She always loved a snack, and they hadn’t had much of a real dinner tonight at the festival.
“Okay, we’ll make some toast,” he told her.
They made their way to the house, Maya walking quickly, but not darting out in front of him like usual. She was definitely getting sleepy.
Once they were inside with their boots and coats by the door, they headed into the kitchen.
“I’ll put some peanut butter on our toast,” Ash suggested.
“Okay,” Maya said, heading to the refrigerator to fiddle with the magnets.
They had quite a nice collection of them stuck on there now. Ash’s dad had bought them alphabet and number magnets when Maya started kindergarten. But it was the Muppet ones that Maya loved arranging andrearranging most.
Ash grabbed a loaf of bread and stuck two slices in the toaster before pulling out the jar of peanut butter, two plates, and a knife.
He watched Maya as he waited for the toaster. Today, she was mostly playing with Kermit and Miss Piggy, putting them in one corner of the fridge together with baby Kermit.
A moment later, the toast popped up and he placed both slices on one of the plates and headed to the small table.
He’d gone to the church thrift shop to buy everything but their beds, so the table was well-used already, the blue-painted legs faded, and the oak top scuffed and patterned with rings from generations of coffee cups and glasses of lemonade. Something about that humble patina made him feel happy, like maybe he and Maya would make years of cozy memories at this table too.
Maya trailed over and climbed onto the chair opposite his to watch him open the peanut butter.
His heart ached as he thought about the task ahead of him, helping his little girl navigate a complicated and shifting family dynamic.
You can do this, Tailor,he reminded himself.
“Did you know that your mom might be having a baby?” he asked casually. For all he knew, she had told Maya already, though he doubted it.
“No,” she said looking up.
“How would you feel about that?” he asked her lightly.
She frowned.
“Would the baby live with us?” she asked him after a moment.
“No, I don’t think so,” he told her. “The baby will live with your mom and Hayden.”
“Oh, good,” Maya said. “The creek is very dangerous, especially in wintertime. We don’t want the baby to go in there.”
Ash just managed to hide his smile.
He had talked to Maya many,manytimes about how dangerous it would be for her to try to play in the icy creek by herself. He’d stressed with her that they could only move into a house with a creek because she was a big girl, and she knew better than to scramble down the snowy bank without her dad.
“What do you think about Hayden?” he asked her.
“He’s nice,” Maya said, shrugging. “But he doesn’t like to play hide-and-go-seek tag.”
“Okay,” Ash said, figuring that was a pretty honest answer. Even if it wasn’t personal, it at least told him that she didn’t seem to havebigfeelings about the man, one way or the other.
He took a deep breath, wondering why this was so hard for him when Libby hadn’t seemed to give it a second thought.
“How would you feel about it if I had a girlfriend?” he asked her.
“I don’t know,” Maya said, shrugging again.
“What if it was Miss Lawrence?” he asked her.
