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I chuckled. “For your mother’s sake, I hope not.”
Teddy’s shoulders drooped and his bottom lip puckered. Maybe I could build a bat box out here. If I could convince Tina that it was a good idea.
“She doesn’t like birds,” Callie added.
“She doesn’t?”
“Nope. She thinks they’re creepy.” She shrugged, like this was perfectly normal.
“Did you know that a bat isn’t a bird?”
“Really?” She tilted her head back to look up at me.
“Really. It’s a mammal.”
“I’m totally getting a book about bats from the library this week.”
My heart warmed at the sentiment. She really was a scientist. “Would you guys want to help me build a bat box?”
“A box for my bat?” Teddy bounced on his toes and spun in a circle.
“Yeah. Something like that.”
“What’s that?” Callie asked as we made our way back to the house.
“It’s kind of like a birdhouse.” I pointed to a tree at the corner of the yard. “We could hang it way up high on that tree.” I turned off my flashlight and dropped it back into my pocket. “Want to help me?”
“Can we paint it?” Callie beamed.
Of coursewas on the tip of my tongue, but before I could utter the words, it hit me. I was leaving in ten days. Dammit.But maybe I could convince Tina to let me build and paint one with the kids this weekend. The last weekend I had with all of them. If only I had approached her when they first moved here. Before I showed interested in and accepted this position in New York. Would things be different? Or would knowing who I really was have kept her at a distance anyway?
Irony is a bitch.
I’d never once felt torn about leaving someone I cared about when I deployed. In fact, that was how I knew I wasn’t really invested. So I’d end the relationship and prepare for my stint overseas.
Now? This woman was the one I wasn’t sure I could leave behind? The one I still wasn’t sure I deserved? The one who probably wouldn’t be able to look at me once she knew the truth?
Teddy ran inside yelling, “Mama, we have a house of bats?”
I ran my hand down my face and eyed Callie. “She really doesn’t like birds?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Kinda freaks out. It’s embarrassing.”
My laughter quickly died when Tina said, “No. Absolutely not. No bats in the house, Teddy.”
Never a dull moment around here. That was for sure.
Chapter Twenty-Five
TINA
The picture Kyle had sent,the one of Teddy holding a power drill, made me smile and panic simultaneously. I hoped Kyle realized what he’d agreed to today.
A laugh snagged my attention. Nearby, Callie chuckled at something Sophia said. She’d been talking nonstop for the last two days about the fairy hair Savannah had promised.
Kyle and Teddy were building a bat house, and Kyle promised Callie that she could help paint it when we returned. I, for one, had no interest in having bats anywhere near my home, whether they had their own house or not—was there not a cave nearby where they could sleep?—but he’d been insisting on the project, and it was hard to say no to the man.
“I just hope no one gets injured this time,” Bella said. She and Hattie, Kyle’s sister, sat on the adjacent love seat.
