“First of all, if I ignored you today, I didn’t mean to. I probably just didn’t hear you, sweetie,” she assured her daughter, who was clutching her hand so tightly Miranda’s bones ached. “And remember we talked about how when there are ten other little girls in the studio, I have to pay attention to all of them instead of just one?”
“I remember.”
“I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, Soph, but I promise, I didn’t do it on purpose, okay?”
“’Kay.”
They exited the building and walked hand in hand to the parking lot behind the school. Miranda tried to remember Sophie’s next complaint. Right, the stories.
“And your brother was right. I was very tired yesterday and that’s why I only read one story. Hey, know what Andre just called me?”
“What?”
“Superwoman.”
Sophie giggled. “That’s funny.”
“Kind of, but see, it’s not true.” She lifted her daughter into the backseat and buckled her up, then knelt in front of the open door. “I’m not a superhero, Soph. I can’t do everything, and sometimes I get tired and cranky. I know that might not be fair to you and Jase, but sometimes you guys get tired and cranky too, right?”
“Right.”
“So what do you say we agree not to get upset with each other at times like those? Deal?”
Sophie smiled. “Deal.”
Uneasiness swelled in Miranda’s stomach as she reached the final topic of discussion. “And I don’t want you to worry. We’re not going to live with Seth forever. He’s just being a good friend to your mom and giving us a place to stay until our apartment is all fixed up.”
Sophie brought her doll up to her chest and began playing with Emily’s silky black hair. She avoided Miranda’s eyes as she whispered, “Do you like Sef more than you like me and Jase?”
Her heart squeezed. “Oh, sweetie, of course not. I like Seth, he’s a good friend of Mommy’s, but I could never like him more than you and Jason. I could never like anyone more.”
“Promise?”
“Pinky promise,” she replied, sticking out her baby finger.
They shook pinkies again, and then Miranda teasingly tugged on her daughter’s ponytail and got up. “Okay, now we need to pick up your brother before he thinks we abandoned him.”
She slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine, then pulled out of the lot and merged into the late afternoon traffic. A glance in the rearview mirror revealed Sophie playing with her doll, but suddenly Sophie’s head lifted and she locked gazes with her mother.
“I don’t wanna go for pizza today,” Sophie announced.
Miranda wrinkled her forehead. “But it’s our Saturday tradition.”
Her daughter stubbornly shook her head. “I don’t wanna go. Can you ask the pizza man to bring pizza to Sef’s house?”
“Sure, we can get it delivered,” she said, baffled. “But why?”
An exaggerated sigh reverberated in the interior of the car. “’Cause you’re tired, Mom. Duh!”
With that, Sophie returned her attention to her new doll, leaving Miranda to shake her head in awe and amusement. God, she had great kids. Sweet, perceptive, smart. Just all-around incredible.
The rugrats are smart, babe. Smart enough to know that you’re the only parent they need.
Seth’s words from the other night buzzed in her brain, immediately followed by the convoluted thought Sophie had voiced minutes ago.
Sometimes he’s nice, but then he stops being nice when he sees that we see he’s being nice.
Out of the mouth of babes.
Was Sophie on to something, though? Was Seth going out of his way to refrain from being nice to the twins? Was he purposely putting distance between himself and her children? Because the other day, when he’d recited his reasons for not wanting or liking kids, something had sounded so…false. And call her crazy, but there might have even been a tremor of panic in his tone.
It suddenly occurred to her that she hardly knew anything about Seth Masterson. He’d grown up in Vegas, he’d been raised by a showgirl, he’d enlisted at eighteen.
But what else? What was his childhood like? What were his hopes and dreams? How did he envision his future?
And did it really matter whether she had the answers to any of those questions? The involvement between her and Seth was purely sexual. Sooner or later it would fizzle out, so why try to forge a deeper connection?
Maybe the less insight she had into Seth’s complicated psyche, the better off she’d be.
Seth was feeling edgy as hell as he watched Miranda wipe the corner of her mouth with a napkin, all cute and demure-like. The four of them were sitting on the living room floor around the coffee table, munching on the pizza Miranda had ordered for dinner. The flat screen on the wall was playing an animated movie Jason had picked, but Seth wasn’t paying attention to the TV. He was too busy looking at Miranda, same way he’d been looking at her every goddamn second for the past three days.