21. Chapter 20
Carter
T he set of Shady Oaks was massive. There really was a village.
A part of me would have loved to explore the town and see what doors actually opened up and how the sets were really constructed. But since I was being escorted by security to the set, there was no way to explore.
At least Shiv was absolutely safe when she was at work. I was glad they were escorting people around the set and didn’t just wave them through when their name was on the list.
They dropped me off at the video village, and I could watch Siobhan on the many screens. Stephanie came up to me. She opened up her arms to hug me, but then stopped. Instead, she tilted her head as she appraised me. “You’re not as clean as earlier.”
I smiled at the little girl who looked so much like her mom but didn’t have any of her mom’s curated politeness.
She wasn’t wrong with her assessment. I was definitely a little smellier than I would have liked. But I spent the whole afternoon getting their house back into top shape. At least we hadn’t been painting the house, so I didn’t have splotches all over my shirt.
“True, but your house is all cleaned up again," I told her.
That brought out a huge, toothy smile that made me beam. I liked knowing she was impressed.
The car ride back to my place didn’t go over well.
Despite being excited about the prospect this morning, Stephanie was now pissed about the idea of staying at my place since her home had been cleaned off.
This was where I disagreed with her mom. Siobhan decided we shouldn’t say anything about the additional package on the doorstep, so we played it off as if nothing had happened. But it was much harder to explain to a kid why we couldn’t go back to her home.
As Stephanie kept saying, “If it was nothing, then why can’t I sleep in my own bed?” and there was no real way to argue her point.
Siobhan turned around in the front seat and glared at her kid. “Because I said so."
At the end of the day, Stephanie wasn’t my kid. I didn’t get a say on the best ways to parent her. Instead, I just had to support Siobhan.
When we got to my house, I made sure to turn on the security alarm.
“Show me my bedroom,” Stephanie demanded, which only made her mother blanch. I found it oddly amusing. I wanted to wrap Siobhan in my arms and tell her not to worry. It was good that Stephanie was so brash and willing to say what she wanted.
“All right. A couple of things before we get there. I got you a few things to make you feel more at home. I didn’t know what bedspread you might like, so choose one of them, and we’ll make the bed for you.”
We went up the stairs. Her door was just off to the left and already open. I flicked on the overhead light. Stephanie immediately brushed past the different bedding and went straight for the Squishmellows. Her whole face lit up as she squeezed the narwhal. “This is so cool. Can I keep him?”
I chuckled at her unbridled happiness. It was so pure and innocent. “Yes, you can take all of them home or leave them here. Plus, look at the nightstand.”
She turned to look at the nightstand and saw the matching fuzzy notebook. Her jaw dropped open, and she turned toward her mom. “He’s a keeper. Way cooler than Dad.”
I bit my tongue to keep myself from laughing. I loved how extremely blunt and honest Stephanie was. Plus, it felt damn good to know that on one of the first shopping trips in years, I picked out some fun things.
Siobhan came over to her daughter. “Come on, pick out the bedding since we will need to wash it before we get you to bed.”
Stephanie looked over the bedding, and her eyes kept going back and forth between the Parisian sheets and the light purple flowers.
Then she did a game of eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
Instead of doing a finger point at each bed set she was undecided about, her finger swept from side to side.
Which meant that as she ended the little rhyme, her finger landed on the tie-dye set, which caused her to make a grimace.
I grabbed the sheets that she clearly didn’t like. “Well, how about this? We keep them both, and we put the Paris sheets on the bed. These will be extras.”
Stephanie nodded while Siobhan grabbed the two bags.