Page 30 of Waiting for Redemption

“Hell yeah. Let’s go.” Hendrix stops bouncing and holds his index finger up at Tank.

“I mean,heckyeah.” Tank corrects himself. Hendrix adds his thumb making a finger gun motion and tries to wink as he clicks his tongue. We both laugh as we walk to the car and head back to our house for casserole.

With Tank.

Why does this feel both super normal and extremely weird?

* * *

“That was the best casserole I’ve ever had in my entire life. You have to give me the recipe. I’d eat this sh–stuffweekly,” Tank says, sitting back in his chair.

“No chance, I can’t have you sharing my super secret recipe,” I tease, winking at Hendrix. He winks back at me before forking a massive bite into his mouth.

“Fine. Maybe you can just show me then. I have a terrible memory and with no written recipe to remind me, I think we’ll be safe.” Tank winks and it sends involuntary flutters to my stomach.

Shit, stop it, Ruby.

“Hmm. I’ll take it under consideration.” I narrow my gaze at him and he holds his fist up to Hendrix earning a fist bump from him.

“Finished! Can I go watch Spider-Man?” Hendrix asks, holding his bowl up to show me that it’s empty.

“Just one episode.” I nod, and he takes off to the living room. I smile and shake my head, thinking just how lucky I am to be his mom.

He’s the sweetest kid and has such a big heart. I find myself praying often that the world will treat him well. Being a mom is so hard because you literally have a piece of your heart walking around in the world. You know you would do anything and everything to protect it but don’t always know when you need to. I’m pulled from my thoughts when I hear dishes clinking and look up to see Tank grabbing his and Hendrix’s bowls from the table.

“Oh, I can grab that in a minute. You don’t have to–” I start, but Tank cuts me off.

“Hush woman, eat your dinner. I got this.” He gets busy cleaning their dishes and places them back into the cabinets while I sit at the table watching his every move. I’m pretty sure I’m in a state of shock because I am so used to everyone I know using a dishwasher or thelet it soakmethod.

“Ruby?”

“Hmm?” My eyes refocus and I see Tank looking at me with an amused concern.

“You okay?”

“What? Yeah.” I shake my head and finally take a bite of my food. “Why?”

“No, nothing. You just kind of had this look on your face like I was drowning your cat or something,” he says so nonchalantly.

Oh, he is, but not the kind he’s thinking.

The thought makes me snort and when I look up his eyes grow wide. I slap my hand over my mouth, embarrassed by the noise.

“Oh, that was fucking adorable.”

And now my face is red for a completely different reason.

“Whatever,” I say, rolling my eyes at him. “Don’t be mean to me, I’ll start crying.”

“I’m serious. Pigs have always been my favorite farm animal.” He laughs, making my mouth drop open in disbelief.

“Howdareyou?” I say dramatically as Hendrix runs back into the room and straight over to Tank.

“Tank, can you come back to play soccer with us next time?” I feel my breath catch in my throat as I wait to hear Tank’s response. I have a bad habit of answering for other people before they have a chance to let Hendrix down, but tonight, for some reason, I don’t step in. Because part of me is confident he won’t let him down.

“I’m there, little man. Just tell your mom to call me and I’ll bring the gear.” He smiles at Hendrix as they fist bump and the realization hits me—I have to do anything I can to protect my friendship with Tank. Because no matter how IthinkI feel about him, I can tell that Hendrix looks up to him already and considers him a friend as well. And there’s no way I’ll do anything to jeopardize that now.

CHAPTER12

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