Fool Me Once

“It’s a TV show,” Keegan explains to his parents.

“I know who SpongeBob is,” Larissa says, putting her hand on her hip. “I did teach kindergarten.”

“Do you love SpongeBob too?” Zane asks, jumping up and down in excitement.

“I do. But Sandy is my favorite,” she says with a wink. “Why don’t we eat lunch, and then we can figure out how to find SpongeBob for you?”

“Yay!” Zane cheers.

When we walk into their dining room, food is laid out across the table. There are a few different types of sandwiches, potato salad, macaroni salad, a bowl of baked beans, a platter of fruit, and some different kinds of chips.

“This all looks delicious,” I say out loud, as we all find our seats. Keegan sits on the same side as me with Zane in the middle of us. Kolton, Sierra, and Larissa sit across from us, and Paul sits at the head of the table.

Lunch goes smoothly. The guys discuss taking Zane fishing, and Larissa asks if Sierra and I would like to go shopping with her. She wants to buy Zane a few items to have at her house. I listen while everyone converses and laughs. Larissa asks Sierra about her job, and she tells them funny drunken-customer stories. As I eat my lunch, I think about how worried I was for nothing. Keegan’s parents are everything I could ever wish for. My son has grandparents. We have family.

As if he can hear my thoughts, Keegan leans over behind Zane and says, “I told you it would be okay. This is your family now. No matter what happens with us, we’re all going to be your family.”

Blakely

“How was your weekend?” I ask Brenton as we walk to class. When he showed up, like always, to walk to class together, I figured it was best to let whatever happened Friday night go.

“It was all right. How about yours?”

I had a great day on Friday with Keegan and Zane at the park. Then on Saturday with Keegan’s family, having lunch and then going shopping with Larissa while the guys took Zane fishing. Yesterday, I spent the day getting caught up with my schoolwork, while Keegan hung out with Zane and me all day, but I don’t tell Brenton that. Instead, I shrug and say, “It was good,” hating how strained Brenton’s and my relationship has become. And to top it off, I’m going to have to tell him that Keegan and I are dating now, and I have a feeling that isn’t going to go over too well. But I’d rather him hear it from me than see Keegan and me together.

“I have a Grammy and Pop Pop,” Zane says. I should’ve seen this coming. “I went fishing with my daddy and Uncle Kolton, and Pop Pop and caught a big fish.” Zane’s arms fly out to show how big the fish was, and I laugh at his exaggeration.

“Sounds fun, Z,” Brenton says stiffly.

“Yeah, and Mommy and Daddy kissed! It was like when SpongeBob’s grandma kissed SpongeBob! So yucky!” Zane cackles. “And Daddy dropped Mommy on the floor.” His arm flies across his waist, and he bends over, laughing hysterically. For a second I think how damn adorable my kid is. But then Brenton shoots me a glare, and I draw in my lip to stifle my grin. I should’ve known Zane saw everything. He’s very observant. Keegan and I are definitely going to need to be more careful in the future.

We drop Zane off and haven’t even made it halfway across the quad to our class, when Brenton says, “So, what? You and Keegan are together now? You’re a thing?”

I stop in my tracks, not wanting to have this conversation near the classroom, where I know Kolton will be. “Yes, we are,” I tell him honestly. “And I really don’t want it to affect our friendship.”

“Friendship.” He spits the word out like it’s giving him a bad taste in his mouth. “I thought you weren’t dating. That you were focusing on school and Zane.”

“I am.”

“While you’re dating Keegan.” He hits me with a hard stare, and I have no clue how to make him understand. It’s obvious his feelings are hurt, and I hate that. But at the same time, I don’t see Brenton as anything more than a friend. Even if Keegan weren’t in the picture, I wouldn’t have dated Brenton.

“He asked me to give us a chance and I said okay. I really liked him when I met him at the beach, and I still like him now. I’m sorry if that upsets you, but it’s the truth.”

“What do you even know about this guy, Blakely? How can you like someone you barely know?”

“That’s part of getting to know someone. Part of dating.”

Brenton stays silent for a long moment and then says, “So where does that leave us?”