Wednesdays were hard.
Jansel and Luca were halfway through the day, backs aching, contemplating breaking for lunch soon, when they heard the cry.
Luca straightened. They were in the bed closest to the dirt road, closest to the house—greens, broccoli, garlic, radishes.Close, but not close enough to hear what was happening inside the house’s walls. Usually.
Another wail, angry and shrill.
“That’s Daisy, right?” Luca looked over his shoulder at Jansel, a few rows over. “Not a goat?”
Jansel smiled in agreement. “Not a goat.” When Luca turned back to the house, unable to return to weeding his own row, Jansel added, “She’s a kid. Probably having a bad day.”
“Yeah,” Luca said. Kids had tantrums. Luca had grown up in a house of five children. He had a niece and a nephew. He knew this.
Luca stared at the house.
It was probably overstepping boundaries. Being worried about someone’s kid definitely went beyond the bounds of a sex pact. Or even, you know, just regular employment. Jansel wasn’t sweating it. Emerson knew how to be a dad; he was likely handling it fine.
But Luca couldn’t stop the uneasiness from spreading anyway, prickling along the back of his neck and down his spine each second Daisy’s cries continued.
“Hey,” Luca said. “You mind if I head in for lunch a little early? Make sure everything’s okay?”
Jansel only gave him a look.
“I ain’t your boss,” he said. Even though he was totally Luca’s boss. Jansel was the one Luca had truly learned everything from. “Do what you need to.”
Luca dropped his gloves, his bucket, his tools at the end of the row. And then, like a man with absolutely no chill, he ran across the road to the house as fast as he could. Dashed through the door and down the hall to the source of distress, a room he hadn’t entered since that first day.
Daisy’s.
She sat in the middle of the floor on a polka-dotted rug, hugging Moomoo to her chest. Fat tears rolled down hercheeks, fogging her glasses. Her entire face was red, like a not-quite-ripe strawberry. Emerson had been squatting in front of her, but stood with a sigh when he saw Luca.
“She wants to spend more time with Sally,” he explained. “But I got a guy coming to look at the old barn in”—he checked his watch, huffed—“five minutes now, if he’s not already here. I’m sorry, Daze.” Emerson directed his words to his daughter. “I can’t leave a four year old alone. You gotta come with me. You can use your screen?—”
“I won’t bealone,” Daisy wailed. “Be withSally.”
Emerson rubbed his temple.
“We can’t. You’re hanging out with me, then it’s lunch, then it’s nap. We can’t always do everything we want. Come on.” Daisy didn’t move. Emerson’s voice turned stern, frayed with frustration when he said, “Enough of this.”
With an ear-splitting scream, Daisy suddenly yanked at Moomoo with both hands, pulling in opposite directions. The sound of stitches ripping was, Luca knew, barely audible over Daisy’s cries, but he still felt it like a gunshot.
“Fuck,” Emerson said under his breath, but Daisy still heard it. Her head whipped toward him, eyes flashing above her glasses, which were still a mess but had almost fallen off the tip of her nose. Which was impressive, considering they were strapped to her head.
“Bad word!”
“Hey now.” Luca stepped forward, hand outstretched toward the stuffed cow. “Let’s not take it out on Moomoo.”
“Moomoo,” Daisy strangled out through her tears, “ismine.”
And, well. Luca held up his hands. “That’s fair.”
“Daisy.” Emerson’s voice had returned to only sounding exhausted. “Come on, you’re going to make yourself sick. Take a breath, love. It’s okay.” He tried to return to her level, reaching out for her on his knees, but Daisy only shook herhead and backed away, clutching the now-torn Moomoo to her chest.
“Hey. Daisy. It okay if I chat with your dad for one second?” Luca motioned with his head toward the door. After a pout-filled moment of consideration, Daisy nodded.
Luca and Emerson stepped into the hall.
“Hey, so,” Luca started, the words coming fast and low so Daisy wouldn’t hear. “If you’re okay with me breaking from my work with Jansel, I can hang out with Daisy and Sally while you deal with the contractor. But if you want to stand your ground on her having to do what you say, I get that, too. Or—” He took a breath. “You can tell me to get out of your parenting business and I’ll leave right now.”
