Then again, if I tried to explain that, would he think I was ditching him like his dad?
Me: Don’t you want some alone time with your mom?
I’d just gotten up to clean out the tuna bowl when my phone beeped again.
Cody: That’s why you went home? I get time alone with her all the time. Plus, I want to game with my friends, and she wants to watch a movie. If you’re here, she can watch it with you, and I can game.
Snorting, I picked up the trash bag with the tuna in it and walked it out to the garbage. It was hot as balls just now, and I didn’t want the place stinking of it. As I put the lid back on it, I remembered it was garbage collection day tomorrow, so I dragged both of them down to the curb to be collected and jogged up Evie’s drive to do the same with hers.
Once I was done, I went back into my house and gathered up what I’d need in the morning while telling Cody I’d be ten minutes. It seemed dumb packing a bag to go next door, but fuck it. He’d promised me his mom would make breakfast in the morning—more precisely her “bomb ass waffles”—and I’d be able to take my time if my stuff was there instead of coming back to my house.
Bernice was waiting at the front door with her leash in her mouth.
“Your brain scares me sometimes. Do you want me to carry that while you get one of your toys?”
Yeah, my dog slept with one of her stuffed animals at night, so what?
Dropping it on my foot, she loped back to her bed and picked up a duck with a squeaker inside that sounded like a honking noise. Because she loved it so much, I’d had to buy three replacements for it.
“Good choice, girl. Let’s go over and see your boy.”
Wagging her whole ass, she waited until there was just enough space for her nose to get through the door, then pushed it out of my hand so she could get out. Someone was excited.
After I’d locked up behind us and set the alarm with the app on my phone, I climbed over the fence and walked up behind my dog just in time to see her start scraping her paw down the door, asking to be let in.
Intelligent dogs were a blast to have, but sometimes it worked against you. This wasn’t one of those times.
It was Cody who opened the door and waved us in before turning back. “Wanna come through to my room? I’ve got cheese puffs.”
In the entrance of the house was a large canvas of Evie holding Cody for the first time right after she’d given birth to him. She looked pale and exhausted but so fucking beautiful as she looked down at the tiny human in her arms who had his eyes open and head tilted back in her direction. It was one of the most touching photos I’d ever seen, and I loved it. Because I was so engrossed in it, though, I’d thought he was talking to me until I heard Bernice’s nails tapping the ground at a rapid pace as she loped through the house to his room.
Nice!
That left me alone with the woman who was curled up on the couch under a blanket, watching something on television. Dropping my bag next to it, I sat down by her feet and then managed to wiggle myself into position, so I was lying behind her.
“How are you holding up, baby?”
Lifting a shoulder, she mumbled, “Okay, I guess. I don’t want to cut his balls off and feed them to raccoons anymore, so that’s something.”
“How do you think Cody’s doing?”
There was a moment’s silence, and then she sighed and rolled onto her back.
“He says he doesn’t care anymore. He’s hurt, but he knows this is all his dad’s problem. It’s not on Cody that his dad doesn’t consider his feelings or put him first, it’s Neil’s issue alone. He said earlier he has more than enough people in his corner and positive male influences, so he doesn’t see it as him having a problem.”
The kid was wise at eleven. What was his dad’s excuse for being an immature twat?
“How does he feel about the baby?”
“He says he hopes Neil’s better to it than he is to him, but he doesn’t want anything to do with his dad or the baby momma.”
That was a term I disliked—baby momma. It was used too derogatorily nowadays or jokingly and never should have been seen as something negative. Sadly, thanks to people like Neil and DB’s friend’s dad, it was now.
“That might change with time. Right now, it’s a shock for him, and he’s got shit going on with his dad. Once he processes it all and comes to terms with the news, he might want a relationship with his dad and the woman.”