* * *
As they pulled out of the driveway, Grant stared straight ahead.
Don’t do it… Don’t look back….
Unable to stop himself, Grant glanced in the rearview mirror.
Eliza’s figure slowly grew smaller as they drove away. As he watched her disappear before his eyes, the tightness in Grant’s chest rose to his throat. He tried to swallow, tilting his head back as unwanted tears threatened to spill out.
He couldn’t cry. He had to keep it together. For Ben.
Grant stole another glance in the mirror, this time at his son in the back seat.
Ben fidgeted with the air vent.
“Are you hot? Cold?” Grant poised his finger over the climate control, ready to make any adjustment Ben wanted. Heck, he’d buy him the moon, if he wanted it. Anything to make the transition smoother.
“These don’t work in our car,” Ben told him. “Only the ones by our feet. I like them. The air kind of tickles.”
“I can turn it up higher, if you want.” Grant touched the keypad and the screen illuminated.
Ben’s eyes widened. “You have a computer in your car?”
Grant grinned. It had never occurred to him that Ben wasn’t exposed to many late model cars, let alone one as tech-advanced as his Tesla. It was endearing how excited Ben got about features Grant barely noticed anymore. “Cool, huh? This is a pretty smart car. It can even drive itself.”
“You mean like a robot?”
“Yeah, kind of like a robot. When we get out of the windy mountain roads, I’ll show you how it works.”
“Your car smells different, too,” Ben pointed out, sniffing the air. “Ours smells like vanilla. Mom dropped some under the seat and can’t get it out. The bean. Not the other stuff. Vanilla bean looks funny. Like a stick. Or a dead caterpillar. Mom says not to tell people that because then they won’t eat her cupcakes and stuff. But I think people would still eat them, even if I said vanilla bean looks like a dead caterpillar. Do you think they would?”
“Uh-huh.” Grant nodded, doing his best to keep up with Ben’s rambling. He’d never talked this much before. Maybe he was nervous? Grant could certainly understand that.
He lifted his clammy palm from the steering wheel, shaking off the moisture before returning his grip. He’d already thought of a million different ways he could screw up, from ordering the wrong pizza toppings to failing to safety proof the house properly. Most of the information he’d read online pertained to infants or toddlers. But he’d ordered locks for the medicine cabinet and cleaning supplies, just in case.
“Wanna order pizza and watch a movie tonight?” Grant asked, then flinched realizing his mistake. How would he know what a seven-year-old could watch? Maybe he should call Eliza….
Grant drew in a breath, ready to activate his car’s Bluetooth, then firmly clamped his mouth shut. He couldn’t call her fifteen minutes after they’d left.
It was time to man up.
For the rest of the summer, he’d be on his own.
A thought that left his heart numb, for more reasons than one.
* * *
The vacant black screen refused to illuminate no matter how hard Eliza stared at her cell phone.
“Hello?” She tapped the hard plastic cover to no avail, whimpering as she buried herself deeper into Ben’s Spider-Man sheets.
Was it weird she’d crawled into his bed waiting for his good night phone call? Maybe. But she didn’t care. She wanted to breathe in his scent and be surrounded by things that reminded her of his adorable smiling face.
Plus, it was forty-five minutes past Ben’s standard bedtime and she could barely keep it together. Either Grant allowed him to stay up late or Ben hadn’t wanted to call to say good night.
Eliza prayed it wasn’t the latter.
All day long she’d been preparing herself for their first night apart. And for two whole seconds, she’d thought she could handle it.Ha!What a joke.
