Page 25 of Axe Marks the Spot

Nathan pulls back a moment later. “Just promise me that if it’s a man, you’ll let me know if I need to kick his ass.”

I shove him playfully. “I told you, it was a spam email.”

He chuckles and steps away. “Must have been a good spam email, then.”

“Sure was,” I say, even though I don’t know the entire contents of the email. Gosh, I’m going to be thinking about his damn questionnaire for my entire shift. I could read it on my breaks, but I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Dom—Sir—wasn’t lying when he said that some of the optional questions were sexual in nature. My body once again started getting turned on just answering them, so I can only guess what reading his answers will do to me. It’s going to be a long night.

Nathan opens his mouth to say more but then closes it. “I’ll go get Kas. Food is getting cold.”

I shake my head. “No, you sit and start. I’ll grab her.”

Nathan nods. “I’ll wait for you two.”

I consider arguing and telling him I don’t know how long this will take before I nod back.

Kas’s room is on the bottom floor next to what’s now the guest room—or Nathan’s when he stays over. The door to her room is ajar, and when I enter, you’d never guess I cleaned it on Saturday.

It’s only Monday afternoon, and it looks like a bomb went off. Her books and toys are everywhere, articles of clothes thrown on the floor. I know they’re clean because some of them are still folded. I told her to put them away for me, but clearly that didn’t happen.

I step up next to Kas, her Critter Cove game on the screen, one where she’s a critter of her choosing tasked with building a village. On the screen, Kas’s critter, a badger with a backward cap, is trading with another villager, a fox. She’s got her big pink headphones on, and she’s sitting in the pink-and-white gaming chair Nathan gave her for her eighth birthday this past January.

Candy wrappers are on the ground next to her with a juice box. While I let Kas have whatever kind of food she wants and never shame her for anything she eats, I try to limit sugar intake since she’s growing. I don’t even remember her grabbing those from the kitchen, which means she did it while I was upstairs.

I walk closer to her massive computer screen, a gift from her dad. Same thing with the new game console.

“Kas,” I say loudly. “Time to eat.”

She doesn’t look up from her game; instead, her eyes remain on the screen. I know she sees me; I’m standing right next to her. But this isn’t the first time I’ve asked Kas to leave a game and eat with me. It’s why I told Nathan she wouldn’t like it.

We’ve duked it out a few times in the last couple of months, and instead of taking away privileges, I let her do what she wanted. I didn’t want to fight, didn’t want to make things between us tense. I wanted things to be smooth and easy. Especially since I know she took not seeing her dad more than once a month hard.

Sometimes I wonder if she blames me for that. She’s too young to understand why she needs to stay here as often as possible despite my hardships with childcare. It’s not like I’m going to tell her that her dad’s a cheating dick who makes me feel like gum on his shoe, that he’s late for his child support payments because he’s always fighting the courts on how much to give me. It’s not like he doesn’t have the cash—he’s a partner at the sports agency where he works. He’s just a cheap asshole who loves to stick it to me for divorcing him even though he cheated.

“Kas!” I pull away one of her earphones, and she glares at me. “I said, time to eat.”

She looks back at her game. “I’ll eat here.”

“No, Uncle Nathan is here. Come eat with us before I leave for work.”

I swear Kas’s shoulders fall, but it’s so minuscule I wonder if I imagined it. Is she mad I’m working so much? I thought she didn’t care. She’s always happy to play her games and spend time with Nathan or JoJo. At least I thought so.

“I want to eat here.”

She goes to put her earphone back in place, but I stop her, stepping in front of her game at the same time.

“Mom!” she whines. “Not cool.”

“Your critter is fine.”

“I’m in the middle of an important negotiation.”

The way she says it is so serious, I want to either laugh or scream. Maybe both. “You can negotiate after lunch.”

“Mom.” She groans. “I’m not hungry.”

“I’m not asking now, Kas. You need more than sugar for food. Come eat with me and your uncle. I miss seeing you.”

She groans. “You’re seeing me right now. Now move, Mom! I’m gonna lose out on this sale.”