WILLIAM
I SURPRISED VIVVIE SATURDAY MORNING BY WAKING EARLY ENOUGH TO MAKE HER FAVORITE BREAKFAST
for a change. Seeing how tired Corey was gave me a new appreciation for everything she had gone
through while I was gone, and our parents were off doing their nomadic living thing. I’d briefly
thought having a grandchild would have settled them down, but soon realized that was laughable.
They were good people, but they were not cut out to be parents.
“Are you dying? Moving to Outer Mongolia? You decided to try sex with women, and you got
someone knocked up?” Yes, my sister thought she was a damned comedienne at times.
“Keep it up and this is the last time I’ll make quiche for you,” I warned her as I carefully placed a
steaming hot slice onto a plate. When she made a grab for it, I held it out of her reach. She punched
me in the gut, and I nearly dropped breakfast on her head. “Damn, woman. I try to do something nice
for you and this is how you repay me?”
“Yeah, because I know you,” she pointed out, pausing as she took a bite, moaning dramatically
around the fork. When her eyes rolled back in her head, I almost told her to focus more on her own
sex life and less on mine. She didn’t stop shoveling food in her face as she continued. “You’re trying
to butter me up for something or you’re getting ready to deliver bad news.”
It was better to let her think it was one of those two options, because they were easier to explain
than that I felt even shittier about the years she spent on her own, now that I saw how tired single
parents could be. And from the sounds of it, Corey wasn’t even trying to raise his little girl alone.
I worried about him. I didn’t want to, but since he’d fallen into a deep sleep on my lap Wednesday
night, I’d done little else. Jack had even called me out for being distracted when he was trying to talk
to me about tonight’s grand opening of the playroom. He wanted me to stick around to answer
questions, but when he’d suggested doing a small exhibition for those who weren’t sure—intrigued
but uncertain—my mind had shifted straight to Corey. I was still trying to figure out how I might be
able to rope him into said exhibition. You know, for the sake of the bar and all that.
“None of the above,” I informed her as I dished up another slice of quiche. She filled two mugs
with coffee and headed to the front porch. It was still chilly as fuck this early in the year, but there
was something peaceful about being outside early in the morning before most of the world was
awake. She sat in her chair, and I took the less than comfortable Adirondack next to it. “I just…”
Fuck, it was hard to explain why I was doting on her when she’d made it abundantly clear she
