Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 55769 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55769 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
He was in his bedroom, about to call Shirleen to get her take on the evening, when there was a knock on the door.
“Yeah?” he called.
Judith opened the door and peeked her head around. “Can we talk a second, Dad?”
“Always,” he answered, throwing out an arm to invite her to sit with him on his bed.
As she came his way, he gave consideration to the consolidation of the households.
He liked his place in Stapleton. There was a ton of greenspace. It was small, a newish build, so upkeep was minimal. And he’d given Judith free hand in decorating it, so his girl was all over the place.
This included his bedroom, with the long, black headboard she’d selected that went well beyond the mattress on either side. There were also cubbies on either side for books and shit, free floating shelves in front of them for you to put other shit, and built-in gold lamps above the cubbies with swinging arms so you could aim them over your book, or out of the way.
She’d rested some cool African-inspired art on the ledge at the top along with some family photos.
And she’d found this dark-brown leather bolster she’d instructed him to rest his plethora of pillows against at the head when he made the bed. He hadn’t been big on that bolster at the time of purchase, but now he couldn’t deny, it looked good.
On the other hand, Shirleen had at least a thousand more square feet, and the place was stamped with her. Glamor and attitude and in-your-face-take-me-as-I-am style. He liked that style. He liked her. He liked being in her space.
It was going to be interesting to see what they decided.
“I gotta warn you about Mom,” Judith announced when they were both sitting on the bed, Moses with one bent leg up on the mattress, turned to her to give her his full attention, Judith cross-legged, angled his way.
He expected her to dish on her newly love-struck sister, not warn him about their mother.
Shit.
“What’s happening, sweetheart?” he asked, with practice, keeping his impatience for their mom out of his voice.
“Well, obviously, we had to dress nicer for Bastien’s, which we did, and she noticed, and she asked why, and…I don’t know. I don’t know why I told her. It was my decision. I figure I told her because, first, she gets stupid when we keep things from her.”
Judith, the eldest, noticed more of her mother’s bullshit when it was happening.
Alice had baby birds that had fallen out of their nests to save, and bullies on the playground to tell off. She noticed it. But it took longer to dig under her skin than it did Judith.
“You shouldn’t call your mom stupid, honey,” Moses rebuked gently.
“She acts stupid sometimes, Dad. It should be called what it is.”
She wasn’t wrong. He didn’t want his daughter to speak of her mother that way, but she wasn’t eight anymore. She was nearly grown. Every day, she got closer to becoming the woman she was going to be. As much as he wanted to freeze them as his babies forever, he had to let her bloom into whoever that was.
On this thought, his phone rang. They both saw the screen said Shirleen Calling.
“Two seconds,” he said to his girl, then took the call. “Baby, I’m talkin’ with Judith. Call you back.”
“Okay, darlin’. Since it’s probably on your mind, just to say, all good here. But talk soon,” she replied, and he heard the disconnect of her giving him what he needed before he did it himself.
Yeah, he had to figure out how to come home with Shirleen.
He put the phone down.
“I like her for you,” Judith whispered.
He felt his chest get hot. “Sweetheart.”
“I hate you alone when we’re not here. You’re too good of a guy to be alone.”
Right, enough of this mature adult dad and maturing-to-an-adult daughter shit.
He pulled her out of crossed legs and shifted them into the bed, him against his big pillows and leather bolster, his girl tucked to his side with her head on his shoulder.
“Talk to me,” he demanded.
“Okay, so I told Mom we were meeting you and your new girlfriend and her sons. It was after, when we talked about it in the car, that Alice agreed it was the right thing to do. I mean, obviously, since you wanted us to meet her, she’s going to be around awhile.”
“She is,” he confirmed.
“So Mom’s eventually gonna find out.”
“She would.”
“And I think she’s mad about it.”
He sighed.
She pushed up and looked down at him. “But again, Dad, stupid. She’s married to another guy. Why can’t she just move on?”
“I don’t know, honey,” he muttered, hating he didn’t have the answers, and pissed at his ex because she was still finding opportunities to put him in that place. He gave his girl a squeeze and shared, “I’m glad you and your sister are smart enough to read this for what it is. And I love how sweet and interested you were in Shirleen, Julien and Roman.”