I laugh harder now, because that would be fucking funny. I love my kid. “Tell you what, if you promise to keep it a secret, we’ll buy a fake snake that looks even more real than the Play-Doh one, and we’ll hide it in her bed. But it has to be a secret, okay?”
“Okay,” he whispers as he giggles.
“So, listen…I’m going to go out with some friends tonight, so I won’t be home to tuck you into bed. Is that okay?”
“Okay,” Ben says, completely unfazed, and it makes me feel better to know he’s seemingly secure enough with this. I’ve been home every single night since I was released from the hospital following the accident and I think he’s forgotten what it was like before when I would be on the road traveling a lot.
“Good boy,” I tell him. “Okay, I’ve got to go. I love you and I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Love you too, Daddy,” he says.
“Dad,” I correct him automatically, but he’s already handed the phone off to Kate.
“I swear the snake was Ben’s idea, not mine,” she says when she gets back on.
I can’t fucking help it…the corners of my mouth tip upward involuntarily. While Kate’s main duties are to take care of Ben and her secondary duties are to help me take care of the house, she’s also apparently put it on her chore list to try to make me laugh. She is a complete and utter dork sometimes, always dancing around and making up stupid songs to sing to Ben. She makes up a different nickname for me and Ben each day, refusing to call us by our real names unless we acknowledge her use of the nickname at least once. Ben always gives in because he thinks they’re hilarious. Just yesterday he was Mr. Tadpole Climbing a Beanpole and I was Miss Sparkly Skates.
Yesterday, she asked, “Hey, Miss Sparkly Skates,” which caused Ben to double over in laughter, “I’m doing a grocery run today; anything special you want?”
I refused to answer her, instead continuing to surf on my laptop while I sat at the kitchen table.
“Hey…Miss Sparkly Skates…I’m talking to you,” she called out in a singsong voice.
I took a sip of coffee and ignored Ben’s conspiratorial giggle.
“Hey…Miss Sparkly Skates…what’s wrong? Did you lose some rhinestones or something?”
I looked up at her and she just stared at me from behind those thick eyeglass frames, her head tilted to the side in anticipation.
“More bottled water,” I muttered, and bent my head back down, trying hard not to smile and thus encourage her. I didn’t miss the high fives she and Ben exchanged over my defeat.
I take a look over at Alex and Garrett pulling their towels and shower kits from their lockers. Maybe I shouldn’t go out tonight. What if something happens to Ben? He gets scared? Or needs me for something? What if he can’t go to sleep because I’m not there to read him his favorite story, The Giving Tree, before I tuck him in?
“You there, Hell on Skates?” Kate asks, breaking into my insecure thoughts, and I swing my gaze back to the front of my locker.
“Much better than Miss Sparkly Skates,” I say drily. “Are you sure you’re okay by yourself with Ben tonight?”
“We’ll be fine,” she assures me confidently. “Besides, I don’t let him play with dynamite after dinner.”
I suppress the snort that wants to break forth and instead tell her, “If anything happens, call me. Also don’t hesitate to call Michelle either.”
This time it’s Kate who snorts, rather loudly and unladylike, at the mention of my neighbor. She clearly wasn’t impressed with her when I introduced them this past weekend, and I totally get why. Michelle was…well, sort of a bitch to Kate, which is not surprising. Michelle is always sort of bitchy to most people, with the exception of Gina, and of course, after Gina died, she became much nicer to me.
I mean a lot nicer.
Almost…too nice.
Not to Kate, though. When I introduced them, Michelle slowly rolled her gaze over Kate, taking in the baggy clothes she favored wearing, the hair pulled up and away severely from her face, and the thick-framed glasses she sported. She gave her a plastic smile and ignored Kate’s hand that was outstretched to her in greeting. Instead, she turned to me and said, “If she needs any help or guidance or you have any concerns, you know I’m here for you and Ben.”
Now, as a man who has pretty much ignored everything and anything around him for the past four months and has been basically immune to the world, even I was appalled at her snub to Kate. I felt the weird need to stand up for Kate, so I just said, “Kate’s doing a great job. She has it all covered.”