No Quick Fix (Torus Intercession 1)

There was so much squealing it sounded like there were ten more kids in the kitchen.

“Let’s clean up the kitchen, people,” I announced. “Then we wash faces, brush teeth, and meet in my room. I gotta make a quick call and then we’re vapor.”

They both looked up at me.

“We’re air,” I explained. “Like we’re moving so fast we leave nothing behind.”

They both said oh at the same time, in a very indulgent way that was not lost on me.

“You guys are making me feel really damn old.”

Lots of giggling over that, and I growled at them before I started clearing the table.

“I can clean up,” Emery offered, and when I turned to him, I could have sworn he looked and sounded almost dejected, but I was probably reading him wrong. He had to be as relieved as I was.

We had everything straightened out. I apologized, and he said it was okay, which basically meant he forgave me, so… we were good. “No, we got it,” I assured him. “You go do your thing with Lydia. Will we see you for dinner?”

“The girls and I were supposed to eat with her.”

“Or… you guys could have date night instead, and the girls and me’ll hang out and get ready for school tomorrow like usual.”

Both the girls cheered because skipping dinner etiquette on a lazy Sunday sounded like heaven to them.

“No dinner! No dinner! No dinner!” they both chanted.

Emery gave us a slight smile and then kissed his girls.

I turned to the sink before he could say anything more, because it hit me then, as I’d made plans for the day, what the best thing was that I could do for him.

I needed to make myself invisible.

If I was there for the girls but Emery didn’t have to deal with me… how great would that be? He’d have the best of both worlds—a nanny there to care for his kids and a person he never had to have any interaction with. It was a win-win situation. I would work really hard to make up for what I’d done so the kiss wouldn’t only be forgiven but forgotten as well.

I felt so relieved at having a plan.

April wanted me to be a cowboy, and Olivia was certain I’d make a better pirate, so they compromised and I was a musketeer, which worked out great since April was going as a princess and Olivia as a queen. I’d be their protector and dress the part as well.

Looking for pumpkins was insane, and we got way too many as well as some different-colored gourds, because apparently their mother had liked those and the Cinderella ones to put on the front steps of the house. We also bought small hay bales and decorations for the front door and fake spiderwebs to put all over the shrubs.

Emery was gone all day and night, and the girls were in bed when he got home. When I heard his car driving along the side of the house, headed for the garage around back, I changed into my running clothes and was on my way out as he was on his way in.

“The girls are down,” I told him as I walked by. “I’ll be quiet when I come in.”

I didn’t give him a chance to say anything more.

Halloween was great. I’d forgotten how much fun it was to go trick-or-treating. Dressing up and walking the girls around was amazing, and I met what felt like a hundred people. I couldn’t remember ever shaking that many hands in my life. I felt like I was running for office.

I took video for Emery, and April made a great tour guide, narrating everything we saw—the decorations, the costumes, telling people to say hello to her dad, and having them all wave back. The girls didn’t want to walk around for long, as they apparently loved handing out candy as well, so we got home so they could. I enjoyed watching them, so I left the front door open. We had a fire going, and kids came up on the front porch to get treats and show off their costumes as Winston sat beside me, dressed like a butterfly, complete with antennae.

Once it got quiet, I sorted through the candy with them, and we put it in Tupperware to take to school the following day. We watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, which I’d never seen, but I put the kibosh on watching Sleepy Hollow and didn’t believe for a second that their father said it was okay. I didn’t even have to call him to check. I wouldn’t call him to check, because that would defeat my decision to be as invisible to him as possible. I was adamant, even if it killed me to keep my distance, that he would be comfortable again in his own home.