It was casual, the way she asked it.
But I could tell it was a forced casual.
She was worried. Hix wasn’t in her good graces. But she knew now was not the time to lecture me.
That didn’t mean she didn’t want to know where I was at.
“He leaped down the stairs,” I whispered, glancing to the corner where Shaw had disappeared.
“What?”
“He heard me fall on his stairs when I was trying to get to him. He opened the door. Took one look at me. And, Lou, he leaped down the stairs to get to me. In his pajamas. And bare feet.”
“Yowza,” she breathed.
She was right.
That had been a yowza.
“The kids have been great,” I said quietly. “Shaw is like his dad. A lot like him. Very protective. Very sweet. Mamie’s cute and funny. Corinne is . . . well, I think she’s struggling. She seems awkward sometimes, maybe hiding confusion behind being snippy sometimes, and sometimes shy, but mostly underneath it all she’s being sweet too.”
“Well, not the way most would pick to meet the kids of the new man in your life but at least you had something to focus on rather than sitting at dinner and making small talk,” she remarked.
I laughed softly. “I guess you could look at it like that.”
“And he’s your new man isn’t he? This is the universe’s dramatic way to make that so,” she noted, now sounding forced noncommittal.
She so wanted to lecture me.
“He leaped down the stairs, Lou,” I reminded her.
“Yeah. Hixon Drake leaped down stairs in pajamas and bare feet to get to me, I’d get over him taking out some serious life frustrations on me by being a huge dick too.”
I let out a breath.
No, she wasn’t going to lecture me.
At least not now.
“You want me and the girls to go get Andy?” she offered and I grew still. “Take him out and do something with him today?”
Oh my God.
I hadn’t thought of Andy.
I never missed our Sundays. Not since we’d moved to Nebraska. And before that, Keith and I never missed them except for me, once, when I’d had the flu. But back then, I’d had Keith, and so did Andy, so he’d gone to see him.
Not to mention, we’d only taken two vacations without Andy the whole time we were married. We might do long weekends so we weren’t away from him for too long. But if we took time off and did it going out of town, we usually took Andy with us.
“I can’t . . . he can’t see me like this, Lou,” I pointed out the obvious.
“I know, babe. So me and the girls’ll go out there, get him, take him somewhere and have loads of fun, and it won’t be the same as a visit from his big sis but he won’t feel like he’s missing out too much.”
“I can’t ask you to—”
“Girlfriend, Bill went out and tied one on last night. He’s still sleeping. I’ve asked him two hundred times to fix the leaky faucet in our bathroom and fifty times to drag out the fall decorations and I know today will not be the day either of those will get done. If he wakes up when I’m here, the first thing I’m gonna do is punch him in the sternum. And Andy’s da bomb. The girls will love it. Much more than their mother punching their father in the sternum.”
“That’s probably true.”
“It’s totally true,” she returned. “So call Andy. Tell him to expect us in an hour or so. And don’t worry, we’ll take good care of him.”
She said this last while I watched the Bronco swing into the non-spot of grass next to my Cherokee, but Hixon did it without running into the tree.
“I’ll call Andy,” I replied. “And I’ll send you an over-the-phone hug for being so awesome.”
I spoke while watching Hixon climb out, the girls climb out, but it was Hix who took the two bakery boxes from Corinne after he rounded the back of the Bronco.
Apparently, people he cared about didn’t even carry donuts.
Also apparently, they didn’t want for donuts.
Two boxes?
“Our pleasure, Greta. I’ll text later to let you know we got there and after that to let you know it’s all good.”
“I love you, Lou,” I whispered, moving quickly to round the dining room table to put my coffee mug to the kitchen counter because the wood of the table was too nice to rest a hot mug of liquid on.
“Love you too. Get some rest. Charm the pants off those kids. But don’t worry about that. Just be you and that’ll do it.”
“Shut up,” I ordered before she made me start to cry.
“You shut up.”
“Whatever. Later, babe.”
“Later, Greta.”
We hung up as I turned the corner and saw Shaw coming out of his room.
I had to get back to Hixon’s room because I had to talk to Andy, and I didn’t want to do it with an audience or with noise in the background that might confuse my brother.
“Hey,” I said quickly to Shaw. “Your dad and the girls are back and I have to call my brother. I usually visit him on Sundays and I can’t today because, well . . .” I lifted a hand and pointed to my face. “It might freak him out.”
“Visit him?” Shaw asked.
In my haste to get to Hix’s bedroom, it hadn’t occurred to me that Shaw didn’t know about Andy.
“I gotta call him,” was all I had time to say. “I’ll explain after, okay?”
He nodded.
I scooted by him as the door opened and Mamie called, “We’re here with donuts!”
I kept going, head to my phone as I found Sunnydown’s number in my contact list. I hit it as I closed the door to Hixon’s room behind me. And I did this wishing that Andy didn’t lose and misplace cell phones all the time, doing this causing him to feel like crap he wasted money and sometimes get angry or upset, meaning we’d come to the decision he shouldn’t have one and I had to call Sunnydown and go through that rigmarole to talk to my brother.
I went to the bed and sat on the end of it as I asked to speak to Andy.
The noises were muted behind the door, thankfully, when he came on.
“Hey, Ta-Ta.”
“Hey, buddy. Listen,” I went right into it. “I have good news and bad news. The good news is, Lou and the girls are gonna be there in around an hour to take you out for a day of fun. The bad news is that I’m not feeling really good so I can’t come too.”
“Not feeling good?” he asked.
“No, darlin’. I’m so sorry. You know Sundays are the best days of the week because I get to spend them with you, but I just can’t today. But I’ll be there Thursday, like always. And I’ll call every night, like always too.”
And maybe by Thursday the swelling and bruising will have gone down so I didn’t look so scary and I’d be able to come up with a story that wouldn’t freak Andy out.
“Okay, Ta-Ta. And it’s football time.”
I stared at the carpet of the floor in front of me at his words but lifted my head when I heard the bedroom door open.
Hix walked in, his eyes to me, and I saw from a lot closer what I’d seen from the window in his dining area that Sundays were faded jeans, boots and cream thermals that fit tight at his chest and biceps days.
However, I couldn’t appreciate that like I would normally do.
“Yeah, buddy, it’s football time,” I said to my brother quietly.