Page 65 of The Twelve Months of Christmas
He heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Now what?”
Sunny told him what was what. “I knew you should have been the one to call her.”
“Sorry. I thought we’d reached the point where we were being civilized.”
“You can’t civilize weeds. Anyway, you should be the one talking to your ex about this stuff, not me. I bet her grandma doesn’t even have a birthday this weekend,” Sunny fumed later as they cut up veggies for salad.
“I really don’t remember,” Travis said. “If she does, I don’t want to be the villain who ruined Grandma’s birthday celebration. Do you?”
Sunny made a face. “I guess not. But this is such a bunch of rotten eggs she’s feeding us.”
He set down his knife and wrapped his arms around her waist. “She’ll eat her own share of rotten eggs one day. You know what they say. What goes around comes around.”
“It can’t come around for her soon enough,” Sunny muttered.
“I got an idea,” he said. “Let’s go over there right now and take the kids out for burgers.”
Here was a great idea. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Why not? Stick the chicken in the fridge for tomorrow.”
“I’ll get my jacket,” said Sunny.
Moments later they were in his vintage Mustang, driving over to the house he’d once shared with Tansy.
Her look of dismay and surprise when she opened the door of the two-story Victorian and found them standing on the porch did Sunny’s heart good.
Not so much good, though, when Travis announced they were there to take the kids out for dinner and Tansy informed them that Bella was at a friend’s house. Then it was all Sunny could do not to resort to violence and wipe that satisfied smirk off the woman’s face.
The smirk disappeared when Dylan showed up behind her, saying, “Hi, Dad.”
“Hey, dude. Want to go to Noah’s Ark for a burger and shake?”
“Yeah!” Dylan said, and was out the door faster than a lightning bolt.
“He can’t stay out all night,” Tansy said sourly. “He has school in the morning.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll have him back in plenty of time,” Sunny said airily, and followed Dylan off down the stairs.
He was happy to tell them about how his basketball team was doing and when his next game was, and Sunny promised they’d be there to watch it. Amazing how pleasant a meal could be when a certain angry girl wasn’t present.
“That went well,” Travis said after they’d dropped Dylan back home.
“It did,” she agreed.
“He likes you.”
“Well, at least he tolerates me.”
“It’s progress.”
Yes, it was.Baby steps, she reminded herself. And baby steps were better than no steps.
Mia’s next adventure was getting her port put in. “I hate it,” she said, looking down at the lump under the skin on her chest. “It looks like an alien implant.”
“Lots of women get implants,” Arianna joked.
Her mother frowned.
