Falling for Mr. Wrong(11)

Julia squinted at him. “Really?”

Ross hauled his daughter into his lap. “You don’t believe I’m a grown-up, do you?”

“You always take us for pizza and ice cream. Mommy says we have to brush our teeth extra when we are at her house.”

He touched the tip of her nose, smiling at the dig, which he knew wasn’t intended to be mean.

“Your mother forgets that pizza represents four important food groups,” he explained solemnly. “Carbohydrate, vegetable, dairy, and grease. Just like Gramma Phoebe makes for you when you sleep over at her house.”

Her moods as changeable as the New York sky, Julia’s eyes filled with sudden tears. “I miss Gramma, Daddy. And Aunt Tori, and Melissa and Delia. I want to go back home. When are we going back home?”

Ross kicked himself for bringing up his mother. “Honey, we talked about this.” He turned Julia so she could look more squarely into his face. “This is home now. I know it’s different, but we’ll make lots of new friends here. And you’ve got a big new bedroom and a house with a yard and a park right down the street. And Gramma and Grandpa will come visit you and you can show them all around your new house.”

Julia stuck out her bottom lip. “I liked our old house. My new room is too big and I get scared sleeping by myself.”

“Forget it,” a flat, cynical voice from the door advised. “He doesn’t care. Neither does Mom. All they care about are their jobs.”

“Luke.” Ross injected a note of warning as he turned to look at his oldest son. At eleven, Luke hadn’t quite hit his growth spurt yet, but he was already well above the height of most of his peers, with long skinny legs and arms, and knees that seemed wider than his waist. His blue eyes, and the dark hair that fell in his face and covered the tops of his circular, wire-rimmed glasses, were pure Bencher, though Ross attributed the boy’s sensitive soul to Jenna. “Your mom loves you like crazy and you know it. She had no choice about this China thing.”

“We didn’t have to move here. Her job in New York was just fine.”

“Your mom hasn’t had steady work for years. This was an important step up for her.”

“Whatever.” Luke turned away and started toward the stairs.

Ross set Julia down and followed Luke out the door. “Hang on,” he called.

Luke had taken the move hard, and Ross understood why. Leaving the friends he’d known since preschool and restarting in a new town was difficult enough, but being a shy middle school boy made it even harder. Still, Luke’s moods were affecting all of the kids. Jenna had warned him that things had been rocky since they arrived. Luke was apparently determined to make everyone just as miserable as he was.

Ross stopped at the bottom of the stairs, glancing back to make sure Julia was occupied. She was happily clicking away on the computer, and he spared a brief prayer that she wouldn’t delete his entire in-box before turning his attention back to Luke. “Look, I know you’re upset, but for Julia’s sake, can’t you try to fake it a little?”

Luke crossed his thin arms over his chest. “You want me to pretend to be happy? It’s the summer, Dad. I’m supposed to be hanging out with my friends. Instead I’m stuck in this stupid town with nothing to do.”

“I think you’ll be able to find something to do.” Ross gestured back at the window in the office. “This is Colorado. It’s like a big playground everywhere you look. There are mountains here. People ride skateboards and bikes all over the place. They climb rocks.”

“Well, that’s great.” Luke’s scowl deepened. “You do remember we’re from New York City, right? I don’t do mountains and rocks. I do baseball. And subways.”

Ross decided not to mention that Luke had often complained about being bored by his baseball games, or that he’d always hated riding the subway. “So we’ll get you into a camp, or a class or something. You’ll learn.” He forced a note of optimism. “It will be fun.”

Luke pushed back his flop of hair, the one that reminded Ross of his brother Joe, and adjusted his glasses. “We don’t fit in here. The guy at the grocery store totally laughed at Mom the other day. He said she had a funny accent. ”

Ross sighed and put a hand on Luke’s shoulder. “Son, I’m not going to lie to you and say this will be easy. But it’s good to challenge yourself and do something different. We’re all going to have to stretch a little.”

“Right.” Luke shook off his hand. “Stretch. Whatever.”