However, I resisted. My channel was doing very well. Icouldafford to take more golden moments just for myself and not work so hard.
"Yeah, Dad, this is so fun!" Gabriel enthused.
Then Maverick spoke. "I'm sorry, son. I should have been doing this for a long time. I'm sorry to you too, Seraphina and Emmy. And to you, Tallulah," he said. "I'm sorry I was such a jackass and it's taken me this long."
"Why didn't you then?" Seraphina asked.
"I--made a mistake," Maverick said firmly. "You kids and your mom are the most important people in the world to me, and I made a mistake and didn't see that for a while, but I want to make it right."
There was a lump in my throat.
"OK, Dad!" Seraphina chirped. "You said sorry so it's fine."
"Sometimes it takes a little more," Maverick said, his eyes meeting mine as she crawled into his lap. "But I'm trying."
I said nothing, my throat closing.
Maverick Laurent was going to fulfill all the terms and conditions
And that meant I was faced withforgivingmy cheating, lying husband.
Was I ready? What if it was a mistake?
Then I was suddenly saved from having to respond when the unmistakable, acrid scent of skunk hit my nostrils and Odie loped into view with a smug smile on his hound dog face.
"Move!" Maverick cried, hauling one kid under each arm as I charged up the steps with Emmy.
I slammed the door behind us and Maverick and I raced around the house shutting the windows as the kids shrieked with thrilled excitement.
Then the begging began to start when they realized we proposed to leave Odie outside overnight, and so of course Maverick and I had to go out there armed with a strong hose and cans of tomato soup.
And I could avoid thinking about the fact that I was about to forgive him.
Noone would blame me for divorcing him. Not my friends, not any of Maverick's coworkers, not my dad or stepmom, definitely not his parents.
In fact, people would think I was a fool for forgiving him in the first place, nothing but a featherbrained idiot thinking with her pussy because Maverick Laurent was drop-dead sexy and magnetic.
I watched as Odie gradually became less odorific, and Maverick heaved a sigh of relief, running tomato-juice covered hands through his dark hair.
Then he turned to look at me. There were dark circles under his eyes and he looked tired.
"I think he'll be OK to sleep inside now," he said as the kids squealed with glee.
I still loved Maverick Laurent
I said nothing, but I knew it in my bones, felt it in my heart as he tossed Emmy in the air.
He was a good man. A good dad and a good husband, but he had made a relationship-ending mistake.
But here I wasnotending it.
The next morning Dad came over to pick up the kids to take them to go watch movies and play games at his house.
"Hello, Tallulah. . .Maverick," he said coolly.
I saw Maverick's shoulders slump a bit.
Dad had always called him 'son' before.