“Come on, guys. I’ve got to get dinner started.” Her eyes meet mine. “You’ll stay, won’t you?”
I lift a brow. “Depends. What are you having?” Like there’s an answer that would have me walking out the door. We both know there isn’t.
She gives me a smirk. “You’ll eat what I’m making, and you’ll like it.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She leads the way, and I dip my head to Tucker’s ear. “Is your mom a good cook?”
“I heard that,” Heather says but doesn’t turn around.
“Sometimes,” Tucker replies, and then she whirls, hands on her hips.
“Tucker! You love my cooking!”
“Not your spaghetti,” he objects.
“It’s bad?” I ask him, making a face.
“It’s yucky. Blech.”
I turn a straight face on Heather. “Are we having spaghetti?”
She rolls her eyes and walks away, throwing her answer over her shoulder. “Maybe we’re having liver and onions.”
“Uh oh,” I say, putting an arm around Tucker. “Now we did it. We pissed her off.”
“Are you pissed off, Mommy?” Tucker calls after her, and I burst out laughing.
She turns sideways, so Tucker won’t see the hand gesture she flashes at me.
My brows lift. “Oh, it’s like that, huh? Do you know what the ‘bird’ is, Tucker?”
She whirls. “Don’t you dare.”
I chuckle, and Tucker looks up at me, craning his neck back. “What kind of bird?”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Heather—
Backing out of Tucker’s room, I quietly close the door. After dinner, the three of us played board games until he started yawning and I put him to bed.
When I come down the hall, Cody is rinsing the dishes and putting them in the dishwasher. I stand next to him, eyeing his handiwork. After the last dish, he sprays down the sink.
“You’re pretty handy to have around. Your mom must have taught you well.”
“She did. She was young when she had me, so I learned to help out at an early age.”
His answer piques my curiosity. “How old was she?”
“Eighteen going on nineteen. She was supposed to go off to a four-year university, but when I came along, she had to settle for going to community college part-time. She wanted to be a lawyer.” I shrug. “She ended up being a paralegal.”
“What’s that?”
“Kind of like a legal assistant. She conducts research, drafts documents, and manages case files for attorneys. She’s had some great bosses who were really understanding that she was a single mom.”
“So, your dad was never in the picture?”
