“So you’re a girl dad,” I say.
“Yeah. Me and Darling are the only dudes around here.”
He’s dressed casually in dark-gray sweatpants and a T-shirt. He leads me back the way he came, into a huge, open, two-story family room. Despite its size, the room is cozy. It has several brown leather sofas with soft throws and pillows arranged on them, and a fire crackles in the fireplace.
Suki walks over to give Carter a quick kiss. “I’m taking Rach up for a nap. There’s a two-hour blackout on video games.”
“Come on,” he grumbles. “I didn’t mean to wake her up, but I got hosed.”
“You’re not kidding anyone. You yell every time you play. Spend some quality time with your son until naptime is over.”
She smiles at me. “Make yourself at home, Jules. There are drinks in the fridge and snacks in the pantry.”
“What time does your oldest daughter get home?”
“Oh! I’m glad you remembered. She’ll be here at three twenty. Will that work?”
It’s just over an hour away. “Absolutely. That gives us plenty of time to get my content done.”
She gives me a sheepish look. “Would you mind if she brings a couple of friends home?”
“Are you kidding? I’d love it. I wish I had some skincare samples with me. I get way more than I can use. I’ll bring some stuff to the arena and Carter can bring it to her.”
“She’ll flip. That’s so nice of you. It’s just about impossible to impress her now that she’s a teenager.”
Carter scoffs in agreement. “No shit. I’m just her embarrassing dad. I’m not even allowed to wave at her when I drop her off at school.”
Rachel starts fussing, and Suki repositions her so she can pat her back. “I’ll let you guys get to it. You might have to wait for her to stop crying to take video.”
I wave a hand. “It’s no problem. We’ll do photos first, and I can edit out any background sounds on the videos.”
“Where do you want us?” Carter asks.
I look around the room, finding a couch with a long ramp on one end. “Is that how he gets up on the couch?”
“Unfortunately. Then he takes up more than half of it.”
He makes it sound like he’s annoyed by Darling, but based on the way the pig stands next to him and gazes adoringly up at him, I think Carter secretly loves him.
“Let’s start with you two sitting together on the couch.”
Carter sits on the end of the couch, and Darling immediately heads up the ramp and flops down beside him. He’s so muchbigger than I imagined he would be, his jersey snug around his ample belly.
“Is he house-trained?”
“Yeah, but we really have to coax him to go out when it gets cold. He’s a pain in the ass, but the girls love him.”
I’m glad my camera is ready when Darling puts his head in Carter’s lap. Even though Carter’s not smiling, he has a hand on the pig’s back and he’s rubbing it affectionately.
“Yeah, you’d be a freezer full of pork chops if I had my way,” he says, patting Darling’s belly.
“You guys seem like best buddies to me.”
He sighs through his nose. “He’s grown on me. Rachel loves him. He’s really patient with the girls, which is good.”
“What made you decide to get a pig?” I ask, still taking pictures of them.
“Leo. We couldn’t get a cat or a dog because of allergies, so he suggested a micro pig and I asked him to find one for me, kind of a last-minute thing. Obviously, he fucked that up.”
