Glancing over at her son, Karen noticed the slumped shoulders and pleading eyes as he glanced back at her. Was it fair for her to force Dom to break a promise to Kyle when he worked so hard at building a relationship with the boy? The last thing she wanted to do was to see all of Dom’s hard work with Kyle go down the drain.
“Okay, little boy, you can read to Mr. Dom, write your three paragraphs, and then off to bed for you.”
A huge grin split Kyle’s handsome little face. “Thanks Mommy.”
Karen grinned back. “You’re welcome. Now, everybody sit down so we can eat.”
Kyle tiptoed quietly out of his bedroom so his mother wouldn’t hear him. Tapping gently on his sister’s bedroom door, he whispered, “Ashley, can I come in?
Sitting up in bed, Ashley rubbed her eyes. “Come in,” she whispered in the darkened room.
Turning the doorknob, Kyle entered. Ashley scooted over to make room for him when he climbed up on the bed. “What’s up, Kyle?”
“Do you think Mommy and Mr. Dom like each other?”
“I think so.” Ashley covered her mouth, smothering a yawn. “Why?”
“Because if they like each other maybe Mr. Dom could be our new daddy.”
Ashley smiled in the dark. She didn’t want to tell her brother that after they had been sent into the house she had gone back to the door to ask their mother a question. When she pulled the door open she had seen her kissing Mr. Dom. She quickly closed the door before the adults saw her. Telling him might get his hopes up high. She was already having a hard time not getting her own hopes up.
Mr. Dom was really nice. But just because he kissed their mother didn’t mean he would be their new daddy. Ashley was a big girl, not a baby like Kyle. She knew that her Mom and Mr. Dom would have to love each other and get married before he could become their new daddy. But what if…what if she and Kyle could make Mr. Dom and their mother fall in love? If they fell in love, then they would get married and he would become their new daddy.
Jumping up, Ashley turned on the lavender lamp on the white nightstand. Kyle scrunched up his face, shielding his eyes. “Hey! Why you turn the light on?”
“Oh stop being a crybaby,” Ashley huffed.
“I’m not a crybaby!” Kyle yelled, crossing his arms over his chest.
Ashley put a finger to his lips. “Shh! Be quiet before you wake up Mommy. Do you want us to get in trouble?” She asked in a hushed tone.
Kyle shook his head. “No.”
“Okay. Well be quiet and listen.”
Kyle rolled his eyes. Ashley was a pain in the butt. She thought she knew everything just because she was the oldest.
Ignoring her brother, she said, “If we want Mr. Dom to be our father we have to get him and Mommy to fall in love.”
Kyle’s face twisted in bewilderment. “How are we going to get them to do that?”
“Well, we’ll just have to help them.” Nodding her head confidently, she added, “It’ll be easy.”
Giving his sister an are-you-sure-you-know-what-you’re-talking-about look, he asked, “You think so?”
Nodding her head up and down, Ashley assured her little brother that it would be easy as taking candy from a baby. “All we have to do is…”
For the next ten minutes, Ashley laid out the plan and what each of their roles would be to get Dom to be a permanent part of their family.
Chapter 7
“Hey, y’all ordered without me?” Karen asked as she slid into the booth next to Summer.
“Of course we did. No telling when you were going to show up.” Starr teased.
Starr and Summer giggled from the look of disbelief on Karen’s face. “Girl, stop it. Starr ordered you your usual. So don’t get your panties all in a bunch.”
Shrugging out of her leather jacket, Karen laughed. “My panties aren’t in a bunch. I’m just hungry. I’ve been running since this morning. Haven’t had anything to eat since breakfast.”
Picking up the paper napkin from off the table, Starr spread it over her lap. “Karen, you have to stop doing that.”
On cue, as if they had rehearsed the lines, Summer chimed in. “Yeah, it’s not good to go so long without eating in between meals. It’s not healthy.”
Taking a quick sip from the water glass that was on the table, Karen set the glass back down and replied, “I know, but I just had so much to do before Dom took the kids to Disney on Ice.”
“Oh, that’s right. Tonight is the night he took Ashley, Kyle, and Zoe to the ice show,” Starr said as she dug into her purse to put her cell phone on silent mode. Summer and Karen did the same. Whenever they got together they made it a habit to only be disturbed in cases of emergency.