Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Bennett
Lottie and Romy tell me they’ll handle the dishes, so I’m quick to say goodbye to my family after dinner.
“You’re not staying for the firepit?” my dad asks.
I shake my head. “No. Wren has school tomorrow.”
Mom has been ignoring me while she puts away the leftover food. She shoves a container into my chest. “For Nash.”
“What about Uncle Jensen?” Wren asks.
“Him too if he can stoop down to my level of cooking.”
She hugs my mom around the waist. “You make better pancakes, Grandma, but don’t tell him that.”
My mom bends and hugs her. “I won’t. Have a good day at school and tell Leia I said hello.”
Lottie and Romy shake their heads from behind my mom.
“What about Kayla?” Wren asks.
“Oh, Kayla too.”
I sigh. “Okay, go give hugs, we’re leaving.”
“No s’mores?” Wren whines.
“Not tonight.”
Wren blows out a breath, and her shoulders fall.
“I’ll make you one to go,” Dad says and disappears outside.
“Thanks for getting all that energy out of Mack.” Brooks holds up his hand for a high five. When Wren goes to hit it, he lifts his hand out of the way, then puts it lower.
“Just let the girl hit your hand,” Romy whines, and we all look over at her. “Lottie already told you, I’m cranky.”
Wren says her long goodbyes, but I don’t rush her. Sometimes I wonder if it’s because she lost her mother and is afraid that when she leaves someone, it might be the last time she sees them.
“Ready?” I ask once she’s all done squeezing everyone, including Mack, who got the biggest hug.
“Ready. I hope Grandpa put two peanut butter cups in my s’more.” She jogs toward the door and steps onto my parents’ deck.
“Check out your property on the way home,” Lottie says, just to annoy me.
I break the distance and head over to my mom. “I don’t want to argue,” I say softly, not wanting to leave without talking to her.
“We’re not arguing. We just have different points of view.”
I wrap her up in a hug, and she puts her arms around me, patting my back.
“I love you,” I whisper.
“I love you too. How long do I have to keep this to myself?”
I pull back from our embrace. “I’m telling Wren tonight. Then I’ll talk to Delaney. I’m sure once the girls go to school, half the town will know, so be prepared for questions.”
“And am I spinning this story?” I swear my sisters lean in. “People might assume you cheated on Kristie.”
“Just tell them I haven’t told you any specifics.”
She nods. “Okay.”
I say my goodbyes, and when I collect Wren from the firepit and my dad, her face is covered in chocolate, and she’s holding a fresh s’more.
“Sorry, I had to redo it. It wasn’t how she likes it.” Dad’s excuse for giving her two.
“Whatever, let’s go.”
I say goodbye to my dad, and we leave. Wren skips ahead around the trail beside the lake.
“Hey, Wren, I have something I want to talk to you about.”
She stops skipping. “Look at the ducks!” She points at the two ducks that seem to always be on our lake. “I wish we had some food for them.”
“Next time. So, listen—”
“Could I give them part of my s’more?” She goes to tear off a piece.
“No. Come on, let’s continue.” I nudge her to walk again. “So, Wren, what I want to talk to you about…”
“Is this about building the house? Because I don’t want to move away from Uncle Jensen and Nash. I like living with them.”
“No, it’s not about that, but we can’t live with them forever.” I shake my head. I do not need to start that line of conversation when there’s something much more pressing. “It’s about your friend Leia.”
I regret the words the minute they’re out of my mouth. I can’t start the conversation like that.
But it does stop her and make her turn around to face me. She’s got chocolate and marshmallow all over her mouth. “Can I have her sleep over?”
Yeah, maybe every other weekend and on Wednesdays.
“I’ll talk to her mom, but…” We come upon the small dock that’s only used for jumping off into the lake. “Let’s go and sit.”
She runs to the small wooden dock and sits at the edge, her legs hanging over, finishing off her s’more. I sit down next to her.
“This is sticky,” she says, holding up her two hands, fingers spread wide open.
“I should’ve grabbed a wet towel from Grandma.”
She sticks one finger at a time into her mouth, licking it away.
“So, you remember how Mommy and I came here from California after we found out we were pregnant with you?”
“Yeah, I can’t wait until we can go on vacation there.”
I forgot I’d promised her last year that we’d go there and see the ocean.
“Well, Leia’s mom lived there too at the same time.”
She turns back to me with her mouth open. “Really?”
I nod. “Remember how I dated her mom in high school?”
Keep this going, she seems to be understanding.
“Well, we became friends then because we worked at the same company. And… well…”
She’ll never understand this, and maybe I should’ve rehearsed it with Lottie and Romy, although they don’t have kids to know how I can word this so that she understands.
“Mommy and I were taking some time apart.”
Her forehead wrinkles. “Time apart?”
“We still cared about each other, but we weren’t living together or planning our life as a family at that time. When Delaney returned back into my life, I was dating her during that time, and I just found out that Leia is my daughter.”
She doesn’t say anything, her eyes on the water and the two ducks paddling around.
“Grown-up issues can be confusing, so—”
“You mean Leia is my sister?” Her eyes are wide when she turns to face me, one leg bent up on the dock and the other one hanging off.
“Yes.”
“That’s so cool! Mrs. Martinez said we were like twins.”
She did? That flicker of betrayal lashes at me that everyone who has seen the two of them together sees the resemblance while my own daughter was hidden from me.
“Not twins but sisters, yeah.”
She stands, and I reach to grab her in case she loses her balance.
“Can we get matching pajamas when she sleeps over?”
“Wren…”
I want to stress the importance of how people might say things in town or at school, and how she needs to be prepared.
That some people might think I had an affair because telling the truth that Kristie cheated on me would tarnish what people believed about us in town—that we were happily married, and she was the love of my life.
But the real reason I don’t want anyone else to know that is because I don’t want Wren’s opinion of her mother to change.
“I can’t wait to talk to her at school tomorrow.” She runs down the dock and back to the path.
I follow, making up the distance between us. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? It changes a lot, and if you want to ask me anything, you can.”
She stops and shakes her head. “No, I’m happy. It’s going to be so much fun. Can we get bunkbeds?”
For the rest of the walk back to our house, she fires off questions about her room and how we can separate it to fit Leia. Wants to know if they can share clothes. In the ways I imagined this could go, her being ecstatic wasn’t one of them.