Page 75 of Night of the Living Manny
Please, God, just let it be real and let Liam be safe.
He couldn’t imagine how worried Liam was, how stressed he was about the kids. If they were hurting Liam, Brenden might have to go postal.
“That’s some good soup, guys,” he said.
“Thanks! We’re practicing for when Daddy comes home.”
“Good deal. He’ll be so tickled when you cook for him.” What was Liam going to do? How would they all get back together? God, why was he out of the loop?
WHENLiam came home, they were totally going to talk about this whole code-he-didn’t-understand thing. He needed to know. Susanna wouldn’t be with them forever, and he needed to be able to read those emails.
He grinned at himself. He thought about Liam in terms of forever now. Brenden hoped that wasn’t a pipe dream. Love didn’t always work out, but God, he wanted to be that nanny who stayed.
Lunch was delicious because Peter and Britt had made it for them. Hopefully this meant the kids were fighting back. It was hard to keep young ones their ages down, but they’d been through a lot, and now they were having to accept him in, accept his authority.
They were such great kids.
“Thanks for lunch,” Brenden said, patting his belly.
“It was awesome,” Susanna agreed.
Britt beamed at her older sister. “Thank you!”
“I’ll do the dishes since you cooked,” Susanna said.
“That’s cool. Rock on.” Peter got up and put his dishes in the sink. “Can I play a video game?”
“Yeah. For about an hour.”
“Okay. Thanks.” Peter hurried off, almost cheery.
Brenden started to feel so much better about life in general. “Can you show me your dad’s emails and explain them to me, Susanna?”
“Sure. I feel better, like he’s actually going to be okay.”
“Good. That’s what I want to hear. I’ll help with the dishes.”
“Oh wow, that’s nice. You sure about that?” She rolled her eyes, playing with him.
“I think I might be.” He chuckled, pushing his sleeves up.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.” He might not be able to answer, but she could ask.
“Are you and Daddy… uh… you know… dating?”
“Yeah. Yeah, we are.” He was pretty sure Liam not acting like it was a big deal that they’d slept together meant they were together.
“Cool. Do you love him, because if you don’t, you should be honest with him.”
“I do. I mean, I think we need more time together, but I really do love him.” Over and above this whole stress shit, he figured.
“Huh. That’s cool.” Susanna grinned at him, a little shy, he thought, but approving.
“Yeah? Thanks, hon. I worry that I’m stepping in quick, but I was all into your dad before all of this started.”
“He likes you too. He told me.”
