“She showed up with a dog, Gareth.”
“Pardon?”
“She showed up at your house with a dog for Max,” she says. “It’s not just a normal dog either. The thing is huge, and of course the moment Max saw him, he fell in love. So now you have a giant dog who I don’t even think is house broken.”
Fuck me. “Where’s Melbourne?”
“What?” she asks, sounding confused.
“December’s cat, where is he?”
“I haven’t seen a cat. I didn’t even know December had a cat,” she replies, and I shake my head.
“Let me talk to Max,” I say, and the phone goes quiet for a second before I hear her yell Max’s name and listen to her tell him I want to talk to him.
“Dad, I swear I didn’t know.”
“I know, bud, but you gotta do me a favor. Find Melbourne and put him in my room.”
“Oh crap!” he yells, and then the phone goes silent for a moment before Mom comes back on the line.
“I didn’t know you had a cat.”
“It’s December’s cat.”
“Then why is he here?” she asks. “Never mind, stupid question. So what are you going to do about the dog situation?”
“I’ve been thinking about getting the boys a dog for a while now. I just haven’t had time to talk to them about it. So if he’s friendly, we’ll keep him.”
“You’ll keep him? She didn’t even check with you before she showed up with a dog, Gareth. You don’t even know what his story is.”
“Mom, she wants a fight. She wants to feel like she can still get a reaction out of me. The thing she doesn’t understand is I just don’t give a fuck anymore. The boys are happy, I’m happy, and eventually she’s going to see she doesn’t factor into that. Hopefully when that happens, she will get her shit together and find a way to be in her kids’ lives without the drama or disappear, and if we’re lucky, stay gone.”
“I guess you’re right.” She sighs. “I still think you’ll feel differently when you see the dog she brought into your house.”
“What kind of dog is it?” I ask, now curious.
“A werewolf.”
“Always wanted one of those,” I mutter.
“Let’s see if you think this is funny when you get home,” she says, and I sigh. “I have another hour at least until I’m done. Will you be good until then?”
“I’ll be fine. I can’t make any promises about the mother of your children though.”
“Just remember she’s never around for long, and a judge won’t lessen your sentence just because you’re old.”
“Whatever. I’ll see you when you get home.”
“See you.” I hang up and start to set my phone down but stop when it rings and December’s name pops up. “Hey, babe.”
“Tomorrow’s Friday,” she says as a greeting, and I feel my brows dart together.
“What?”
“Tomorrow is Friday, Gareth, which means tomorrow my parents are planning on coming to your house for dinner.”
“Okay?”
“Okay,” she whisper-hisses, and I realize she’s been whispering this whole time.
“Why are you whispering?”
“Because my place isn’t huge and Mitchell is in my living room and I don’t want him to hear me.”
“You don’t want him to hear you tell me that tomorrow your parents are coming to dinner?”
“No. I don’t want him to hear me freaking out about my parents coming to dinner with your ex—his mom—around.”
“She’s not going to be at dinner tomorrow, Ember. We’ll take them out. I’ll send Mack a text and see if he has a table at Flame available. If he doesn’t, I’ll make reservations somewhere else.”
“Thank you,” she breathes, and I know then she’s been more worried than she should be about this.
“Babe, breathe. It’s going to be all good.”
“I just want dinner to go well.”
“Then it’s probably better that we don’t have dinner at home,” I say, and then add, “Beth got Max a dog.”
“What?”
“Beth got Max a dog. Mom says it’s a werewolf. I’m not sure those exist. Still, it would suck if they do and he transformed at dinner with your parents around.”
She giggles then pulls in a sharp breath. “Melbourne’s—”
“In our room,” I cut her off. “I told Max to find him and put him in there. Do you know if he’s ever been around a dog before?”
“I have no idea. Are you keeping the dog?” she asks, sounding curious.
“Yeah.”
“Just like that?”
“Like I told Mom, I’ve been meaning to talk to the boys about getting a dog, so at the end of the day, Beth saved me listening to the boys fight about what kind of dog they each want. And I’m not giving her what she wants, which is for me to be the bad guy who tells Max he can’t keep the dog, which I know would start another fight.”
“I really don’t like her very much,” she murmurs then sighs. “I should let you get back to work, we can talk about this stuff later.”