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I havea pile of French toast staying warm in the oven, bacon on the stove, and I’ve just cracked a dozen eggs to whisk up for scrambled eggs when a sleepy Caleb pads into the kitchen, rubbing at his eyes. His dark hair is askew from sleep, and when he sees it’s me, he pauses.
“You stayed?”
“Yeah. Your mom was upset, and I didn’t want to leave her.”
He frowns, and if I’m not mistaken, it looks like the light of a new day has his conscience taking over.
Good.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask casually, whisking the eggs with a fork.
“I just wanted her to come home.” He’s sitting on a stool, tracing a line on the marble countertop with his fingertip.
“How come?”
“Because I don’t like it when she goes without me.”
“Your mom told me that she goes to New York a few times a year, for fashion week and to check on her businesses there.”
“Yeah, but that’s different.” He shrugs his little shoulders. “It’s business.”
“And why was this different?”
I set the bowl of eggs aside and lean on the counter, giving Caleb my undivided attention.
“She went withyou.”
“Yeah, she did. And that made you mad.”
“I don’t see why I couldn’t go, too. We always do stuff together, and you just pushed me out. Is that how it’s going to be now? You’ll push me out because no one wants a kid hanging around when they want to bang that kid’s mom.”
“Hold up.” I raise a hand and scowl at the boy. “Where in the hell did you hear that?”
“My friend, Jacob. Same thing happened to him with his mom. He said his stepdad came in and made it so his mom doesn’t want to hang out with him anymore. All they wanna do is have sex.”
“Caleb, do you know what sex is?”
He screws up his face in confusion. “No, but they do it all the time, Jacob said. So, you were nice to me for a while, but now you’ll push me out. And that’s not fair. I was here first.”
“Yeah, you were. Caleb, it was forone night.And even if we had wanted to go for longer, your reaction wasn’t fair. I’m not trying to kick you out of anything. Hell, this isyourfamily. I’m just trying to get to know your mom better. I really like your mom. And I like you, too. But sometimes, we need some alone time so we can have grown-up conversations and talk about you behind your back.”
That makes his lips twitch.
“It’s like when you’re with your friends. You don’t always want your mom to be hanging over your shoulder, watching everything you do, right?”
“No, but sometimes it’s fun to have her around.”
“Exactly. Although, this is a little different because we like to have you aroundmostof the time. There will just be moments here and there when we do things without you. It doesn’t mean we don’t like you or love you or think that you shouldn’t be a part of things.”
He takes a deep breath, thinking that over.
“But what if, later, you decide that you don’t want me around anymore?”
“Not gonna happen, bud. You and your mom are a family.”
“Maybe you want to be part of our family.” It’s a whisper, and he looks up at me with hopeful eyes.
“Is that whatyouwant? Because your actions last night said something very different.”
