Page 85 of Ask Your Mom If I'm Real

She’d asked if I wanted help putting up Christmas lights, and I’d made up an excuse to explain away my father’s weird behavior rather than telling them the truth—that my father would rather die than put up Christmas lights.

“Oh,” he said.

I shrugged, looking away.

I knew what he saw when he looked at our house.

It was rundown.

The yard was unkempt.

There were no lights, or even personal touches—not even a welcome mat.

The only thing that we could boast having was a pile of newspapers that my dad refused to pick up because “he didn’t ask for a newspaper to be delivered.”

I’d tried to pick them up once and he’d thrown a fit. “Told them to come get ’em.”

So there they sat, along with the leaves from this year and last.

“Bear?” Anleigh offered up her bear to the large man.

Jeremiah smiled at my child, making my heart utterly melt.

“Oh.” He held up his hands. “I can’t take that, darlin’. I have dirty hands.”

He sure did.

His fingers were covered in what looked like grease.

Where had that come from if he’d been fixing the showerhead?

“Bear!” she declared.

“No, baby. If you let him hold the bear, he’ll get it all dirty, then I’ll have to take it to the laundromat with me, and then you’ll have to part with it for an hour while I wash and dry it.” I patted her back.

“Oh.” She curled it back into her chest.

Jeremiah’s half-grin was heart stopping.

His eyes also held a whole lot of patience and kindness—something I wasn’t used to from men.

That was probably why men tended to scare Anleigh, too.

But not this one…

“She’s even sweeter than my own grandkids,” Cinda admitted. “But don’t ever tell Noel that. She’ll have a meltdown if she knows.”

“Her kids are maniacs.” Jeremiah snorted, then gestured to his grandmother. “Is this a good spot? Come in here and see if you can reach it.”

Lucinda did just that, squeezing between the stall door and Jeremiah, who was still holding the showerhead up.

Lucinda reached for it, and it was just out of her touch.

“Bring it down,” she urged.

After settling with the placement of the showerhead, I startled when I realized that I’d stayed way longer than I’d intended.

“Oh, I gotta go get dinner on,” I replied, starting to make a hasty exit.

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