Page 38 of Catching Our Moment
“Or I’ll meet him."
Kelcie produced a side-eye glare for me.
“Or we can meet each other halfway. I think we can manage between the two of us, boss.” I resisted the need to tug her ponytail like I used to when I’d won an argument. “We will call you when we make it home, okay?”
Aaron’s face lit up, and he began to nod vehemently.
“Maybe we can go to the park and find something to do that is fun,” I said and then held up a placating hand, adding, “without breaking rules.”
She opened her mouth, a slew of excuses undoubtedly ready to come out. “But?—"
“Kelcie…” I rolled my eyes with great drama. “I’m bored to death. I can’t exercise except to do a few stretches. There’s only so much binge-watching of reality TV I can do. I hate reality television.”
“Your girlfriend is starring on a reality TV show.”
I opened my mouth, pointed at them, and said, “Not the point.”
Then, my eyes darting between the two of them, I pled the rest of my case because this was the best idea I’d had in a long time. “Everyone is working... It really will keep me out of trouble.”
“Mom, please. I’m bored at Maeve’s.”
I pulled Aaron gently toward me, put my hand on his shoulder, and surprisingly, he let me. We were a united front.
“We can talk sports and maybe take a walk downtown. Give us a list of rules, and we will follow them. It would be a good change—a distraction—for both of us.”
“You can’t go for long walks yet.”
“Then we will find a park bench and sit on it.” I gave her a pointed look and nodded once. I would make sure to distract him from his father not coming tomorrow.
She studied us both, her eyes darting from me down to her son and back. She took in a deep breath, relaxed her shoulders, then closed her eyes, and I knew I had her. “Okay. We can try it.”
Aaron tilted his head up to smile at me and then over to her.
Yes. This felt right.
“Aaron, honey, why don’t you go upstairs and get ready for tomorrow? I’m going to walk Shaw out.” We all turned and walked upstairs. Aaron continued up to his room, and Kelcie and I walked toward the back door.
“Okay. Bye, Shaw,” Aaron said.
“Later, my man.”
Once we walked out onto her back porch, she crossed her arms over her chest and stared out into the backyard. “I appreciate you stepping in, but it really isn’t necessary.”
“I wanted to. I think this will be perfect for both of us.”
“It was my fault he overheard me. I let my emotions get away from me.” She moved toward the railing and ran her hand through her hair, pulling on her ponytail, “God, I should have known better.”
I walked up behind her and jammed my hands in my pockets. “It doesn’t mean he heard everything you said.”
She nodded. “He did. You may as well be warned. He could hear our conversation out here with the TV on in the kitchen. He has unbelievable hearing. His brain can’t filter background noise, which makes his life difficult and overwhelming, but it also means he hears everything. We’ve had to invest in several decent noise-canceling headphones for him.
I leaned against the railing, facing her.
“Really?”
“Yeah.” Her voice dropped to almost a whisper, and she kept her back to the closed sliding door. “When he was younger and couldn’t communicate how uncomfortable it was, life was hard for all of us. He’d get overwhelmed, the noise would get to be too much, and it would send him into meltdowns that we couldn’t always predict or understand. Daycare was out. Going out to eat didn’t happen. Playdates with other screaming kids were a definite no.”
“That couldn’t have been easy,” I said quietly, glancing at her, wanting her to talk but not wanting to hear how hard her life had been.
