His First Choice

“I’ve been starving all day.”

“Too bad all we get to eat tonight is dinner...”

She kissed him then, long and hard. A reminder of what they’d shared, what they could be starting. An invitation for more meals to come. If all went well...

* * *

JEM GAVE LEVI his bath.

While Levi landed a plastic airplane in the bubbles with his good arm, his casted arm wrapped in plastic resting on the side of the tub, Jem stood in the hallway just outside the open door and returned Tressa’s call from half an hour ago. She’d had a great weekend, but didn’t want to go to work the next day. She planned to quit her job and really wanted Jem’s approval before she did so.

She wasn’t threatening, or crying, or screaming. She just didn’t feel comfortable at the bank anymore. Her outburst had embarrassed her, and she didn’t feel like the people who answered to her respected her anymore.

Because she was probably right, he reluctantly gave his agreement, but told her that she was going to have to find another job. Immediately.

She agreed.

He also told her she was not coming to work for him. His gut was knotted while he waited for her response. Tantrum or no, he couldn’t let her force him into something that he knew was not right. But if she went off again, so soon after the last time, if Lacey found out...

“I know, Jem. It would be like going backward, huh? I’d go crazy seeing where you are every minute of every day, wondering if your new client is cute, if she makes you laugh like I used to...”

So there was a God. He relaxed against the wall, keeping an eye on the arms he could see above the bubbles in the tub just beyond the door across from him.

“But...could you ask around for me?”

His first thought was of Mick, of the position she’d put him in.

“You know so many more people than I do,” she told him. “You’re so much more outgoing, and with your job, you deal with small businesses every day. I think that’s where I need to be, Jem. Running the finances of a small business. Look what I did with yours. It’s what I’m good at. Besides, then I don’t have to work with so many people and there’s less of a chance I’d piss anyone off or offend somebody.”

This was the woman he’d known in the early years. The one who was rational and honest and thought of others. He knew this woman wouldn’t be around to stay; he’d been through the upheavals enough times to know they’d always be back. But he’d also learned to be grateful for the good times.

“I’ll ask around,” he told her and then used their son in the tub as an excuse to end the conversation.

* * *

JEM DIDN’T TAKE Levi into bed to read stories. Or even out to sit on the couch and watch a video. He sat his son down in his booster seat at the kitchen table and poured milk in a sippy cup, pushing on the lid to make certain it was secure.

He wanted no chances of spilled-milk interruptions.

Grabbing himself a cup of coffee from the one-cup-at-a-time maker, he took his seat.

“We having a man-to-man talk, Dad?” Levi asked, his brow slightly furrowed.

He wanted to laugh. To get the moment on video.

“Yeah, we are,” Jem said instead. They’d had them a time or two in the past, these man-to-mans—when Tressa had moved out, again when Levi had moved from the day care class to preschool to discuss the new rules and expectations. And before he’d taken the boy to a work site without a trailer present. The trip had been unavoidable and Tressa had been in the city.

“What’s the trouble?” Levi asked, his rounded r’s making him sound so adorable Jem wanted to haul him up and hug him. Levi’s good arm was crossed with his casted one on the table in front of him.

God, how he loved that kid and saw how careful he had to be, too. He’d noticed Levi mimicking him more and more lately. How many times had he asked his son “What’s the trouble?” in just that tone over the years? Pretty much every time he’d come to him crying.

It was what his own father used to say to him...

He took a sip of coffee. Motioned toward Levi’s cup with the back of his hand and waited while his son sipped.

“You know about man-to-mans,” he said, bringing his head down enough that he could meet Levi’s gaze almost head-on.

Levi nodded.