"They're still torturing the children, I see," I sigh, grinning over at Liam, who laughs.
"It's brutal, Mama," he jokes, and I smile, thinking back to middle school, to science class, to—
"Your Daddy's good at science," I say without thinking.
Liam's quiet at that. My hands tighten around the steering wheel, hoping I didn't make some monumental mistake.
Glancing quickly at Liam, I see his brow furrowed, but his face looks... thoughtful.
"You know, we would cheat off each other's tests in class," I tell him, adding some smugness to my voice. "Wenevergot caught."
"What?" Liam's eyes bug out of his head.
"Mama, you cheated?" Noah yells from the backseat, sounding scandalized.
Their surprise makes me laugh.
Parenting involves instilling as manydo-as-I-say, not-as-I-dovalues in your children as possible. This feels like a fun little secret to tell them.
"I was a teenager once. I made mistakes too. And science was so boring!"
Liam shares a look with Noah, and they laugh at me dramatically disparaging science.
This moment with my sons and me feels nice, a good burst of levity before we go to our therapy appointment. Liam's smile dims, but doesn't disappear.
He glances down at his lap, twirling his phone around. I get a flash of his wallpaper, and it's a picture of Birdie in the snow; he must have taken it last month.
His hands pause for a moment, looking at the picture.
"...I like science," Liam says quietly, and it makes me smile.So much like your Daddy.Liam's lips twitch into a grin. "Daddy really cheated, too?"
Liam calling him Daddy makes my heart warm, and I laugh at the memories, my voice fond.
"Oh, yeah. Daddyhatedmath, so he cheated off me for math, and I cheated off him for science. He used to purposefully distract Mr. Richards so that I could copy his answers. I was Mrs. Barker's favorite student, so she never even looked over at me when we took tests. Daddy and I were a good team."
I look at Noah, who's giggling, and then at Liam, who's smiling softly now, his eyes soft as he glances down to his phone once more.
He huffs a laugh, small but true.
"That's cool."
...
I blink my eyes open, staring at the bedroom ceiling as my eyes adjust to the dark.
It's still night, the clock on the bedside table reads 3:28. I listen for my kids, usually the source of me waking up in the middle of the night. Liam getting sick or Noah having a bad dream.
I don't hear them, though; all I hear is a buzzing noise.
My phone.
My hand pauses when I reach for it. The last time we received a middle-of-the-night call was when Carrie passed.
My heart drops as I grab it and press it to my ear, "Hello?"
"Wendy..."T
The sound of his voice is like someone dumped cold water over me. I’m completely awake, sitting up straight, heart pounding in my chest.
