Page 28 of The One I Want
Wes starts smiling. I didn’t realize that overshare was smile worthy.
“Want to make it your job?”
“Excuse me, what?”
He laughs. “I asked you if you wanted to make watching my kids your job?”
Now I just stare at him. He’s said it twice now, yet I don’t think he’s really saying it.
Me? Watch the kids? As a job?
“Betsy?”
“Yeah,” I say, blinking myself back to reality. “I’m, uh, I didn’t expect this today.”
“Sorry about that,” he says. “I wanted to talk to you about it without the kids around, because if they knew I was here asking you to do this they wouldn’t leave either of us alone about it.”
“I can see Magnolia’s sad puppy face now. I’d be a goner.”
“Exactly.”
I take a second and think about this. Could I do it? I mean, if I were to ever watch a set of kids full time, it would be Wes’s three. I know them. They know me. And best yet? They are all potty trained.
“I mean, I’m flattered,” I say. “But can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Why me?”
I’m not asking this for him to pump up my ego. I’m genuinely curious. In my history, I’ve never been the one to be sought after for employment. Yes, Whitley asked me to come work for her, but I doubt she would have if I hadn’t been freshly cut off and about to be kicked out of my lease.
Wes lets out a breath and clasps his hands, letting his elbows rest on his legs. “I’m guessing you know by now that my wife and I are getting a divorce.”
I nod. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that.”
He shakes his head. “Don’t be. I was shocked when it first happened, but the more I’ve thought of it, the more I know it’s going to be the best for everyone. We weren’t happy. And I don’t want the kids growing up in a house where their parents always fight and only stay together for them.”
“That’s a good way to think about it.”
“It’s the best I can do with the cards I’ve been dealt. But with that comes the fact that I’m now going to be a single father. She’s made it clear she only wants set, sporadic visitation. I’d rather her admit up front that she only wants to be a barely part-time mother instead of promising them the world only to let them down.”
I swear the day I meet this woman I’m going to ask her what the hell her problem is. That is, of course, after I make a not-so-thinly-veiled insult on her dupe Hermes bag. Which I know it probably isn’t a dupe but calling it that would piss her off.
“Anyway,” Wes continues. “I love my kids. I’m happy to have them, and I want to give them as normal and best a life as I can. But for the immediate future, at least until I’m done with football season, I need help. I barely got them to school today, and I woke up at four so we wouldn’t be late.”
“Wow,” I say. “You got them there, right?”
He nods. “Thank goodness we had gone last week so they could get registered and a tour of the building. Otherwise we would have been fucked.”
This makes me laugh. “I’m also guessing Emerson made a map?”
“Close,” he says. “She did type out time schedules for everyone and exact locations for pick up.”
“That girl is going to run the world one day,” I say.
“That’s the plan,” he says. “But until then, she needs someone to help her out. They all do. Honestly, so do I. I don’t know if you could tell, but I’m not the best at the girl stuff. Hell, I’m barely adequate with any of it. I can cook three things. Breakfast is always cereal. Luckily, the kids have some sense of style so they can pick out what they wear, otherwise I’d just be getting them Fury shirts in every fit and color, and they’d just wear those every day.”
“You mean, like you’re wearing?” I nod to him as he sits there in a Fury hoodie and gray joggers.
