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“Of course.”
“Why?”
Paige should’ve anticipated the question, but was completely taken by surprise, instead. “Well … for a million reasons, that’s why.”
“Like what?”
“You want a specific reason?”
He nodded.
She thought for a moment, then said, “All right, I’ve got one. The other day you gave me the last Hot Tamale, which was a really nice thing to do.”
He made a face. “That’s not a real reason.”
“Sure it is.”
“I want a good reason.”
“Hmm, Stinker wants a good reason,” she murmured to herself. “All right. How about … because you make me laugh?”
“That’s good. Give me another one.”
“You draw me pictures all the time. Now that’s a really good reason. That should count as two.”
He shook his head. “What else?”
“You always help me carry in the groceries, you’re really good at saying ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’, and you let me choose the movie we watched last night.” From there, she decided to throw in a bunch of silly reasons, such as his ability to dance to groovy music, jump in mud puddles, give fist bumps, and nail a Scooby-Doo impersonation, to make him smile. “All of those things make me love you more.”
When she was done, he surprised her by asking, “What about Dad? Will you ever love him less?”
“No,” she assured him. “And I love him more every day, too, just like you.”
With Jacob’s mood lifted, she read to him until he fell asleep, then went to join David in the living room. He was stretched out on the sectional, with Trick-or-Treat on his lap and Sputnik perched on the back of the couch, several feet away; the two male cats had yet to become best friends and were still maintaining a bit of a guarded distance from one another.
“How’s Jacob?” he wanted to know, patting the space beside him with one hand, and grabbing the remote control to cue up an episode of The Sopranos with the other one. Amazingly, it was a series neither one of them had watched before, and they were getting totally caught up in the show.
Paige curled up beside him, under his arm. “He’s okay. We had a nice talk.”
“That’s good. So … Hot Tamales?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh, my God. I can’t believe you were eavesdropping.”
“I wasn’t eavesdropping. Jacob’s door was wide open, and I couldn’t help but hear your conversation, as I stood outside in the hall.”
“You were totally eavesdropping,” she scolded him, with a shake of her head. “Do you remember how aggravated you were when Jules eavesdropped on us? That’s me right now, with you.” She gave him a hard poke in the chest, punctuating the ‘you’ with her finger.
“What I did isn’t even remotely the same thing as what Jules did,” David told her with amused indignation. “And you know it.”
“It’s close enough.”
“So, you’re aggravated with me because … close enough? That’s really mature.”
She lifted a shoulder. “It’s my prerogative. So, yeah.”
He looked down at her for several seconds, then slowly nodded. “All right. That’s fine.”
“That’s fine? You don’t care that I’m aggravated with you?”
