Page 67 of Finding the Pieces

Dee furrows her brows and tilts her head, but before she can say anything, Ellie’s flying across the room.

“Another point for me!Flip, Dom. Dee isflippinghim off.” I hear her yank open the junk drawer to get the notebook.

“You’re full of shit. Cheating isn’t going to get you anywhere, Ellie. It’s most certainlyflicking.”

“Wooooow,” Dee says, rolling her eyes. “God forbid I give Dylan the middle finger, but you can tell your wife she’s full of shit? I wonder which bad habit Luca will pick up first?”

“Shit.Fuck. I mean, yeah, you’re right,” I say.

Okay, so thenot swearing in front of the toddler who’s learning to talkthing could be going better.

“I hate to break up this party and super important life lesson for Luca, but if we don’t want to be late, we need to leave in the next five minutes,” Dylan says, checking his watch.

“Dee, you want to join? Dylan planned the next puzzle activity. We’re taking Luca to his first music class,” Ellie says excitedly as she documents my loss in our commonly fucked-up phrase notebook.

It’s good to see her excited about this.

I appreciate the guys all taking this favor seriously. When I asked for their help, it would have been easy for them to brush it off or half-ass plans. Butthey’ve each shown up for me and Ellie with thoughtful ideas. As dysfunctional as our small circle can be, everyone showed up when we needed them, and I’ll never forget it.

Dee gives Dylan a surprised look. “Huh, didn’t peg you for a musical guy. What gives, Dylan?”

“Nothing,” he answers quickly. “I mean, you should come…if you want.”

“Ooookay, fine. Then I will,” Dee says, voice laden with hesitation.

Ellie looks at me, then back at the two of them, then back at me. I can read that look.What the fuck is going on?

I give her a look back.Not a fucking clue, but let’s see how far we can push this.

She rolls her eyes.

Dee and Dylan spend the entire class making snarky quips at each other in a battle to outwit one another as usual. But between all that, the four of us have a great time playing music with Luca and watching him try out the drums, tambourines, xylophone, and keyboard.

Ellie watches closely as Luca takes part in this new experience, his eyes glowing with wonder, while hers do the same. My family might not be perfect, but moments like this are.

I want Luca to be anything he wants when he’s older, but based on how much he loves this music class, my money is on lead drummer in a rock band. That, or a WWE headliner. Too soon to tell.

Chapter thirty-four

Ellie

“Okay, buddy. Eggs are the last thing on the list. We’ll grab them on our way to the register. Then we’ll go home, grab some lunch, and take a little nap. What do you think?” I ask Luca as he wiggles in the child’s seat of the shopping cart.

He babbles back at me, seemingly in agreement. Luca’s vocabulary is slowly growing, but when he’s excited, he usually resorts to his two favorite words,mamaanddada. The first time he called us by the right names, we celebrated with a family dance party and brownies because Dom insisted it was a milestone that demanded brownies.

After grabbing a dozen eggs, I sing softly to Luca as I push our cart to the checkout line. My mind always panics a little while I unload the cart onto the conveyor belt and Luca is sitting facing the stranger in line behind us.

I mean, I’mright here, but my anxiety never seems to take a day off. My mind races through what I’d do if a stranger ever just grabbed him and tried to make a run for it. The answer? I’d drop everything, turn into an Olympian, and I’d go fucking feral getting him back, probably ending up in jail. Thankfully, my intrusive thoughts stay in my mind and have never become reality.

The woman in line behind me clears her throat loudly as I’m unloading the cart, but I don’t pay her much attention. Then I hear, “Um, excuse me. Ma’am?”

My head shoots up to see she’s leaning on her cart, one foot propped on the bottom rack as she stares at me with one eyebrow raised. “I was trying to say you need to get that boy off the binkie.”

I stare at her for a few seconds, frozen in place, broccoli in my hand halfway to the conveyor belt because…huh? My brain tries to make sense of what she’s saying, but all I can come up with is, again…huh?

Luca looks at me, cooing softly from behind the binkie I gave him before I started unloading the cart to keep him chill while I check out.

Frustrated by my lack of response, she continues, “He getting too old for one. You’re setting him up for failure by coddling him. Better to just pull it cold turkey. Here, if I just take it, I’m sure he won’t mind.” She moves around her cart, approaching Luca, and I seefucking red.

---