Smiles.
“He has quite the vocabulary, doesn’t he?”
“He probably won’t potty train until he’s seventeen but he’ll be reciting Shakespeare at four,” I blurt in response.
“Very perceptive too,” she says. “I’ve definitely been called worse.”
“That’s how he sayswicked witch,” I whisper.
“I’m telling you, Giovanna, you need to let your hair grow out,” Begonia says. “I know everyone thought it was funny how much the witch in last year’s Halloween movie looked like you, but you truly do scare small children. Oh! You could color it. You’d look fabulous in pink.”
“Orlavender,” Keisha says. “Aunt G, you’d be so hot in lavender. Like, good thing you’re through menopause because these boys don’t need new siblings kind of hot.”
“Even Jonas didn’t do Shakespeare at four,” Hayes says dryly over his book, clearly done with thinking about his mother being hot.
I want to sink through this couch and never, ever, ever come back up.
But Jonas is silently shaking next to me, and I’m nearly certain he’s laughing.
I slide a quick look, and—yep.
The man is about to lose his shit with complete and absolute amusement.
He slips an arm behind me and squeezes my waist.
“Although he was almost five before he was potty-trained,” Giovanna muses.
“I had more important things to do,” Jonas says.
“And here we go.” Hayes sighs, but he, too, seems amused.
Jonas smiles bigger. “Like learning to run fast.”
“Mama, dicka bish,” Bash whispers again.
“Sometimes we have to give people a chance to prove our first impressions are wrong,” I whisper back.
He stares at me.
That’s probably a lesson too far above his cognitive skills right now.
“Do you think Marshmallow can find Mama a drink?” I ask.
He slips out of my grasp and runs to the dog, who keeps nudging the carton of strawberries closer to Hayes while Hayes occasionally reaches into the carton.
And I watch Giovanna watching him.
And as I take in the way her expression softens, and how her eyes even go a little shiny, I start to breathe.
Fullybreathe.
She’s seeing her grandson for the first time.
And I don’t think she wants it to be the last.
41
Jonas
