Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 69919 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69919 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“I know she misses you,” I said. “But what she’s doing is really important, so we have to support her.”
“What does that mean?”
His dark hair hung down to the tips of his long eyelashes, and I reminded myself again to take him to my barber for a haircut as soon as possible.
“It means you and me have to help each other out while she’s away. Like how you helped me with the dishes earlier.”
I figured the busier he was, the less he’d miss Emma, so I’d asked him to unload the dishwasher and fold towels earlier. The towels were already folded, but I unfolded every single one I could find in the linen closet and we’d refolded them together. He’d learned to fold towels and put away dishes; I’d learned that everything takes three times longer when you’re doing it with a kid’s help.
“I want some orange soda,” he said.
Upside. When he talked about missing Emma, he never lingered on it for long, which was good. Downside. I was pretty sure my sister never gave the kid anything but orange soda to drink, which we were going to have a talk about later.
“We don’t have soda here in St. Louis,” I said. “Just water and milk.”
“No soda?”
“Nope.”
He believed anything I told him, which made my life easier. I walked over to the fridge and got him a bottle of water, opening it and setting it in front of him.
“So how did you like hockey camp?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “I fell down a lot.”
“Everyone falls at first. You just keep getting back up and you’ll get the hang of it.”
When I saw him in skates and hockey gear at camp last night, I’d felt a surge of pride. My nephew was going to be a hockey player. I had twelve weeks to make him fall in love with it.
“You’ll have kids to play with at Wes and Hadley’s,” I said. “And lots of toys.”
Joey’s face lit up with happiness. “What kind of toys?”
“All kinds. They have a whole room of toys. They even have a big treehouse thing in the basement you can climb on.”
“Do they have any robots?”
“I’m not sure, but I bet they do. You won’t get bored over there.”
He gave me a solemn look. “When are you coming back?”
Poor kid. His mom was the only caregiver he’d ever known. She’d left him, and though it was for a good reason, he was too young to understand it. Now I was leaving him when he’d only been with me for a couple of days. I had to, though. I couldn’t miss games unless I had a life-or-death emergency.
“I’m leaving in the morning and taking you over to Wes and Hadley’s house right before I go,” I said. “I’ll be gone for three nights. We can FaceTime while I’m gone.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ll see. It’s pretty cool.”
He nodded and said, “Okay.”
“Do you have an iPad?” I asked him.
“No.”
He’d arrived with just a backpack filled with a few changes of clothes and his stuffed elephant. Emma said she’d been hanging on by a thread, their few possessions in the car she’d stored at my place. I knew I shouldn’t buy him all the things she wasn’t able to, but I wanted to spoil him just a little bit.
“I’ll get you one and have someone bring it to Wes and Hadley’s,” I said. “That way we can FaceTime.”
“Can I see my mom?”
“Hopefully soon,” I said. “You want any more pizza?”
He shook his head.
“Okay, let’s clean up and then we’re going to do something fun.”
“What?”
I picked up his paper plate, stacked it on mine and then tossed them both in the trash.
“Have you ever been to a trampoline park?” I asked him.
“I’ve been to a park. It had a really big slide.”
“I think you’ll like this place. We get to bounce on trampolines. You’ll either get to see me do a backflip or kick myself in the face trying to do one.”
Joey laughed.
“Which one would you rather see?” I asked him, grinning. “The backflip or me kicking myself in the face.”
“Kicking yourself in the face,” he said, laughing harder.
I’d put a smile on his face, and that was a win. If it made him laugh like that, I’d kick myself anytime.
“What’s with the limp?” Nash said to me in a low tone the next morning as I sat down next to him on the bus that was taking the team to the airport for our road trip.
“It’s nothing,” I whispered. “Drop it.”
“It’s not nothing if I noticed it. Did you hurt your ankle or something?”
I glared at him. “Are you capable of shutting the fuck up? Have you ever, just once in your life, closed your giant face hole for five full minutes?”
“My giant face hole? There’s a porn title in there somewhere.”
I rolled my eyes, tired from a long night of Joey waking me up multiple times to tell me he couldn’t sleep.