Page 45 of Wild Love
Me staring must have gotten to him because eventually he said, “Sometimes we need a minute to get our bearings before we have the big conversations.”
I bet he read that in one of his high-brow poetry books along the way. But I still said thank you before I left. Even though he refused to make eye contact.
Pretty sure he was only nice to me because he feels bad about how dumb I am.
But at least I can give my parents a break before I deliver more bad news this way.
My chest twinges. I hate that she felt as though she had to swallow her disappointments just to make things easier for everyone else.
“I never thought you were dumb,” I announce, lifting my head to face her across the office. “And I knew your mom’s signature from watching West practice it so he could forge it on similar notices.”
All Rosie offers to that is a conspiratorial wink before focusing back on her computer screen.
“Did you ever tell them about the test?” I press.
Now she smiles but doesn’t meet my gaze. “Nah. That one’s our secret, Junior. I took it again the next semesterand passed. Never did get that spare I was dreaming of though.”
It strikes me that she’s always been so committed to not letting anyone down that she may never have really learned to put herself first.
So that’s exactly what I tell myself I’m doing when I tag along to school pickup. Keeping her company, putting her first, and keeping the “perv dads” from getting the wrong idea.
Because Rosie might think she knows what our secret is, but mine is that I loved sitting on that dock with her even back then.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
FORD
“My sister is babysitting for you?”
West sounds disbelieving as he turns the steering wheel of his truck with his palm.
“She’s not babysitting. Cora is twelve. And Rosalie offered. They’re having pizza and watchingLegally Blonde.”
He snorts. “Rosie never offers to babysit for me.”
“That’s because one of your kids is feral and—” I stop what I’m saying, realizing I’ve stepped in it.
West just chuckles. “Don’t be weird. You can say it. One is feral, and the other doesn’t talk.”
“I mean, he talks to you and Mia.”
“Doesn’t much help a babysitter, though, does it?” His tattooed fingers rap against the steering wheel. “Fine by me. Smart kid. He’ll do it when he’s good and ready. Then we’ll all be wishing he’d shut up.”
Leave it to West to be totally nonplussed by his son’sselective mutism. Where I’d be giving myself anxiety and researching the hell out of every option out there, West just goes with it, following his son’s lead.
“Ollie is lucky to have you.”
West grins almost maniacally. “Nah. I’m lucky to have him. That kid has taught me a lot about life.”
And I don’t doubt it. Becoming a dad changed West. Put him on a different path. He and Mia may not have been written in the stars, but he and those babies were. I think they might have saved him, actually. It wasn’t until they came around that he stopped doing crazy, dumb shit.
“You missed the turnoff,” I say when we blow past the bar on the lake. The one that has a bowling alley in the basement. Arcade games. Pool tables and a restaurant upstairs.
West scoffs. “No, I didn’t. That’s where the tourists go. Rose Valley Alley is where Dads’ Night Out happens.”
Fuck me, this is cheesy. “Do you really call it Dads’ Night Out?”
“Yeah. What the fuck else would I call it? ‘Grown men who have children meet at a bowling alley one night every other week’?”
