After a few failed attempts at the crane machines, the three of us file out to Dad’s truck. We all slide in with me in the middle, and I’m so wiped I can barely keep my head up. I slouch against Mom’s shoulder and declare, “I must be French, because I’m fried!”
On the way home, I fall in and out of sleep and both Mom and Dad help me into bed and tuck me in. I wait and wait for the bad news to come, but it never does.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Back on the Market
When the paper comes again on Thursday, I play it cool. But I am totally dying to see my second response published.
After I get dressed for school, I check the front porch for the paper.
“Looking for this?” asks Mom, grinning as she waves the paper around like she’s trying to tempt me.
“Come on,” she says. “Let’s read this thing over breakfast. But first I need to talk to you.”
“Okay.” I’m automatically suspicious.
I sit down to scrambled eggs and s’mores Pop-Tarts. Dad was definitely the breakfast chef.
She waits for me to dig in. Probably so that my mouthis too full to fight back when she drops whatever news she’s sitting on.
“Do you remember a few weeks ago when I met up with someone for drinks after book club?” She speaks slowly, like she’s nervous.
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, I’ve been talking to that person a lot recently.”
So that explains all the giggling into her phone lately.
“You mean like a friend?”
She blushes. “No, baby. I’ve started dating someone.”
“Like, you have a boyfriend?” My voice goes high. And I think I could puke. It didn’t even take pizza, cake, and a whole gymnasium full of trampolines.
A slow blush gathers on her cheeks. “Well, I wouldn’t say he’s my boyfriend, but I do like him very much.”
This is too weird. And wrong in so many ways! How could she just be over Dad so quickly? Didn’t their marriage mean anything to her? Anger begins to build up inside of me. She’s probably ready to start from scratch with a whole new family.
“Things are just casual right now, but I just wanted you to know.”
“Casual? What does that even mean?”
She gives me a patient smile. “It just means that we’re not making a big deal of anything. Nothing’s official or tooserious. And you and I can talk about it as much or as little as you want. I understand if you’re not ready, and I wouldn’t blame you,” she says in full therapist voice. “But you can ask questions whenever you want.”
“Does he have a name?” I ask bitterly.
“His name is Sam. Sam Reyes. He has a really lovely daughter who’s about to be a senior over at Clover City High. Her name is Callie.”
“How did you meet?”
“We have a few mutual friends. I actually know his mom from when I’d go for trainings at the University of Texas in El Paso, and she introduced us.”
I want nothing more than to talk to Oscar about all of this ASAP, but I’m not exactly on his good side right now. He’s been talking to me, but only using a few sarcastic words at a time. “Do I have to meet him?” I ask Mom, returning my attention to her dating life. Ugh.
She laughs, and I think part of it is all the nerves that must have been raveled up inside her. “Only when you’re ready.”
I don’t know why, but I somehow felt Dad would find someone first and I definitely didn’t think it would be... “So soon,” I find myself saying.
