“Why, Mom?”
“It's dangerous.” She wouldn't meet Brad's eyes. “And we don't have a helmet to fit you.”
“I could use my bike one.”
“You're too young, Billy, and I don't want to say anything else about this.”
Brad watched Macy open the door by dropping her shoulder into it, and then disappear into the little cottage.
“Sorry, buddy, your mom's the boss.”
“She's mean.” The boy had a militant look on his face as he glared at the door his mom had walked through.
“She loves you, Billy, and that's about the most important thing a parent can give their child. One day you'll understand that.”
Billy looked up at him, and Brad kept his face calm. The boy sighed.
“I know, but she won't let me have a dog neither.”
Brad snorted. It always amused the hell out of him how a child's mind worked.
“I'm sure she has her reasons, bud.”
“Suppose,” he said, kicking a stone.
Brad ruffled his hair before he headed to the cottage. Billy was soon on his heels.
“She reckons it'll dirty up the house,” he said with single-minded dedication to the topic at hand.
“Sheis your mother,” Brad corrected him, “and she is probably right.”
“About what?”
Macy appeared in the doorway.
“About not allowing him to have a dog because it will dirty up the house.”
She gave Billy a look that he was sure a million mothers had given their children around the world that very day.
“No.”
“See, she's mean.”
The boy looked disgusted and wandered along the deck to inspect the only chair that occupied it.
“Stay close to the house, Billy. I'll only be a minute showing Brad around and then we'll head home.”
“’Kay.”
Brad followed Macy inside. He walked around the kitchen, lounge, dining area. The walls were apricot, the curtains and rug blue. He saw a TV, a table and chairs. A woodstove and armchairs finished off the space. It was small, compact, and he liked it on sight. The furniture wasn't new but worn and comfortable, unlike the house he'd grown up in, and it looked like a place someone could call home if they wanted to.
“There’s coffee stuff if you like it black, and through there,” she waved at two doors, “are the bathroom and bedroom. Linen's in the cupboard.”
“Okay, and thanks. If you're still happy for me to be here, I'd like to use the cabin.”
“Of course, now you're planning to stay for a while.”
He heard the hesitation in her words.
