Jennifer Greene - Yours, Mine & Ours

“Yes. It was just her lizard nightmare. But I still needed to be there.”

“Of course you did.”

Conversation stalled like a dead battery. Mike’s eyes never left hers. Finally he put his elbows on the table, hunching forward. “My guess is the kids’ll interrupt us in two minutes or less. So either we dive into talking about last night. Or let it be. You have a vote?”

“Better talk.”

“Ok. The last thing I expected was a naked woman in my shower last night. Was there maybe something that triggered that happening? That I should know about?”

“Well…” How could she explain something that just all clicked in her head all at once? “It was because of Molly. In the fight yesterday with the second-grader.”

Mike frowned. “I saw the shiner. But somehow it’s hard for me to imagine how the two issues could be connected.”

“Because. When I was talking to Molly-about fighting and violence never being a good answer-she got her back up. Some days she is such a redhead. And even though I’m not condoning her hitting anyone…later, it just kept occurring to me. Molly’s viewpoint was right. Sometimes it’s the girl who has to take charge.”

“Amanda. Try to concentrate. Because I’m getting more lost instead of less.”

Why did she have to be such an incoherent mess this morning? When it mattered? When everybody told her she was articulate in a crisis, how come she had such a hard time with Mike?

She clasped her hands together. “This is the thing. We’ve had this…connection between us. Neither of us want our kids hurt. Neither of us want it to go too far. But I just kept thinking, Mike, we’re friends. We’re both smart. I think there’s a level where we trust each other. So why couldn’t we do something we both want-and maybe need-as long as we’re both careful? But then…I thought…you really couldn’t be the one to take the plunge.”

“And why would that be?”

“For the same reason my daughter hit that little girl. And your son didn’t. Because you’re raising your son to be a gentleman. The same way you are.”

Something cooled in his eyes. A ruler stiffened his spine. “Trust me, Amanda. I’m not.”

“You are. In every way.” Her voice was warm, sincere…but from his expression, she seemed to be hitting him totally the wrong way.

“So.” His voice turned softer than butter. “ You made the first move, because you didn’t think I had the guts to?”

“No. Good grief, Mike. No. That wasn’t what I meant at all-”

“I think it’s pretty clear. You and Molly think we’re the kind of guys who can’t do our own fighting.”

Now she was getting confused-as well as palm-cold anxious. “This wasn’t about fighting. Neither of us want our kids to fight. Both of us are teaching our kids that violence is not a way to solve anything-”

“I’m not talking about the kids. I’m talking about us. And if the only reason you showed up last night is because you didn’t think I’d ever find the guts to-”

“Wait. Just wait. That’s not what-”

Teddy and Molly barreled out of the house at the same time, shrieking and laughing…and soaking wet.

Amanda couldn’t remember what they said they were going to play-fish? Candy Land? A marble game? So she wasn’t sure which culprit had unearthed the squirt guns from the closet in the back room. Of course, it didn’t matter who.

She shot an unhappy look at Mike-who didn’t look back. He grabbed his kid. She grabbed hers.

There wasn’t going to be any more private talking. Not now. Amanda felt a sinking sense of loss. She told herself that you couldn’t lose what you never had.

But Mike’s expression had become starched, his posture rigid.

She’d hurt him. Really hurt him.

She’d bumbled a moment that seriously mattered-and she had no idea how to make it right.

Ahalf hour later, Teddy didn’t object to a ride in the truck, but he kept sneaking peeks at him. “Dad. Molly and I didn’t break anything or hurt anything. We just got wet.”

“I know.”

“But you look so mad.”

“I’m not mad.”

“Then how come you keep looking mad, if you’re not mad?”

Mike declenched his jaw, rolled the iron out of his shoulders, smiled at his son. “I think you and I have earned a big day off.”

“I think so, too!” Teddy agreed, and then added, “What does ‘a day off’ mean?”

“It means you and I are going to have a guy day. We’re going fishing. In a lake. In a boat. Where there are no phones and no doorbells and no one can reach us. You like that idea?”

“I love it! I love fishes! I’ve always loved fishes!”

The whole afternoon, Mike tried to get his head back on track. There were tons of places to snag a rental boat, buy some live bait, set Teddy up with a fun afternoon. The sun was blazing, the lake silvery-calm, the sky a pure blue canvas without a single cloud. Teddy caught a little bass that fought like the devil, then a bigger one, a catfish, one pretty pike.

The whole time, Mike felt lower than a skunk, although he did his damnedest to hide the clunky mood from his son.

But he was hurting.

From the day he’d met Amanda, he warned himself not to fall for her.

She was the wrong woman-the most contrary redhead he’d ever come across. And it was the wrong time-for all the reasons they both knew and had commiserated about.

But last night, when she’d shown up in his shower…he’d known.

He hadn’t just fallen. He’d leaped straight off the cliff, so deep, so hard, there was no climbing back. She’d scraped past layers no one else ever had. She’d touched him…because she’d taken that kind of huge emotional risk. With him. For him. And for all their play, he’d tried to lavish her with tenderness and care and skill. The best of who he was as a lover.

So when she’d pulled the “friends” on him this morning, it ripped. But the details-that she thought she’d had to seduce him-as if he weren’t man enough to do the seducing…it just sent him into a crash funk.

He’d been trying to play by her rules by not touching her. He’d been trying to be a decent guy, for once.

Amanda was nothing like his ex, Mike knew, but suddenly it felt like new song, old refrain. Amanda was the cultured, classy type. She thought he was fine for a roll in the hay-but not good enough to fit in with her image of a long-term mate.

Teddy snoozed the whole way home, and Mike had the quiet sunset drive to put it all in perspective. That’s it. He’d shut up from here on. Go back to the rules they’d agreed on to begin with.

He’d be a friend.

Nothing else.

His resolve lasted a whole four days. When the phone rang, he had thick gloves on and was working in the basement with Teddy’s worm farm-knee-deep in a project that didn’t smell good, didn’t look good and needed to be done.

He’d have let the machine pick up-Teddy was with him, and there was no other emergency that couldn’t wait five minutes that he could imagine. But when the machine clicked on, he heard Amanda’s voice.

“Mike? I’m pretty sure you’re there. You probably just can’t come to the phone. But…I had a problem come up, and I was hoping-”

That’s all that went down before he’d taken the stairs three at a time and grabbed the landline in the kitchen. “I’m here. I was just downstairs. What’s up?”

He knew from the way she said his name, from everything in her voice, that she was stressed and strung tight.

“I hate to ask you. But I have to be in court at one. I didn’t ask my parents to babysit, because frankly, I’d rather they didn’t know until afterward. They get all upset, and this was something I didn’t want spilling on Molly inadvertently. Anyway, I called an agency. They sent over a babysitter with fabulous credentials. She got here at ll:00 a.m. I kicked her out three minutes ago. There was just no way-”