Page 106 of Between Now and Forever
That’s what I want Gabrielle to know. She’s not alone. I’m here and I want to make their lives richer, safer. And in some way, in the earliest form, I might even be falling in love with her. I might also care a lot more than I want to admit about those boys.
“Do you think we can figure out how to get the evening to ourselves tomorrow?” I ask.
“Probably. Why?”
I smile at her. “I just want to have you to myself and talk to you about some things without keeping one eye open for a baseball coming at me.”
“Only one eye because that’s all you have?”
I shake my head, making her laugh.
“All right,” Carter says, bursting out the door with the energy of a child hyped on chocolate. “I forgot to tell you something.”
“Who? Me?” Gabrielle asks.
“Nope.” He turns to me.“You.”
“Why does that feel like a threat?” I ask.
He bends over laughing, even though I’m not sure he understood the joke. Gabrielle, on the other hand, elbows me in the ribs.
“Okay,” I say. “What did you forget to tell me? I know my eye is black. So if it’s that, I got it.”
“No.It’s not that. It’s that at school, they’re having a Boat Box Derby.”
“A what?” Gabrielle asks.
“A Boat Box Derby.”
I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees. “Do you mean a Soap Box Derby?”
“Yes. That. I didn’t know what it was, but all the kids were talking about it. They do it every year in our grade and the principal comes andthere’s cake.” He pauses to make a face, as if that’s a hook enough. He puts his hands on my forearms and leans so close that I can smell the chocolate on his breath. “I signed us up for it.”
He stares holes in my eyes. And for the first time since I met Carter Solomon, he’s as serious as a heart attack.
I’m not sure what to say. Sure, I’m happy to help him with whatever he needs. But this feels very ... parental. That’s what fucks me up a little bit.
“Carter, honey,” Gabrielle says, scrambling to pull his attention away from me. “You can’t just sign Jay up for stuff. Why would you do that? I’m happy to help you build a ... soap box?”
He sighs animatedly. “It’s a derby car,Mom, and that’s why you can’t help. You don’t even know what it is. And Jay is good at building stuff. Have you even been in his garage?”
“I have,” she says, her cheeks pink. “But just because he can build things doesn’t mean he has time to build you a derby car.”
“He does,” Carter says happily. “All the kids are having their dads help them. And I told them Jay was practically my dad—”
Dylan bursts through the door, making us all jump. His face is beet red as he stares us all down. “Fuck that. He’snotyour dad.”
I want to step in and say something.But what do I say? Do I tell Carter that I’m not his dad? Or that I’m happy to help? Do I tell Dylan no one is trying to replace his dad, or do I stay out of it so I don’t make this worse?
“Okay, Dylan, calm down,” Gabrielle says, standing up.
“I’m not calming down.You lied to me.”
Gabrielle flinches. “What did I lie to you about?”
“All that stuff you said last night in my room. About how no one is trying to make Jay our dad. And how great my dad was and how much you want to do what’s right by him. And now I come out here and hear Carter tell him”—Dylan glares at me—“that he’s practically our dad.I don’t fucking think so.”
“Dylan, can I talk to you privately for a moment?” I ask.
