Page 26 of Axe Marks the Spot

Her reaction makes the bridge of my nose sting. Is this rock bottom? My kid choosing a critter video game over spending time with me? Yes, I’ve asked her to come eat with me before and she’s declined, but I’ve never told her I missed her and been rejected outright.

“Kasandra Rose Wilson, you can play games in ten minutes.”

“Mom!” she yells, standing from the chair. “The fox left!”

I cross my arms over my chest and glance at the screen. Sure enough, the fox that was there before is now gone, leaving only Kas’s badger.

“He’ll come back later.”

She throws her controller and headphones on her chair and stomps out of the room. I blink away the tears in my eyes and collect myself. I know I shouldn’t feel bad, but I do anyway. She’s gonna be pissed at me for at least a day, which is what I was trying to avoid by coming in here. God, how did things get this bad?

You know how, Lindsey.

I rub my stinging eyes and pull air into my lungs. Yep, I think this is rock bottom.

I walk back to the dining room to find Kas shoveling soup into her mouth like it hurt her personally.

“Slow down, kid, or you’ll turn into a tomato.”

Kas slurps her soup and smirks up at Nathan. “Yeah, right, Uncle Nate. That’s impossible.”

“I don’t know, is it?”

Kas successfully holds her laugh in, but now she’s grinning toothily at him. “You tell me; you’re the adult.”

Nathan laughs. “You’re too smart for your own good.”

“You can say that again,” I add.

Nathan turns in his chair to smile at me, but Kas keeps her eyes on her plate, her smile now a frown.

“Come, eat,” Nathan says. “Your cheese isn’t gonna cheese-pull anymore.”

“That’s the best part of the grilled cheese,” I respond. Thankfully, my voice sounds calmer than I expected it to.

I sit across from Kas and pick up my sandwich. My daughter won’t look at me, but Nathan does. When we make eye contact, he mouths, I’ll talk to her.

I guess he heard what happened in Kas’s room. That’s not surprising, since her room isn’t far from the dining table. I nearly flush with embarrassment but manage to keep it at bay, shaking my head and mouthing leave it. Nathan doesn’t need to play dad. I know he doesn’t mind it, but it’s not his responsibility. He should be the fun uncle. Kas deserves that in her life.

I take a bite of my grilled cheese, which has indeed gone cold. I shrug at Nathan, and he smiles sadly from the lack of cheese-pull.

“Next time,” I say.

He nods. “Next time.”

11

Dane

I SAID TO HELL with it and lit a fire tonight. It got down into the fifties, and while I tend to run hot, the flames sounded like a good idea while I finished up some current client work.

The song over the new speakers I installed in my cabin switches, and I close my eyes to listen to the instrumental music playing. Tonight, I’d gone for my favorite film composer, Dustin O’Halloran, over Bach or something similar. I found I needed a more modern soundtrack to focus me.

I open the attachment on Lindsey’s email. I scan it to double-check that she answered everything like she said and then open my standard agreement template.

The questionnaire has two parts. The first part is about what she wants from our relationship, the things she needs help with. The second is about hard and soft limits and contains the optional questions that she answered.

I read the first part, making notes in the draft agreement for what she’s seeking help with. It’s standard. Help with schedule and routine, like waking up without snoozing her alarm multiple times and moving her body more. She also says that she feels out of control in her life, like she never has time for what’s important because she’s always working or taking care of others. I make a note to ask her more about that on our call, because that could mean a lot of things.