Page 73 of The Life We Left Behind

“Yeah? You looking forward to going out to see the horses today?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

Cade grinned and shoved some cereal into his mouth. “I came here and found a dad and an uncle. That’s pretty lucky, right? I think I like it here.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” I told him, more out of habit than anything else. “And you might have mentioned that already.”

He gulped down the cereal, shooting me one of those innocent looks that he knew meant he got away with something before he continued. “Do you think the school has a baseball team?” he asked casually.

“I’m pretty sure it does, monkey.”

“That’s nice.” And he went back to his breakfast.

I loved that my son thought he was so sly, even if his motives were more obvious than a neon sign on the moon. I wouldn’t be the one to burst his bubble, though.

Staying here would be nice. Maybe? I still couldn’t get past the thought of being in the same town as Regina. Her words from that fateful night echoed around my head, but what power did she really have over me now? She couldn’t hurt my family by threatening our livelihood, and she couldn’t take the farm from me if I didn’t want her to. There was no mortgage hanging over us now. Any leverage she may have once had was gone.

When it came time for the funeral, the whole town would know about Cade, and I had no reservations about setting them straight with what happened.

Regina had stolen ten years from us, and now she was the one standing to lose everything that was important to her. There was something delicious about that, and yet, it still wasn’t enough.

“Is there coffee? Where is it? Why are you keeping it from me?” Blake mumbled, stumbling into the kitchen in her pjs and looking like she hated the world right now.

“Good morning, Aunty Blake,” Cade cheered, and I sniggered.

She glared at him through her tangled pink hair. “Why are you so full of energy? Did you drink all the coffee?”

“I don’t drink coffee,” Cade protested with his nose wrinkled in disgust. “It’s gross.”

My phone buzzed on the table, and I quickly checked my messages.

“I have news that may make you feel less like death?” I said slowly, dragging it out.

She peered at me through one eye with the other scrunched shut as she made her way to the full coffee pot on the side. “I’m listening.”

“How do you feel about drinks tomorrow night?”

“I’m intrigued. Keep going.”

“I met someone at the flower shop. Emma’s married to someone I went to school with and moved here. She invited us out for drinks, and I completely forgot about it until she just sent me a message.”

Blake nodded, pouring the coffee carefully into the biggest mug she could find.

“Would you be okay if we went out for a couple of hours?” I asked Cade. “Her husband Griffith is someone I went to schoolwith, and he offered to come over and”—I picked up my phone to read the message word for word—“school the kid in extreme Pokémon battling.”

Cade perked up at that suggestion. “I’m intrigued. Keep going.”

“Oh, great. You’re picking up stuff from the grumpy one in the corner,” I snarked. “What did I do to be punished like this?”

“Hey,” Blake protested. “I’ll have you know I’m an absolute delight!”

Anything else she had to say was lost behind the mug as she started to gulp the scalding coffee down. I’d never been able to figure out how she did that. She didn’t even have any creamer in it to lower the temperature.

“Okay, so we have a plan. We’re heading out to the ranch for the day. Then home, and we can eat?—”

“Pizza for dinner!” Cade cheered.

“Ooooh, I could go for pizza,” Blake added, sounding slightly more like herself now that the caffeine was hitting her system.

“The delicious pot roast that I lovingly prepared for you both yesterday, and no one even touched,” I finished, squinting at the two of them in annoyance, already feeling them getting ready to gang up on me.

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