Page 58 of Challenged By You
I frown at the pancakes at the table. “What do you want to eat? You shouldn’t be eating something this solid yet, should you? Off the top of my head, there’s the rest of the ice cream, yogurt, or applesauce?” Though listing the last item causes my heart to ache a little after knowing about Jonas’s feelings about apples.
“Gimme the ice cream, babe. I like s-h-o-t-s about as much as these two. I deserve to be pampered.”
“Deal.” I reach into the freezer and grab out the tub of vanilla and a spoon. Plopping both in front of Elle, I scoop up Annie, who immediately reaches for the sweet treat in front of her godmother. “Pancakes first,” I tell my daughter firmly.
“Ice cweam,” she demands.
“Yeah,” Chris agrees. “Ice cweam!” He throws his plastic spork down to show me his opinion. Pointing to me he says, “Bad Mommy,” before he bats his lashes at Elle. “Pretty.”
I open and close my mouth before counting to ten. I wasn’t lying to Jonas last night when I said there were some days when the challenges of parenting made you want to scream. Today, I feel like I’ve been sliced, diced, chopped, and deep-fried, and I’m only at dinner. Finally regaining my control, I give my children two options. Not that they understand the ramifications of what I’m saying, but more the firm tone I’m using. “You can have your ice cream with the pancakes as part of your dinner, but there will be no dessert before bath, or you can have it after we eat. Regardless of which choice you make, if you throw a fuss, there will be no park tomorrow with Mrs. McPhearson. You have to decide—together.”
“I love how you do this.” Elle’s enthralled as the twins babble for a moment before she speaks in the eerie silence.
“What?”
“They’re so young, but you include them in decisions.”
“They’re going to have to deal with the consequences regardless, so they need to be a part of the process, right?”
Annie, who instigated the issue, resolves it by picking up her fork and putting a bite of pancake into her mouth. Chris follows suit. I shrug knowing this little squall has passed.
Later, after the kids have had dessert—ice cream, of course—and their bath, Elle and I are drinking warm herbal tea cuddled on my bed. “I’d like to make it up to the two of you,” she volunteers.
I snort. “You made the wrong decision by not calling me, but the best decision you could. Get over yourself, Bruder.”
Her head drops to my shoulder. “I’ve waited years for you to have this moment. After Erik and Will, I jumped right back into the saddle of dating. I didn’t have—don’t have—the responsibilities you have. And then for them to try to take custody of your children?”
The white-hot fury that used to lick at my soul when we’d touch on the subject of our exes just isn’t there. “Maybe when you’re being shoved down a path you never want to travel, you’re just being prepared for the better way of life.”
“Excuse me?” Elle shifts back.
“I mean think about it. If I hadn’t moved back to New York, I never would have started working at Seduction. I certainly would never have met Jonas. Would I ever have had that confrontation with my mother?”
“Stupid twat” is all Elle says. I can’t help but grin. “I can only be grateful they didn’t require licenses for motherhood or I wouldn’t have you in my life. And I need you. Beyond that, bah!”
At the end of a day that began beneath the twinkling lights unveiling the truth of desire, bringing me full circle amid a sense of pain, I never thought I would feel so free. Yes, there’s a never-ending sadness I’ll never quite recover from over the confrontation with my mother, but there’s also the relief in exposing my feelings rather than pretending any longer. “You don’t owe either of us a thing, Elle. If it hadn’t been for the sequence of events unfolding, I never would have realized Mrs. McPhearson is a professional sitter. Life has a funny way of giving us what we need when we need it, doesn’t it?”
Before she can answer, my phone pings with a text. Reaching up on the shelf, I see it’s from Jonas. “Probably checking in. Do you mind?”
“Not at all,” she drawls, scooting closer. “You realize I’m going to read everything he says.”
“Likely ’cause if I didn’t let you, you’d just unlock my phone when I went to pee.”
“Well, there is that,” she agrees.
I grin, but I open my phone and read. Then I frown in concentration.
Did your new stroller come in yet?
“Hmm, is this the kind of sexy talk you two got off on last night? Hardly my cup of tea, but hey, whatever works.” Enunciating her point, Elle takes a long sip of her cooling drink.
“Not hardly,” I drawl as my thumbs fly over the keyboard.No, they sent it back again since Mom wasn’t at my apartment. Why?
How do you feel about an almost mint condition stroller that’s used. I can vouch for the seller.
Suddenly pictures of a woman with long dark hair holding a newborn and two little boys appears on my screen. My heart melts.Is that Chelsea? She’s beautiful.
It is. That was taken by her husband right before he had to go back to his job overseas. But she needs a triple now. She was going to list her stroller online. What were you going to spend on your new one?
