She couldn’t answer what she didn’t know. And the last thing she wanted to do was give any false hope.
“I’m sure you’ll see him again,” she said. “He lives in Durham.”
“I hope we do. I really like him,” Archer said.
“Eat up while it’s hot,” she said. “Then we can watch TV and have a calm night.”
Archer yawned. Something he didn’t do often at dinner. She’d bet he was out before seven thirty.
“Can we watch a movie?”
“If you want,” she said. He dove into his mashed potatoes first like he always did. Then sank his cut-up pork chop into the potatoes like a dip.
“Are you happy, Mom?”
“What?” she asked, chewing her food. “Of course I am. Why do you ask that?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I just never see you laugh like you do around Jayce.”
Her son was going to be relentless with this, but she couldn’t answer anything until she could figure it out on her own.
“I’m being myself with him like I always am. I think you’re seeing something that isn’t there.”
“Maybe,” Archer said and put his head down.
What more could she say? None of it was a lie.
She really did not know what tomorrow would bring. Maybe Jayce should write that book on how to handle things in life because right now she was stumped.
15
SWEET GESTURE
“Ibeat you,” Farrah said, laughing as she touched the top of the wall climb before Jayce on Saturday.
“No fair,” he said. “I’m still recovering from last week. I didn’t think my fingers could ache this much.”
She laughed and pushed away from the wall to hang and bring herself down, Jayce doing the same.
Archer was at the bottom and had been cheering her on to beat his new best friend.
Friday after work, she’d said that she’d like to treat him to another day at OC Aerial. It was a thank you for giving Archer what he’d said was the best spring break ever.
The fact her son forgot he was supposed to be returning from Disney today was worth any price to pay.
Wanting to have another day with Jayce was added right to it.
“Don’t be a sore loser,” she said, winking.
They got to the ground at the same time to hear someone say to Archer. “Your parents are pretty competitive.”
Oh crap.
“That’s my mom and our friend Jayce. He’s not my dad.”
“Sorry,” the lady said and moved away. Why would anyone just assume that in this day and age when so many people don’t stay together or are divorced?
Not that she wanted to be one of those statistics but wanting and reality never seemed to align in her life.
