Chapter 7
SEVEN
dex
“Look at the way his nostrils flare when he snores.”
Hallie’s voice came through the fog of a restless sleep.
“Yeah.” Luna giggled. “Is that hair in his nose?”
“Ew, I think it is. I never noticed that before.”
“Maybe he cuts it,” Luna said. “I saw him giving his bushy eyebrows a haircut once.”
More giggling. “I’m glad my eyebrows don’t look like that.”
“They kind of do.”
“Do not!” Hallie was indignant.
“I just mean they’re dark like his. But don’t worry, yours aren’t as fuzzy. Daddy’s are like black caterpillars crawling over his eyes.”
Hallie snickered. “Totally.”
Silence for ten blissful seconds. And then.
“Daddy has an outie. I have an innie.”
“Me too.”
“Outies are funny-looking.”
“I know.”
The next thing I knew, one of them stuck a finger in my belly button. I opened my eyes. “Seriously?”
Luna, whose finger was still on my belly button, grinned. “Did that wake you up?”
“Your shit-talking woke me up.”
“We want to go swimming,” Hallie said.
“We have church first. You have Sunday school.”
“Can’t we skip it?”
“No. Your mom would kill me. Bring me my phone please.”
“Where is it?”
I tried to think where I’d left it plugged in. “Try the kitchen.”
Hallie left the room and went downstairs while Luna hopped onto my bed, but instead of getting under the covers, she started jumping on it. “Are we going to get a cat today?”
“No.” I moved my lower body out of the way so she wouldn’t crush the family jewels.
“We have church, and then we can swim, and then I need to go to the grocery store. There’s still lots of unpacking to do too.
Plus, I haven’t yelled at you enough yet for disobeying me yesterday.
And we need to make our emergency plan.”
Hallie appeared with my phone. “It’s seven-twelve,” she said as she handed it to me, then proceeded to join Luna in jumping on my bed.
“I see that.” I also saw that I had texts from Chip and from Naomi, who’d also called several times. “What should we do for breakfast?”
“Donuts again?” asked Hallie hopefully.
“How about bagels?” I frowned at the message from Naomi, which had been sent sixteen minutes ago.
I heard Luna had an allergic reaction last night at the party. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. Did you take her to the ER? CALL ME.
After a deep breath, I looked at Chip’s text, which had been sent around midnight.
Hey, I hope everything is okay.
Really sorry about the allergic reaction.
Our flight doesn’t leave until two so if you’re up early and have time for coffee let me know.
“Stop jumping, I have to type something,” I told the girls. “Why don’t you go get dressed? Nice clothes, please. Something that matches.”
They performed a dismount and raced for their room, while I shot Chip a quick note.
All good here.
We’re heading for church shortly, but maybe you could swing by here on your way to the airport? We should be back by ten-thirty.
I didn’t want to deal with Naomi before getting some caffeine in my bloodstream, but I forced myself to call her back.
“Why didn’t you call me?” she shrieked upon picking up.
“Morning,” I said, mostly to piss her off.
“Dexter.”
“What?”
“I asked you a question! Why didn’t you call me after Luna had a reaction?”
“Because it wasn’t that big a deal. All she needed was an antihistamine. I handled it.”
“I still had a right to know it happened! You should have notified me right away. Instead, I had to hear about it from someone at the bakery this morning.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t think it was necessary.”
“Well, it was. I’m still their mother, even when they’re with you. I need to know about medical emergencies.”
“It wasn’t a fucking emergency,” I snapped.
“Watch your mouth—are the girls right there?”
“No. They’re getting dressed for church.”
“I want to talk to Luna.”
“You’ll see her at church.”
“Now, please.”
Deciding it wasn’t worth the fight, I took the phone into the girls’ room and handed it to Luna. “Your mom wants to talk to you.”
Luna put the phone to her ear. “Hi, Mommy. I’m fine. Yes.” She looked up at me. “Yes. Okay. I will. Bye.” She gave the phone to Hallie. “She wants to talk to you.”
Hallie got on while I crossed my arms over my chest. “Hello? Yes. It was fun, but we weren’t there too long.” She looked around the bedroom. “Yes. It’s nice. Uh huh. And the neighbor lady is really nice too. Her name is Winnie, like the Pooh, and she has a cat named Piglet.”
“Okay, give me the phone,” I said, nervous the next words out of Hallie’s mouth would be we saw her bum. “You can tell her about all this another time.”
Putting the phone to my ear, I walked back to my room. “Satisfied?”
“I guess. But please call me next time, okay?” Her voice had softened. “That’s all I ask. It’s hard enough to be away from them for days at a time, and I . . . I just need to know they’re okay. And it’s so hard when you won’t talk to me.”
Great. Now she was crying. I didn’t want the sound of her sobs to affect me, but the truth was, it did. I took the edge off my tone. “Fine. If there is another allergic reaction, I’ll call you.”
“Or any medical thing.”
My jaw clenched. “Or any medical thing.”
“Thank you, Dex. I appreciate it. I don’t mean to intrude on your time with them.”
“I have to go,” I said. “They’re waiting for me.”
“Okay. I’ll see you at church.”
“Fine.” Ending the call, I tossed my phone onto the bed and rubbed my face with both hands.
Marriage was a fuck ton of work, and I hadn’t been good at it, but damn—divorce was a bitch too.
I didn’t plan on doing either of them ever again.
Fifteen minutes later, we were ready to go. As I backed out of the garage, I didn’t even glance in the direction of Winnie’s house.
But Hallie spoke up. “Hey, maybe we should ask if Winnie wants to go to church with us.”
“We’re not doing that,” I said.
“Do you think she’s awake?” Luna asked.
“No idea.”
“I wonder if her car is in the garage,” Hallie said. “She’s old enough to drive, right Daddy?”
“She’s twenty-two,” I told them. “Yes, that’s old enough to drive.” And vote and drink, I thought—but barely.
Shoving the thought of that kiss from my head, I concentrated on the road.
“I wonder what she does for a job,” Luna said.
I realized I’d sat outside with her for at least twenty minutes but I had no idea what she did for a living. “I don’t know.”
“Her mom owns a bakery,” Hallie recalled. “Maybe she works there?”
“She might.” For a second, I wondered if it was possible Winnie had been the someone at the bakery who’d told Naomi about the allergic reaction last night. But how would she have known who Naomi was?
“That would be a fun job,” Luna said. “Baking cupcakes all day.”
“Hey, that’s the place our cupcakes were from!” Hallie shouted, pointing out the window. “Plum & Honey. It matches the sticker that was on the box. And the sign says open.”
“Can we go there, Daddy?” Luna pleaded. “Maybe Winnie is working.”
“I thought you wanted bagels,” I said, panicking slightly at the thought of facing Winnie this morning after I’d rubbed her crotch against mine last night.
“No, let’s go to the bakery,” Hallie said.
I looked around but didn’t see any other breakfast options, and of course, there was an open parking spot right in front of Plum & Honey. Cursing the universe, I pulled into it and the girls cheered.
As they unbuckled their seatbelts, I flipped down the visor mirror and checked my hair, trying to fix where it stuck up a little on the side I’d slept on.
Then I sniffed the collar of my dress shirt—it was the same one I’d worn to the party last night, but I’d taken it off and hung it up as soon as we’d gotten home.
I hadn’t felt like ironing a new one this morning, so I’d just thrown it on again.
It smelled like cologne, which I figured was okay.
What about my breath? Had I brushed my teeth? I’d been so annoyed about the phone call with Naomi, I might have forgotten. I exhaled into my hand and sniffed. I couldn’t smell anything, so maybe I was fine. At least I’d trimmed the nose hair.
That’s when I locked eyes with a perplexed Hallie in the mirror. “What are you doing?” she asked, blinking at me.
“Nothing.” I snapped the visor shut and opened the door. “Come on, let’s go or we’ll be late.”
“But why were you smelling your hand like that?” she persisted as they scrambled out of the back seat.
“No reason.”
I opened the bakery door and followed them inside, relieved when I didn’t see Winnie behind the counter.
The girls, however, were disappointed, and went rushing up to the woman standing near the register.
She might have been Winnie’s stepmom—she seemed like the right age, and I thought she looked familiar.
Maybe I’d seen her at the party last night.
“Hello,” she greeted them, her smile warm and welcoming. “What can I get for you?”
“Is Winnie here?” Hallie asked.
The woman looked surprised, then she laughed. “Not today. Do you know Winnie?”
“Yes, she’s our next door neighbor.”
“We met her yesterday,” Luna said excitedly. “Does she work here?”
“No, but she comes in here a lot. She’s my daughter.” She lowered her voice and spoke behind the back of her hand, like she was telling them a secret. “She says she comes here for me, but I think she just likes the free cupcakes.”
The girls laughed as I approached the counter. It smelled delicious in here—like sweet, buttery cinnamon rolls were in the oven. And something about the scent reminded me of Winnie . . . maybe because of the cupcake we’d shared last night?
“So you must be Hallie,” Winnie’s mom said, pointing to Hallie. “And you must be Luna.”
“Yes,” Luna said. “But how did you know?”
“Winnie told me all about you last night at the party.” She looked up at me with gray-green eyes that crinkled a little at the corner and smiled. “Hi. I’m Frannie MacAllister.”
“Dexter Matthews. It’s nice to meet you.”