CHAPTER 18 Liam Bradley
Kindergarten Promotion
I tackle Benji first, Sammy second.
“Nobody beats a T-rex!” Sammy shouts as I take him down.
“Nobody except a Spinosaurus!” I yell, and both boys are laughing like crazy as I pin both of them down, one arm each at the same time as I roar once more for good measure.
I glance up at Penny and grin. “Hi.”
“Hi,” she says, and her cheeks turn a little pink as she offers a small wave.
“How was your week?” I ask over their laughter as they each try to move, but they’re no match for my arm strength.
“Better now. How was yours?”
My grin widens. “Better now.” I glance down at each of the boys. “Did you bring me a Happy Meal?”
“No!” Benji squeals.
I turn to Sammy.
“Ask Mom, not me!” he protests.
“Nobody gets up until I get an order of fries,” I announce.
“I didn’t know you’d be home this early, Spinosaurus,” Penny says. “Or I would’ve brought you something.”
I laugh and relent, letting the boys go and pushing to a stand. “I got to the airport early, and there was room on the flight before my scheduled one, so I hopped on.”
“I’m glad you’re back early. But how long were you hiding in there waiting for us?”
“Oh, about an hour,” I say, and I’m about to walk over and pull her into my arms and plant a kiss on her mouth when I realize…I can’t. I clear my throat. “Kidding. I get a notification anytime my keycard is used to enter the parking garage.”
“Uncle Liam, my kindergarten thingy is tomorrow. Are you coming?” Benji asks.
“You don’t have school tomorrow, honey,” Penny says. “It’s on Monday, and I’m not sure if Liam will—”
“What time is it?” I ask, interrupting Penny.
“After morning recess,” Benji says.
I look to Penny for that one.
“Nine o’clock,” she clarifies.
I glance at Sammy. “Will you be there?”
“Yeah, the teachers excuse brothers and sisters so they can go,” he says.
“Cool, save me a seat,” I say, and both Sammy and Benji seem to light up at that.
“Okay, boys, bath and shower time,” Penny announces, and neither one of them moves.
“Boys, you have sixty seconds to start your water before Spinosaurus leaves and doesn’t come back tomorrow to hang out.” I press my lips together, and they both scramble from their spots on the floor and run to their respective bathrooms to get clean.
She shakes her head a little, and as she crosses the room to walk over toward me, she says, “You’re magic with them.” She loops her arms around my waist.
I shrug. “It’s just because I’m new and not a parent.” I wrap my arms around her, too, and she tilts her head back. I drop my lips to hers, and I’m hungry to turn it into a deep, intense kiss, but I’m also aware that her kids are just around the corner. So I keep it in my pants. For now.
The same cannot be said for later once the boys are down and we enjoy a half-hour session in my bedroom.
We take the kids to the park on Saturday, where they run around and play together.
Sammy is the typical bossy older brother, and I find myself siding with Benji, the younger brother who’s a lot like I was back when I was his age—only I had four older brothers to contend with who were nine, seven, three, and two years older than me and bossed me around all the time.
I think that’s a lot of the reason why I picked up the slack with Mom and Dad during the last six months.
Maybe I wanted to prove that I’m not some little kid anymore, that I’m an adult and capable of doing adult things since they all seem to look at me like the baby of the family despite there being an actual baby of the family who’s five years younger than me.
It’s not the same since she’s the little sister, I guess.
Sometimes being from a big family is a pain in the ass. Other times, like at Mom’s funeral, it’s a blessing. And this Saturday will be yet another place where I come together with my siblings to celebrate a marriage.
Everleigh lands on Sunday afternoon, and she’ll be staying at her place in the city where Ivy has been staying since my guest room is not currently vacant. Everleigh scheduled a dinner for anyone who can make it.
Penny’s mom said she’ll watch the boys so she can go to Ev’s dinner, so she drops them at her place on Sunday afternoon. When she arrives back at my place, I’m standing in the living room, completely naked as I wait for her.
She laughs. “What if I brought Everleigh back with me?”
I shrug. “Then I would’ve had some explaining to do. But you didn’t, so why don’t you join me by taking off all your clothes and lying on the couch?”
She pretends to think on it, and then she says, “Deal.”
We spend the next hour in naked bliss together, and then we’re forced to get dressed so we can go to Everleigh’s dinner.
It’s painful to sit through dinner and pretend like I’m just friends with the woman seated beside me.
We’re more than friends, but I can’t say for sure exactly what we are. Is there an actual title for my sister’s friend-slash-roommate who I like to fuck and feel myself developing feelings for?
It’s even harder the next day when I join her as we make our way to the boys’ school to watch Benji’s kinder promotion. Sammy’s already there, and he saved us both seats.
He pats the bench on one side for his mom, and I move to sit beside her, but Sammy shakes his head and pats the bench on his other side. “No, you sit here.”
I can’t help a secret smile. The kid actually seems to like me.
Everleigh shows up and slips into the small space between me and the person next to me, and Penny leans over Sammy and me to say hi.
The ceremony starts, and we watch little Benji walk across the stage to accept his certificate that he has officially graduated kindergarten. The class sings a song about sunshine, and then they’re dismissed to find their families.
Benji runs straight for Pen, and he clings onto her legs. “Where’s Daddy?” he asks.
She glances around, and I do, too.
There are only twenty-two kids in his class. Maybe a hundred or so people here in the gymnasium to watch this ceremony. And neither of us spots that worthless sack of shit anywhere in the room.
“I’m not sure, honey. He probably couldn’t get out of work.”
She’s so much nicer than me. I get protecting them from the truth, but let’s call a spade a spade. From what I understand, he owns his real estate firm. All he has to do is make time, and he didn’t bother.
We have donuts and lemonade, and then the kids head back to class and we head to the car.
“Brunch?” Everleigh asks, falling into step beside us.
“Brunch,” Penny echoes, a confirmation that I wasn’t aware of, and the tone of her voice makes me think she was also not aware of it. “But I need to be quick. I told Stuart I needed ninety minutes max.”
Everleigh lifts a shoulder. “I told you to come work for me so you don’t have to deal with Stuart. I’d always let you out for kid stuff and brunch.”
“Come work for you?” I interrupt. “What fresh hell are you trying to sic on her?”
She turns a glare on me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I love you, sis, but you can be a bit…how do we word this nicely? A bit of a badass boss bitch.”
Her glare deepens. “That was the nice way of wording it?”
“It was nicer than calling you a controlling micromanager, yes.”
She gasps in horror, and I can’t help but laugh at the absolute theatrics of it all when it’s absolutely the truth.
“I am not a micromanager,” she protests.
“Says the woman who would have me living at the mansion just to ensure construction is on schedule if it were up to her,” I mutter.
Her jaw drops, and she gasps again, but…where’s the lie?
“He doesn’t mean anything bad by it,” Penny says, stepping in. “And you know I would love to work with you. It’s just not good timing right now with not having a permanent place to live and being in flux…my job is like my one normal lifeline right now, you know?”
She huffs a little, and then we’re at Penny’s car.
“DeeDee’s for brunch?” Penny asks.
Everleigh nods, and she points at me. “This isn’t over.”
I smirk at her. “Yeah, it is.”
We get in the car, and Penny lets out a soft breath.
“Sorry if I overstepped,” I say.
She shakes her head. “No, you were fine. I was trying to be diplomatic. I love Ev, but I don’t want to work for her. I’m afraid it would ruin our friendship, and I can’t afford that.”
It feels a bit like her words are lined with caution.
“You’re worried about what’s going on between us ruining your friendship, too, aren’t you?” I ask softly, reaching over to grab her hand.
She clears her throat. “Yes.” Her voice is candid and quiet.
“Then we keep it between us. And Madden, since he caught us.”
“And Kennedy, and who knows who they told? It’s spiraling, Liam, and it’s still so…”
“New,” I finish.
“Delicate,” she adds.
I squeeze her hand. “Yeah. I kind of like coming home to you and the boys, though. I like that you’re there.”
“I like it, too,” she whispers. “And I don’t know what we’re going to do when you move to San Diego.”
“I wish you could come with me,” I blurt.
She looks surprised when her eyes move over to me. “What?”
“Come with me.”
“You know I can’t. Brent—”
“Fuck that guy. He couldn’t even be bothered to show up for this kindergarten promotion. Come stay with me, or by me, and we’ll figure this thing out together. Give us time to explore it.”
She frowns. “Liam, I…” She pauses, and then she sighs. “I think we’ll just have to explore long-distance for now. But I completely understand if you don’t want to wait around. We’re just having fun and screwing around, right? It’s not like it’s serious or anything.”
I clench my jaw, and I glance over at her even though I should be keeping my eyes on the road.
As I speak, I return my attention where it needs to be, afraid to look at her while I say this.
“I realize you’re not divorced yet, and you have kids, and you’re Ev’s best friend.
I realize it’s complicated. But labeling what we’re doing as just having fun and screwing around feels inaccurate, Pen.
It’s fine if that’s all it is to you, but I have to be honest when I say it’s starting to become a hell of a lot more than that for me. ”
I pull into the parking lot, and I watch as Everleigh walks into the building and the doors close behind her.
I put the car in park, and I finally glance over at Penny only to see a tear rolling down her cheek.
“What’s wrong?” I ask softly as I thumb away the tear.
“I keep trying to convince myself that this is nothing, keep trying to deny what I really feel. I thought you’d just agree with me. I didn’t know you felt so strongly. It’s too complicated. Too hard.”
I thumb away a second tear that follows in the first one’s path. “Sometimes the best things in life are too hard, and we’re so scared of taking the leap that we never know what’s waiting on the other side.”
She shakes her head and offers a stilted chuckle. “How’d you get so smart?”
“All those years getting knocked on my ass on the football field.”
Her chuckle turns to a genuine laugh, and I lean over the console and press my lips to her cheek.
“Look, Pen, I don’t know what this is or what it could grow into, and I’m not worried about making any decisions right now, okay? There are a lot of variables up in the air, and we’ll take things as they come.”
She turns and catches my lips with hers. She nods. “Okay. We’ll take things as they come.”
There’s just a kind of big thing right around the corner that I never in a million years saw coming.