Page 91 of Broken Grump

“Yes, baby?”

“It isn’t Thanksgiving, right? Because I had to go to school today, and I didn’t get to watch the parade.”

She and I exchange a look and both chuckle.

“No. You can have turkey on any day, Tunes.”

Luna looks shocked. “Really? We only ever have it during Thanks—”

“Here, try some of the cornbread,” Addie insists while piling a piece onto the plate.

This seems to keep the kid quiet for a bit, but then she launches into an entire monologue about her new friend, Paige.

“She just moved in, like me, but she’s from Pittsburgh. That’s far away. Right, Mom?”

“Yes. It’s on the other end of the country.”

“That’s what I thought. Well, since we’re the new kids at school, we decided that we have to be best friends.”

Addie swallows before explaining, “That’s not exactly true, you know. I mean. Of course, you can be friends with her. But you don’thaveto be.”

Luna seems to ignore this sound wisdom, and she just continues to go on and on about Paige from Pittsburgh.

“She’s really nice, she has really pretty blonde hair, and she has over seventy-five Barbie dolls. Can you believe that, Mom?”

Addie shakes her head. “No, I can’t. That sure is a lot.”

“Paige told me her mom and dad had to buy a whole separate suitcase just to fit them all and take them on the plane.”

“Wow.”

Then, Luna’s shoulders slump over, and she starts simply fiddling around with her food.

Catching onto this, Addie asks, “Everything okay over there?”

“Yeah. It just always makes me a little sad whenever another kid talks about their daddy, that’s all.”

I feel a pinch in my throat, and the hand on my thigh bunches up so tightly that my knuckles start turning white. The thoughts of anger and regret rage on in my mind.

Why haven’t we told her yet? Why didn’t I ever know? We could’ve been a family all of this time. Ugh. This is just about the last thing I need right now.

It’s clear that Addie feels uncomfortable too. And after looking at me with squinted eyes, she tries to hurry the conversation along.

“Um, does Paige also like fish?”

Both of their sights dart to the tank that separates the dining area from the living room.

“Oh, my gosh! Why didn’t I notice that before?” The young child asks to be excused before giddily shuffling over to it.

“That should buy us some time,” Addie says with her mouth full. I already assumed she wasn’t going to want to talk anymore about the giant elephant in the room. And she affirms that suspicion when she asks, “So, how are the investigations going?”

Like my phone, my brain is fried from overexertion, so I just tell her that I don’t want to talk about business over dinner.

Instead, I just cut off another forkful of meat, shove it in my mouth, and slurp it down with another drink of whiskey.

“Be that as it may, I want to tell you before I forget that I’ve got a call into Randall, but he hasn’t returned it yet.”

Since she hasn’t taken any of my hints, I’m starting to get increasingly irritated. So, I down the rest of the liquor, and bark, “Well, if you wanted to speak with him, maybe, you should’ve come to the meeting yesterday. Trust me, he was all ears and ready to gab then.”

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