Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
* * *
Gavin talks to Peyton about how she would feel if I spent the night at their house. It’s a conversation he needs to have with her on his own, without her feeling pressured to say what she thinks we both want to hear.
A few days after he talks to her about it—he told me she seemed receptive and okay with me staying over, but I still wanted to give it a little more time before we dive into it—I pick her up from school with the intention of taking her to the park, trying to make the most of it before we get hit with snow.
I run into Lynn in the parking lot. “Hi, Harley! How are you?” She pulls me in for a quick hug.
“I’m good. You?” We head toward the pick-up area.
“Same, same.” Her phone pings with a message, and she checks it before sliding it back into her purse. “I’ve been meaning to invite you over for dinner for months now. Actually, I’ve told Ian to ask Gavin probably half a dozen times, but he always forgets.” She rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling. “What are you all doing tonight? Ian just messaged, apparently he and Gavin have a meeting and it’s literally two blocks away from our place. I know it’s short notice, but we could do something easy? Order pizza and throw together a salad? But only if you don’t already have plans.”
“I was just going to take Peyton to the park. We don’t have anything else going on that I know of,” I tell her.
“Do you want to check with Gavin?” she asks as we push through the front doors.
“Yeah, I can do that.” I type out a quick message, and Gavin answers almost immediately with a thumbs-up and that sounds like a great plan.
“Perfect! Claire has hockey practice until four, but we’ll be home by four thirty if you want to come over after that? And you don’t have to wait for Gavin, just come by whenever.”
“Okay. That sounds great. Peyton and I will pick up dessert.”
“Fantastic. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s been ages since Gavin has been over for dinner.”
The bell rings and kids rush out of the building. Peyton and Claire find us, and we tell them that we’re having dinner together, which makes them both happy. We wave goodbye for now and head for our respective cars.
“Your birthday is coming up in a couple of months. Do you know what you want?” I ask Peyton as we make the short trip to the park.
“If pink ponies were real, I would want one, but since they’re not, I think I want a dog.”
“A stuffed dog or a real one?” I pull into the lot and park the car, holding Peyton’s door open for her as she climbs out of the back seat.
“A real one. I’ve wanted one my whole life, but Granny is allergic to dogs, and she thinks they’re too much work, so we never got one. But now that we live here, we can have a dog.”
“Does your dad know you want a dog?” We head straight for the swings.
“Yup.” She hops up onto a swing and I take the one beside her.
“And what does he say?”
“He says, ‘we’ll see.’” She mocks his deep voice.
I laugh. “And what do you think that means?”
“I don’t know. But he said if I want a dog, I have to prove that I’m going to be responsible and take care of it.”
“Well, that’s true. Dogs can be a lot of work. It’s like having a little kid that doesn’t grow up. They need you to walk them and feed them and play with them.” All things I would love if I didn’t work such long hours.
“I think I would like that.” She pumps her feet. “There’s one thing I want more than a dog, but I can’t ask my dad for that.”
“Why can’t you ask him?”
“Because I asked once before, and it made him … sad.” She twists her lips to the side. “Or maybe he was mad. Mad or sad. Maybe both.”
“What did you ask for?”
She chews on her bottom lip for a few seconds before she finally says, “I wanted a baby brother or a baby sister. That was back when his girlfriend was Trista. I was five. She had a daughter too. Her name was Hilary and she was four. She was fun, and I wanted her to be my sister, but then they stopped seeing each other and I stopped seeing Hilary.”
My heart clenches. “That must have been really hard.”
She purses her lips. “I was sad, and I cried. And so did Dad. But he doesn’t know that I saw him cry. I wanted to give him a hug, but I’ve tried to hug him when he’s been sad before, and he gets more upset and tries to hide how sad he is. So I leave him alone instead.”