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“Thank you,” I smiled, trying not to feel completely deflated. My son was incredibly smart, and at the request of Ms. Sally, we had him tested. His IQ score was one hundred twenty. It was not at all what I was expecting, and ever since we found out, all these little things that always seemed so strange to us finally made sense.
It wasn’t that Parker didn’t want to be a kid. He just got along better with adults because they knew more, had a better understanding of the things he wanted to talk about. While he had fun playing with kids occasionally, eventually, he got bored with their lack of meaningful play. Fantasy play was not something Parker had ever taken an interest in. But at least now that we knew, we could start to navigate situations and figure out how to put him in an environment that would help him thrive.
“Mama!” Parker called out, smiling as he ran over to me. “Ms. Sally said I could take this book home tonight.”
He shoved the National GeographicWeird But Truebook in my face. I couldn’t help but laugh at how excited he was. And by the end of the night, I would have more knowledge of things I didn’t care about, but meant the world to him.
“That’s awesome. Did you tell her thank you?”
His eyes went wide as he turned and ran back to Ms. Sally, throwing his arms around her legs. “Thanks, Ms. Sally!”
He released her and ran over to his locker, grabbing his backpack and jacket from the hook. Two seconds later, he was back by my side,dragging me to the door. I barely got to wave to Ms. Sally before Parker pulled me out the door toward the parking lot.
“Where’s our car, Mama? Is Jack picking us up?”
“No. Why do you ask?”
He shrugged, opening his mouth to say something when he spotted the police cruiser waiting. “Oh my gosh! Mama! It’s a police car!”
“I know—” He grabbed my hand and jerked me forward, running to the police car. Pete must have seen his reaction because he opened the door and got out, grinning at my son.
“You drive a police car!” he screamed.
“Yeah, I do. It’s pretty cool, huh?”
“Did you know police used motorcycles before cars?” Parker asked.
“No, I didn’t know that.”
“And did you know that it’s impossible to steal a police car?” Parker questioned him.
“Not completely impossible,” Pete laughed.
“And did you know that you can’t open the back door from the inside?” he said excitedly.
“Yeah, I did know that,” Pete grinned.
“And did you know?—”
“Okay,” I cut Parker off. “I’m sure you have a lot of interesting facts about police cars, but we need to get home.”
“After dinner,” Pete interrupted. A twinkle in his eyes sent butterflies swarming in my belly. It had been a long time since I felt anything other than annoyance with men. Other than Aaron, I tended to view men as idiots who only wanted to get in my pants. And while I knew that wasn’t true, my experience with Rico made it difficult to accept any man into my life.
“Right,” I nodded. “Officer Pete is going to take us out to eat. Going Dutch,” I added quickly, making sure he understood this was not a date.
“We’ll see,” he grinned.
I hadn’t even thought of the car seat situation until right this minute, so I was surprised that Pete had. A five-point harness car seat was buckled into the back, ready for Parker to use. It looked brandnew, but it was probably one they kept at the police station in case someone needed it on a call.
After strapping Parker in, I got in the front seat. Parker thought it was fascinating to be trapped in the back. “It’s like I’m a criminal!” he giggled.
“You’d better be careful. Officer Pete might take you to jail and fingerprint you.”
Parker’s eyes went wide. “Can we?”
I rolled my eyes as Pete laughed at my son’s enthusiasm for a peek inside the police department.
“Maybe another time,” I answered. “We have to eat and get home. We have an early day tomorrow.”
