“And a Lego car that was the size of a really real car and looked like you could really drive it, and I think maybe you could because it had a Lego steering wheel and a Lego gas pedal and maybe one of those really real Lego engines that let you make robots like the one I want for my birthday!”
“Awesome,” Kim says. I can tell she’s trying, but it still comes out half-hearted.
“My phone?” Ivy says with the last trace of hope in her voice.
“Not your phone, either,” I tell her. “Seriously. Sit.”
Ivy groans like she’s passing a really dramatic kidney stone and flops down on Kim’s bed. I grab the two chairs from the table and I sit down in one and Kim takes the other, while Lukas continues to run back and forth yelling something about a steam engine that may or may not have been made out of Legos.
“Hey, buddy,” I say. “Have a seat. We need to tell you something.”
Luke bounces onto the bed with enough force to jostle his sister, who now both looks and sounds like she’s on her deathbed. I give Kim half a smile. She closes her eyes briefly. “Your father and I have decided to date again,” she says.
This is enough to make Ivy stop mid-groan and look up in surprise. Even Luke mostly stops bouncing and stares at us.
“Who are you dating?” he asks. “Is it Roger and Simone?”
I can’t help but laugh a little at that, though from the look on her face, Kim does not find this as funny.
“Each other,” she clarifies.
I reach out and take her hand.
“Oh,” Luke says. “Can you both take us to Legoland?”
That was easy. Ivy’s eyes narrow again, and I take it we’re not going to be so lucky twice. “What do you mean, each other?” she says. “You can’t do that. You hate each other.”
“We do not,” I say. “I love your mother. I’ve told you that a hundred times.”
Ivy rolls her eyes. “Yeah, like, you love her because she’s our mom.”
“No,” I say. “That’s what you thought I meant, but it wasn’t.”
Kim squeezes my hand, and Ivy glares at both of us. “So, what? You guys are going to go out on dates sometimes and leave us with Marguerite? And that’s it?”
I glance at Kim. I’m not sure how to answer that. I mean, I pretty much never want to be away from her again, but—
“Honey,” Kim says, “the intention is that your dad and I want to be together. So we’re going to spend a lot of time together. And with you guys, as a family.”
I smile at that, but Ivy’s face contorts in horror. “What about the condo?” she asks.
Oops. More things we haven’t discussed. “I’ll keep the condo for now. But if everything goes well—”
I glance at Kim, and she has that nervous look in her eyes. My impulse is to think that I’m overstepping, that she’s not sure she wants any of this.
But she said that she does. She wants me to fight for her, and this time, I’m going to.
“If everything goes well, I’ll stay with you guys at the ranch.”
Ivy jumps up off the bed. “But I have friends at the condo! Why don’t you guys just have sex sometimes and leave everything else the same?”
“Ivy,” Kim says.
Luke is staring between the three of us like he’s not entirely sure what’s happening, and I can’t really blame him.
“First of all, our sex lives are none of your business,” I say to Ivy. “And second, that’s not what we want.”
“But what about what I want?” Ivy wails. “You’re just being selfish. You’re not even thinking about us.”
