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I will. My partner would be bummed, I knew, but I had no doubt she’d have a new partner who would be great. The weird thing might be answering to me as a supervisor for fieldwork.
I looked for Betty outside, but she’d already gone for the night. That would give me time to figure out how to tell her. She knew I’d been interviewing, but had kept quiet about how she felt about it.
As I drove home, a text popped up.
Sly: Hi.
I used CarPlay to speak a reply.
Me: Hi.
Sly: Busy tonight?
Me: Not really, why?
Sly: Wondered if I could take you up on your offer of help with school.
Surprise made me straighten up slightly. Sly wanted help? I had definitely not seen that coming. I’d even been thinking of ways I might apologize for offering, on the chance it had made it seem like I didn’t believe in him somehow.
Me: Of course.
Sly: Want to come here?
Me: Katie’s been out all day, I’d like to be home. Come to our house. I made enchiladas.
I’d made them Sunday and just needed to heat them up.
Sly: Sounds good. Thanks.
Me: I’ll be home in ten minutes. See you in a half hour?
Sly: Perfect.
I couldn’t think of the last time I’d had a man over to the house, if I ever even had. Of course Zach had been to my parents’ place a few times. He’d called it “small,” though when we were dating he’d said it was “charming.” His dislike of the house was part of the reason it had sat empty when my parents died, one after the other. The house was mine, and it was paid off, but it didn’t meet Zach’s standards. And when we separated, I’d stayed in the house we’d shared in Boomsmack, trying to see if things might work out. I was glad I hadn’t sold the place as he’d suggested so many times.
It wasn’t big, that was true. But it was similar to the house where Sly grew up and I didn’t have any concerns about his impressions of my house. To me, it represented home and family. And in so many ways, my parents were still there. Around me.
When I pulled into the driveway, Katie came bounding down the steps next door, and I’d barely gotten the door open before she was talking a million words a minute.
“Sillllvesssster played dolls with me, Mommy, and then he let me sit on him while he did pushups and he let me punch him a whole bunch, and we had grilled cheese and watched a hockey game on TV!”
I looked up to see Violet waving from her doorstep.
“Thank you!” I called, taking Katie’s hand and ushering her inside the house.
Sly had been hanging out with Katie all day?
“What was Violet doing while you were hanging out with Sly?” I knew Violet loved the time she spent with Katie and wondered if it had been fun for her to see her son with my daughter.
“She was baking cookies and stuff. She was there too.”
I smiled. “Sounds like you had a great day.”
She nodded.
“Would it be okay if Sylvester comes for dinner?”
She clapped her hands together. “Yes.”
