Page 74 of The Pucker and the Princess
“Oh, god,” I say out loud. Fucking hell. That’s shitty.
I try calling, but she doesn’t pick up. Holding my phone in my hand, I tap my thumb on the side of it, trying to decide what to do. First, I send a text back.
That sounds super shitty. I’m sorry. Call if you need to vent.
And then I do the thing I always do when I need someone to talk to and bounce ideas off of. I grab my jacket and keys and head to Nick’s.
Shelby answers the door when I arrive, hopping up and down. “Uncle Dozer! Uncle Dozer! Did you come to play with me?”
I hold out my hand for a high five, and she smacks it as hard as she can. “Ooh!” I make a production of shaking the sting out of my hand. “Ouch, Shelbs. You can really pack a wallop.”
Her grin stretches from ear to ear. “Yay!” Then she scampers away, leaving the door open, presumably expecting me to follow.
Once I’m inside, I toe off my wet shoes and shut the door behind me. Tina pokes her head around the corner. “Ah, okay. I thought I heard Shelby yelling your name. Nick’s downstairs with Noah.”
“Thanks, Tina.”
“Come on!” shouts Shelby, reappearing and gesturing for me to follow. “This way!” Grinning, I trail behind her as she leads the way to the stairs that go down to the kids’ playroom, shouting, “Daddy! Daddy! Uncle Dozer came over to play!”
Nick looks up from the tower of blocks he’s building with Noah. “Hey, Dozer. What’s up?”
“Hey, man.” I squat down next to the block tower, picking up a bright red one and passing it to Noah, who grins at me and takes the block. “I was hoping I could talk to you for a sec.”
He glances at the kids. “Do we need to go somewhere without little ears listening in?”
Shrugging, I shake my head. “I don’t think so.” I’ll just have to keep my opinions about Marissa’s ex kid friendly, I guess. I give him the basics of Marissa being home and her ex’s engagement party.
Nick’s eyebrows climb his forehead as I explain, and he lets out a low whistle and shakes his head. “Why doesn’t she just not go?”
I shrug again, passing another block to Noah from the pile next to me. “I’m not sure she feels like she can say no.” I blow out a breath, picking out my words. “I get the feeling that there’s a lot of pressure to portray the correct image as a family. From what she’s said, that’s a big part of the reason she and her siblingsare all far away from their parents. Too much pressure to be a certain way. No real room to be themselves.”
Clucking his tongue, Nick shakes his head again. The tower’s getting pretty tall now, and it starts wobbling a little. “Noah, my man,” he says, “I’m not sure we should keep building. It’s gonna fall over in a sec.”
Noah grins and claps. “Yay! Fall over!”
Laughing, Nick climbs to his feet, a block in one hand. He scoops up Noah and hands him the block. Noah leans over to set it on top of the tower, which promptly topples over with a big crash.
Noah cheers and Shelby scampers over again. “Can I help build a new one?” she asks. “Uncle Dozer, do you want to build a tower with me?”
“Sure, Shelby. If you want it to be tall, we should start with a wide base.”
“Listen to Uncle Dozer,” Nick adds. “Sounds like he knows what he’s talking about.”
Shelby nods solemnly, and we start to work on the base.
“So what are you thinking?” Nick asks after a moment. “It seems like you came here for advice, but I’m not sure what kind of advice you’re wanting.”
Blowing out a breath, I sit back, fiddling with the block in my hand and shaking my head. “I’m not sure. I haven’t talked to her, other than to respond to her text. I tried calling, but she didn’t answer.”
“Probably can’t talk. Or there are people around who she doesn’t want to overhear the conversation.”
I nod. “I figured the same thing.”
“Okay. And? What’re you gonna do when you’re here and she’s there anyway?”
Shrugging, I pass the block in my hand to Shelby, who adds it to the tower. “I dunno. Part of me wants to go there. But would that be crazy?”
Nick shrugs. “Maybe. Yeah. But it also might help a lot.” He points at me with a block. “She might wish you were there but not feel like she can ask. That’d be a big ask, especially this early in the relationship.” He shakes his head. “Or she might get pissed at you for overstepping.”
