“You know about… everything with Joe?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, kids at school talk about it all the time. About his wife and Dad and son and how he’s the lone wolf after all that, the hot lone wolf, the hot, super cool lone wolf. You nab him you’ll be like… a legend,” Keira informed me then grinned and finished. “And we’ll be legends too.”
“Yeah, ‘cause we get to live with Joe too,” Kate added.
“And we call him Joe and no one calls him Joe,” Keira put in.
“Yeah, we’re already kinda legends on that. Dane tells everyone we call him Joe. They think it’s way cool,” Kate said.
I didn’t like everyone at their school talking about Joe, even though they obviously thought he was cool. There was something about it that rattled me.
But I let that go, took in a breath through my nose then I said, “You know, Joe’s moving in, our Joe, not hot, super cool, lone wolf Joe that everyone talks about and him moving in makes you a legend. He’s just a man, he might be a big and strong man but he’s got feelings.”
“Yeah, feelings for us,” Keira replied.
“And feelings for you,” Kate told me.
“And we have feelings for him,” Keira went on.
“And you do too,” Kate finished.
Yeah, I did, but it was good to know they did too.
“You like him?” I asked quietly.
“He’s Joe,” Kate answered simply.
That kind of said it all. He definitely was Joe.
I looked at Keira. “Before he came back, you seemed mad –”
“Mom, it’s cool,” she interrupted me, “I was mad but now we have him back and he came back when we needed him.”
“When you needed him,” Kate stuck with her theme.
“I –” I started but Kate kept talking.
“When Uncle Sam…” She stopped speaking abruptly, looked away then swallowed and looked back at me. “When we came home, you were in Joe’s lap then he carried you across the room and he…” She hesitated and her voice dropped to a whisper. “When we lost Dad, you didn’t have that, someone to be there, someone to lean on, someone to hold you up because that was Dad’s job and he was gone and that was why you…” She shrugged and finished. “I’m just glad that Joe’s gonna be around.”
I felt tears stinging the backs of my eyes and I pulled in another breath through my nose before I asked, “You’re sure?” They both nodded so I continued. “It’s only a couple of months then we’ll talk again. This is your home. I want you to feel good in it and comfortable. If you ever feel funny, you need to talk to me.”
“Mawdy, it’s no big deal. Really. Yeesh. This is Joe,” Kate sighed.
“Yeah,” Keira agreed, “yeesh.”
God, they acted like this was no big deal and I should just…
Relax.
Thinking that, I smiled to myself and also defended myself. “I’m tryin’ to be a good Mom.”
“You don’t have to try,” Kate told me.
Another sock to the gut. Winded.
I’d never had a more beautiful compliment.
I took in my wonderful, gorgeous girls, leaned forward, my forearms on the counter and said, “I just want you girls to be happy.”
And to that, Kate asked, “Yeah, you ever think that we want the same for you?”
That’s when the tears hit my eyes.
“God, I love you guys,” I whispered.
“Love you too, Mawdy,” Kate whispered back, also leaning in, also with tears in her eyes.
“Yeah, me too,” Keira whispered, leaning in as well with tears in her eyes.
I got off my forearms but reached out and grabbed both their hands, giving them a squeeze.
Then Keira asked, “Where are they with the frozen custard?”
Kate and I laughed and finally I relaxed. They were good. They were even happy for me, for themselves and even for Joe and Keira was right. Enough of the heavy stuff, we’d had more than our fair share of that. It was time to move onto hot fudge frozen custard sundaes.
I let them both go, grabbed my cell off the counter and called Joe.
It rang twice then, “Yo.”
“Hi, talk’s over, you have the Winters Girls seal of approval.”
“Good to know, buddy,” Joe said, sounding like he was smiling then again our talk lasted about ten minutes so he knew he was golden.
“Though,” I went on to warn, “you’re gonna lose it if you don’t get home soon with the custard.”
“It’ll be awhile,” Joe told me.
“Is it busy?” I asked.
“Don’t know. We’re at the garden center,” Joe said.
I blinked at the counter then looked between Kate and Keira before asking, “Why are you at the garden center?”
“Buyin’ you a new grill,” he answered and I blinked again.