“Your dad. He said someone spotted a lion from lastweekend.”
“Mountain lion. Not arawrlion,” I make claws with my hands and swipe theair.
Isaac grins. “Can you do thatagain?”
My arms cross, and I tuck my hands into my underarms. “No.”
He chuckles and leaves. I listen to his retreat, then get up and go to Claire’s room to start unpacking herclothes.
* * *
“What do we do now?”Claire gazes expectantly at Isaac. He pauses his gathering of the ice cream bowls, lips twisting as he considers herquestion.
“Um, I don’t know. What do you normally do afterdinner?”
“Play. Read. Take abath.”
Isaac finishes stacking the bowls and brings them to me at the sink, where I’m rinsing and loading thedishwasher.
“Do you ever play cards?” He goes back to the table and clears the remainingitems.
“Nope. Never.” Claire gives me an accusatorylook.
“Whoa now.” I hold up my hands, water dripping from the spatula I was rinsing. “It’s not like I was keeping them from you. I didn’t think to introducethem.”
Isaac comes up behind me, holding the dirty napkins and barbecue sauce from dinner. “Claire, I’m sure your mom would’ve showed you how to play a game of cards if she knewhow.”
I turn my head sharply to the side and glare playfully at him. “I knowhow.”
“Oh, you do? Well then, you should join me and Claire for a wild game of GoFish.”
I walked right into that one. I was going to escape to the bedrooms to keep unpacking, and I think he knewthat.
It’s not that I don’t want to play with them, but I’m getting overwhelmed by the events of the day and navigating our first afternoon and evening together. I don’t know what to do next, and I’m not comfortable yet. Working on our rooms seemed like the bestoption.
“Come on, Mommy.” Claire gets down from her chair and joins me at thesink.
I drop down, so we’re eye toeye.
“You want me to play with you and yourdad?”
Shenods.
Behind Claire, Isaac watches us as he wipes his hands on a dishtowel.
“OK, I’ll play.” I push some hair out of Claire’seyes.
She whoops and runs out of the kitchen. I stand and look atIsaac.
“This is a lot to take in—” I start tosay.
At the same time, he says “I know this is anadjustment.”
We laugh once, a bit of the tension meltingaway.
“Thanks for understanding.” I take the dish towel he used to dry his hands and hang it from the ovenhandle.
“Thanks for not judging me when I had a second scoop of ice cream.” Isaac pats hisstomach.
