Page 43 of Worth the Vow

“Jesus, man. Are you scared of little Kate Reynolds? She’s what, maybe a buck forty, soaking wet?”

I close my eyes in frustration, before confessing, “She makes me forget what I want to say, and how I want to say it.”

“Aw, little brother!” Alex coos, batting his eyelashes at me. “Does little Kate Reynolds make you tongue-tied? I guess that’s an improvement over our baby sister outing you for tongue-fucking Kate.”

“What’s tongue-ducking mean?” Carter asks, jarring me from focusing on Alex and my beer. I had no idea my son crept up on us.

“Nothing important, buddy. So Kate promised you ice cream?”

He nods. “I only want one vanilla scoop with sprinkles, please. And not the chocolate sprinkles. They don’t taste like chocolate. The rainbow sprinkles taste better. More sprinkle-y.”

I chuckle as I tip my head to Alex, who grabs his food and returns to the table with his kids. Ben barely noticed we were gone, inhaling his food and returning to coloring. Abbie is reading a book and absentmindedly waves goodbye to the rest of us.

Once in the car, Sienna leans forward to speak directly behind my head. “Dad, did you and Kate have an argument?”

“Why do you ask?” I respond.

“Well, she seemed pretty mad when we got in the car and she tracked you here.”

“Tracked me?”

“Yeah. With the app. We all have it,” Sienna says, offering her phone so I can see.

“I know what it is, sweetheart.” I can track Sienna’s location through my phone carrier app because her phone is in my family plan, but not whatever tracker everyone else apparently uses.

“Do you track Kate?” Carter asks.

“Well, no, but —”

“You should. That’s what husbands do,” Aspen states.

“Is that so?” I ask warily. I’m afraid to ask where she’s learning about expected husband behavior, but I also need to know.

“Uh-huh. Dat’s what Aunt Gia says. Whenever we’re with her and Uncle Travis does something good, she says, ‘that’s what a good husband does,’” Aspen says confidently. I figured this was the doing of one of my sisters, but I honestly expected it out of Arianna. Gianna and Travis have been married a few years, and recently welcomed their first son, Carson. They were the first two to successfully cross the threshold at my parents’ house, and they truly believe they broke a curse Alex unwittingly set upon all of us years ago. Joking around, Alex bet that none of us could carry a loved one across the threshold. And for years, that stood. I, of course, didn’t manage it with Savannah, but I wasn’t heartbroken about it. Alex didn’t think much about his own inability to carry his wife Sara over the threshold until we all kept failing.

“Were you a good husband to Mommy?” Sienna asks.

“I like to believe I was, yes,” I finally manage to answer.

“But you don’t know?” she presses.

“It was a long time ago.”

“What about now?” she asks.

“What do you mean?”

“Are you a good husband to Kate?”

I’m sure she’d answer I’m not. “It’s a unique situation, Sienna. I’d hope Kate would say that I’m respectful, and that I never make her uncomfortable or incredibly angry.”

“Oh, she won’t say that,” Aspen says cheerfully. “She called you a bad word.”

“And what was that?” I ask, rubbing the bridge of my nose. Knowing Kate, it could be a variety of four-letter words I’d rather my children not repeat on the school playground.

“Asshat.”

My eyes whip to the rearview mirror, catching Sienna’s eyes. “She called me a what?”

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