The Player and the Single Mom

“I totally knew she was pregnant,” Ava bragged. “It was like so obvious.”

“It wasn’t to me,” Johnny said.

“That’s because you don’t pay attention to anything.”

Cash moved into the kitchen and gave me a kiss on my temple. It was already a small space crowded with me and the two kids, and then with him in it, the room shrunk even further. In spite of my reservations, moving was definitely going to have its benefits.

“So you want a girl?” he asked.

“I repeat that I want a child who doesn’t get mud on my floors, fall through windows, fart on me, or swear like a trucker. That’s what I want.”

“She means you about the falling through the window part,” Johnny said.

“Yeah, I kind of figured. You’re the one she’s talking about with farting though. That’s way worse.”

He was right but I still felt compelled to say, “Both are bad.”

“When is the baby due?” Ava asked.

“The end of November.”

Johnny wouldn’t bother to do the math, I could guarantee it.

Ava on the other hand…

“Wait a minute,” she said. She was counting on her fingers. Her eyes widened. “Holy crap. You didn’t go to Mexico alone, you went with Cash. I knew it!”

Totally busted.

“I even told Aunt Toni that there was no way Mama would go to a resort that nice. You were sending all those pictures by the pool and looking all bougie. I told Aunt Toni you’re too cheap to do that.”

“Hey! I’m not cheap. I’m broke.”

“Same diff.”

“That is not the same ‘diff.’ At all.”

“I told her you had a man-panion with you, but honestly, I didn’t guess it was Cash.”

I started laughing. I couldn’t help it. This whole conversation had gone sideways.

“I am no one’s man-panion,” Cash said.

“You’re just mom’s sneaky link.”

“I don’t know what that means but it sounds rude,” I told her. “Don’t say that again.”

“Y’all have been dating a lot longer than you told us,” Ava said, confidently.

And just like that, my daughter handed me an out.

“Yes,” I said, nodding. “Yes. I’m so sorry. We have been lying to you for a long time. A long, long time. But we had to make sure this was a thing. You know an actual thing.” I gestured back and forth between me and Cash.

Cash’s eyebrows rose. He was giving me a smirk.

“I told Johnny you wouldn’t take a vacation by yourself but he doesn’t listen to anything I say.”

On cue, Johnny said, “What?”

I laughed. It was a huge relief to have everything out in the open, and while I knew there would be bumps in the road, I was grateful Ava and Johnny were being so accepting of all the changes in their lives.

Right then, Miles came through the kitchen door with Marigold on his hip. Toni followed behind him. For months I’d been telling Marigold she was a little old to be carried around like that but I hadn’t planned on an influx of hulky football players in her life who lifted her like she weighed no more than a football.

I was about to open my mouth to say something when she reached out her arms to Cash for a transfer with a demanding, “Hold me!”

The men just moved her from Miles’s arms to Cash’s clearly without thinking anything of it. The girl had them at her beck and call.

“Hey, manners, Miss Marigold. Where are yours?” I asked. “You do not talk to Cash like that or you’ll be going into a time-out.”

She made a sound of annoyance and threw her arms around Cash’s neck, clinging even tighter to him.

So tightly that he actually let go of her and she just dangled off of him. He put his hand on her back and said, “Loosen up the reins, kiddo, you’re strangling me.”

“How was the zoo?” I asked Toni.

“It was a lot of animals,” she said. “And a lot of walking. I’m exhausted already and it’s eleven in the morning.”

“It was fun,” Miles said. “We got to see a rhinoceros, right, Marigold?”

She nodded. “Is that your favorite?”

“I think so,” Miles said.

“Aunt Toni, what’s your favorite animal?”

“Kangaroos.”

Marigold pointed at her sister. “Ava! Favorite animal.”

“Spider monkey.”

“Mine’s the meerkat,” Johnny said.

“What’s yours, Cash?” she asked.