Page 108 of Sliding into Home

But was it?

Really?

Maybe. Mostly, it was because she was a coward. Damn it. That wasn’t fair.

Angry at herself, she’d turned the game off the second it was done. She hadn’t been able to watch the press conference after. But when her phone had blown up with missed texts from her sister for the past hour, she wished she had.

She picked up the first book. “Okay, you need to read at least one page out loud to me, then we’ll switch, and I’ll read two chapters. In. One. Book.” She punctuated the words to drive home the point that they would not be reading every book in the pile. Nor would she be sucked into reading additional chapters. As much as she loved the time snuggled up on the bed reading with Max every night, tonight she needed to track down the footage from the press conference Vika kept hounding her about. She hadn’t allowed herself to watch it with Max just in case it created more questions than answers.

Max picked up the chapter book and flipped to the page where they’d last left off. He snuggled his head onto her shoulder and held the book in the air above his face and began to slowly read. Pride swelled in her chest as she listened to him fly through the words on the page. It didn’t seem like that long ago that he could barely sound out one word, and now he was reading entire pages. Things changed so quickly.

The front doorbell rang, and she eyed the clock. Who could that be? She peeled herself off the bed. “I’ll be right back,” she told Max.

She adjusted her shirt as she made her way down the hall toward the front door. She peered through the peephole and sucked in a breath when she saw Jeff standing on the other side of the door. Was she ready to see him? The pounding in her chest said yes.

Steeling her spine, she pulled open the door. “Hey.”

His shoulders sagged in what looked like relief as she pulled the door wider. “Hi,” he replied.

Before she’d even had a chance to step back, she heard Max yell, “Dad!” A second before he flew down the hall, jumping onto Jeff.

“Hey Maxie, love the Spidey jammies. Very cool.” Jeff looked at their son.

“Thanks. I watched you play tonight.”

“Yeah, what’d you think?”

“Woulda been better if I’d been there,” Max told him.

“Yeah, but you still could watch and that’s good too,” Jeff replied.

Guilt kneaded Kia’s stomach. Jeff could have been a dick about her not bringing Max to the game. Instead, he wasn’t. He was being really supportive of her. Which was more than she could say she’d done for him.

“You wanna hear me read?” Max asked.

“Absolutely,” Jeff replied. “If it’s okay with your mom.”

Max’s nose wrinkled up. “Is it okay, Mom?”

“Of course,” she replied.

“Alright, let’s go then.” Jeff smiled at Kia as he followed Max down the hall to his room.

Now what? She stood in the hallway, looking around. They still needed to talk.

“Come on, Mom,” Max yelled from his bedroom.

Putting one foot in front of the other, she glided down the hallway. At the bedroom door, she stopped. Her stomach whooshed as she took in the pair, snuggling on the twin mattress. Next to Max, Jeff looked so big, so solid. As she watched Max curl in tighter, it was clear how safe her son felt. Feeling like an interloper, she leaned against the wall, resting on one foot.

“Come on, Mom, lie down,” Max ordered.

Jeff shifted his large body to the edge of the mattress, dragging Max along with him to create space for her on the other side.

Kia eased into the vacant space.

“Dad, you read the boy parts and mom will read the girl.”

“You sure are bossy,” she teased, dropping a loud, sloppy kiss on the side of her son’s face.

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