Page 84 of Worth the Fight

“Yep. She says that birds should only flap when you’re really angry, and I don’t think you’re really angry.”

I shake my head. Shelby’s doing a damn good job with him. “Does your mom ever let her bird fly?”

“Only when she’s driving.” He fights a smile. “She also says you shouldn’t use the word A-S-S, but I’m a big kid so don’t worry about me. I’ve heard it before.”

I laugh loudly and press a kiss to the top of his head. “Grab a beer, we need to have a man-to-man.”

He giggles without a care in the world like every little boy should and grabs his bottle of root beer, looks at it like it’s the coolest thing, and then scoots closer to me.

“Cheers,” I say as I tap my bottle of beer against the top of his root beer.

“Cheers.” His smile is beaming.

“So . . . now that we’re getting closer to getting this done,” I say, pointing to the almost completely drywalled playroom, “we need to start discussing what type of things we should fill it with. Foosball. Air hockey. PS4. Nintendo Switch. Darts.”

“Darts?” he asks. “I don’t think my momma would like me playing with those. She’s always talking about eyes getting poked out and stuff.”

“Well, that’s the best part about being here. We’re men, and men don’t worry about that stuff. Besides, we have to have our own secrets. That’s why we have the Boys’ Club here. Right, Gray?”

“Yep.” He takes a seat and taps his beer against Brody’s. “Boys’ Club rules. You can always come here and be a man. Burp. Fart.”

Another giggle sounds off. “I’m not allowed to say that word at home,” he says with a roll of his eyes.

“What word? Fart?”

He nods.

“You’re not?”

“Nope. I have to say toot. It’s so lame. I sound like a girl.”

“I’ll have to have a talk with your mom about that one, Brody. That’s where I draw the line. A man’s gotta be able to say the word ‘fart’ or he won’t get any playground cred. Especially now that you’re a kindergartener.” Grayson just looks at me and shakes his head. “What? Don’t tell me that Luke can’t say it, either.”

“He can. In fact, I’m sure when he comes home from his play date later I’ll be hearing all about farts.”

A horn honking interrupts us. “Your mom’s here.”

“Ah, man,” he says and grabs one last handful of M&M’s that he knows his mom isn’t going to let him have.

“None of that,” I say as I ruffle the top of his hair. “Finish your beer and go grab your stuff. I’m gonna talk to your mom.”

He says a garbled okay around the M&M’s he’s chewing while he hugs Petunia and takes off for the house.

“How was Boys’ Club?” Shelby asks as she walks up, hand shielding her eyes from the sun.

“It was good. But, Shelb, toot? You’ve gotta let a boy say fart or he’s going to get made fun of at school.”

She starts laughing, and it’s such a good sound to hear after so much sadness. “This is what you’re teaching him?”

“What happens in Boys’ Club, stays in Boys’ Club.” I wink. “Did you have a good time?”

“Yeah. It was nice to relax and feel girly for a bit. They tried to talk me into going out with them next weekend, but I’m not ready for that yet.” Her voice falls.

“You should. You deserve some non-mommy time out with your friends. Drew wouldn’t want you to be lonely forever.” The words pain me to say. It’s as if saying them aloud means he’s really never coming back. But she needs to hear it. She needs to believe it, even if the blanch in her expression when she does mirrors how I feel inside.

“Grady . . .” Her eyes meet mine, and the look in them fucking kills me. “Hey, sweetie. You have fun? You ready to go?” Her face transforms into a mask of happiness the minute Brody comes jogging our way.

“Yeah. It was rad. We talked about playing darts and . . .,” His words drift off when Shelby’s eyes widen. “Never mind.” He looks at me and tries to wink but both eyes close instead. “Just man stuff, mom. No big deal.”