“Same,” he retorts, and I slam the door. I’m walking into the building as he takes off before I have a chance to turn back and ask him for my panties.
nine
Knox
The doorbell’s chime has me blinking my eyes open, blurriness hitting right away so I blink my eyes again. This time the bell rings one after another, and I jump out of bed at the same time my phone buzzes on my bedside table, and I see it’s Josephine. “Fuck.” I grab a pair of shorts that are on the bench at the end of the bed. I run down the steps, the doorbell ringing again. “Coming!” I shout and run to the door and open it. “Hey.” The kids are all there looking up at me. “Sorry I—” I shake my head. “Come in.” I move to the side so they can enter.
“Hey, buddy,” I say to Vincent as he comes in and kicks off his sneakers before walking into the house, not once turning back to look at his mother.
“Hey,” I remind him, “say goodbye.” I motion with my head.
“Bye,” he says, holding up his hand.
“Vincent,” I say his name in a warning, and he walks over and goes out in his socks.
“Bye, Mom,” he says, going over to her on the last step and side hugging her, and I know he’s only doing this because I told him. He walks past me again, not saying a word.
“Bye, Mom.” Westley goes over to her after witnessing what Vincent just went through, and probably not wanting to deal with it. “Call you later.” He steps in. “I’m hungry.”
I raise my eyebrows, like what else is fucking new? “When aren’t you hungry?” I ask him and he smirks, kicking off his shoes to the side to join his brother’s but one goes all the way to the stairs. He, of course, does nothing about it as he rushes to the kitchen.
“Bye, Mommy,” Nora says, getting on her tippy toes to hug her. Josephine goes down and gives her a hug.
“I’m going to miss you,” she says before kissing her head and watching her walk up the stairs.
“Daddy,” she chirps, her voice filled with so much joy as she jumps up knowing I’m going to catch her. She wraps her legs around my waist and puts her hands on my shoulders, staring straight into my eyes, like she needs to have a serious talk with me. “I’m hungry.”
“Did you guys not eat this morning?” I ask her then look over at Josephine.
“Of course they ate.” She folds her arms over her chest. “But it’s almost noon.”
“Shit,” I say, dislodging her from me. “Go get a snack. I’ll come and make lunch in a second.” She takes off her backpack and tosses it at the foot of the stairs before skipping into the house.
“You look like shit,” Josephine states, and I turn my head to look at my soon-to-be ex-wife.
“That’s the look I’m going for.”
“You were two hours late.” Her eyes go into slits, and I have to hold onto the door.
“I’m really sorry, I don’t know what happened,” I tell her. “Thank you for bringing them over.”
“We are going to have to discuss—” The minute she starts with that, I put my head back and groan out loudly.
“Jo,” I use the nickname she hates, “it’s one time I overslept.”
“Not about that.” I cross my ankles. “Should I come in and talk?”
“This is a Josephine-free zone,” I inform her, “so no.” She has not stepped one foot into this house. She’s stayed at the front door, but not one step more.
“Okay, well, what is going to happen when you go on the road and it’s your week?” she asks me, and I tilt my head to the side. I’m about to answer her when I hear Vincent from the kitchen.
“Dad, can I have a pizza pocket?”
“Yeah!” I shout back before turning to Josephine. “We discussed this. Two days after I left you. We met for coffee because there was no fucking way I was going back into that house.” I raise my eyebrows to see if it jogs her memory. “We decided we would look at the calendar and swap out the days so it’s fair. So if I’m gone for four days, you have them, and then when I get back, I get them for the four days.”
“What’s going to happen when you have a game, and you are gone until eleven at night?”
“I don’t know if you’ve heard of this thing, it’s called a babysitter.” I shrug. “It’ll be like when you came to the games, and they stayed home.”
