Page 39 of Penalty Kill

We both jumped back and Brandon gave me one last smile before walking back to the playroom.

I went down to the pool house in a daze. I mindlessly packed the essentials so I could stay in the main house without having to run back and forth.

He might have been able to distract me, but I still saw it. Brandon was downplaying everything. I could tell. He probably didn’t want to scare me, but him holding back was worse than telling me everything. I’d just be the most boring person in the world, and hopefully the press would lose interest. The boys would be fine playing at home for one or two days, but I wasn’t sure how long I could say no to their requests to go to different parks or the museum. It wasn’t like I could tell them anything. I’d just have to get creative.

* * *

The boys were full of energy when I picked them up from school. They ran in front of me to the car and then ran back to me before returning. What had their teacher given them?

“Did you guys have a good day?”

“Yeah!” Milo thrust his fist in the air while his brother nodded aggressively next to him.

“What did you do?” I made sure they were both buckled before getting in.

“We made rock candy,” Finn replied, and I nearly pounded my head against the headrest. Of course they did.

“Yeah, Ms. Stephanie gave us a string, and then we watched it make colored rocks.” Milo confirmed my fear.

“Then you ate it?” It wasn’t so much a question as it was me resigning to how the rest of the day was going to go. I needed something active for them to do to burn off this energy.

“Yeah!” they shouted with unnecessary volume. Wonderful.

On the drive back to the house, I ran through a list of possibilities. They liked the playset in the backyard, but their interest only lasted about a half hour or so. I might be able to stretch it to an hour if I came up with games for them to play on it. It wasn’t enough. The pool was the next best option.

“Do you guys want to swim today?”

“Yeah!” This one was twice as loud as the last. At least they liked the idea. Hopefully I wasn’t setting myself up for an epic breakdown once the sugar high ended.

As we pulled in, I told them to get changed while I called for backup. It was an abnormally warm day, so maybe I could bring in someone else.

“Hey Sydney,” Emma answered.

“Hi, how’s it going?”

“Good?” She dragged out the word. “What’s going on?”

“The boys and I are getting in the pool, and I was wondering if you and Jackson wanted to join us.”

“Huh, that sounds fun.”

“Oh good.” I didn’t mean to sound as desperate as I was, but I was distracted by what Brandon told me, the almost kiss, and now the boys were next-level crazy.

“We’ll be over in a few minutes.”

“Great, see you soon.”

I hung up and ran to the pool house to change into a suit before hunting down the boys. Milo wore his Spiderman swim trunks, but Finn was staring at a pile of clothes with a pout bordering on tears.

“What’s wrong?” I knelt down next to him.

“I can’t find my Iron Man shorts.”

“Okay, we’ll look for them.” I rifled through the pile, then pulled a box from his closet marked ‘Summer Clothes.’ I found three pairs of trunks, but he shook his head at each one.

“Mommy always knew where they were.” His dejection nearly broke my heart. This was the first time he’d mentioned her around me, and I wasn’t sure what to say. She should be here. She should be getting ready to play with them.

What woman could walk away from her kids? Especially when they were so sweet and loving? It made me furious.