothing like how Justice and Sloan arranged them. I would have to fix that later.
He shrugged and went to stare at the windows, begging Mother Nature to quit her crying. “Snack tray?” I asked.
“What’s that?”
