Page 45 of Opening It Up
So I swallowed my pride.
“Yes, thank you. That would be great.”
Pete was very enthused to see me.
“Mostly have rodents these days,” he said, waving an arm around at the big, spacious glass enclosures filled with rats, mice, guinea pigs, hamster, and gerbils, all in their proper spaces. “But Pet’s Premium Rodent Emporium doesn’t have quite the same ring, you know?”
“I can see that,” I said.
My next step was to make sure the boys knew that I’d be coming home from work on time from now on. They both expressed such genuine happiness at that that I felt even more like a disgusting worm.
How could I have been so blind not to see that this was all I needed?
“I appreciate all you do to help us around the house and with the boys,” I told my father-in-law as he sat in the easy chair reading one of his haberdashery books. “Would you like to have your own place? I’ve been thinking, there’s plenty of room back there in the yard. We could build a little cottage just for you? So you could have your own space?”
Julius’ eyes gleamed with joy, and the magazine dropped so I could see he had tucked the Personals section of the newspaper into it.
“That is a marvelous idea! I fear enough time has passed. I am ready to start looking for wife #5 and no time to lose at my age.”
I grinned and almost automatically turned to catch Lily-Mae’s eye, then remembered of course she wasn’t here.
She was out with another man.
All I could do was show her how much I appreciated her and our family and how I was never going to do anything this stupid ever again.
CHAPTER 19
Lily-Mae
No matter what scheduling difficulties I had, Leopold and Brayden were always there to take any time I could give them.
“I’ve got an appointment to volunteer at the library doing a free yoga class for seniors in two hours. I had lunch and then afternoon tea booked back-to-back with both of you, but now I won’t be able to do that.”
“Arm wrestle you for it?” Brayden asked immediately, glancing over at Leopold.
The older man tapped a big finger on his suit.
“We could settle it like that. Or I could just give you $50,000 to run along and play with your action figures.”
“It wouldn’t be fair,” I protested. “I just won’t go on either date.”
“Miss a date?” Brayden complained. “I’m already dreading the three months being up and yourhusbandgetting all your time.”
He said “husband” like you would say “chicken pox outbreak.”
Poor Harley.
“We could. . .combine dates,” I said. “That’s the only way I see it could work.”
“But. . . I wanted to have sex,” Brayden protested.
“Exactly,” I said, crossing my arms and looking at both of them. “That’s the only way I can think of to fit two dates in.”
Leopold and Brayden both looked startled, but by the firm sets of their jaws I could also see neither man wanted to admit defeat.
“My office is quite a large space,” Leopold said after a moment. “I’m game if you are.”
“Well, game on, old man,” Brayden said hotly. “Lead the way to your lair. I just hope you can keep up with us.”
