Emily Locke 01 - Final Approach

have come sooner, but I couldn’t find you until now. I’m so thankful your mom and dad took such good care of you for me.”
    She shoved the misplaced card back into her stack and nodded.
    “We’re both lucky, you know,” I continued. “I get to love a beautiful little girl, and you get an extra parent.”
    She giggled. “A bonus parent.”
    My telephone rang.
    “Oh!” she said. “Can I answer it? I know how.”
    I smiled, and she picked up the handset.
    “Hello?” she said, then listened. She shook her head. “Nope, sorry. My mommy’s not here.”
    I held out my hand and gestured for the phone. It was Vince.
    “I’m calling to collect my pizza dinner,” he said.
    Annette maneuvered onto her knees and leaned forward in her chair, watching me.
    I heard guitar strumming on Vince’s end. “You promised to take me out for pizza when I learned to play the F chord,” he said with laughter in his voice.
    “You were medicated when I said that.”
    “Still. You said it.” He strummed the F chord over and over, but it wasn’t quite right.
    “You’re not holding the strings—”
    “So, what are you ladies doing later? Because I think it’s pizza night.”
    I covered the mouthpiece. “Do you want to go out for pizza with my friend Vince tonight?”
    “Is he bringing his dog?”
    Vince chuckled. “You bring your girl, I’ll bring mine. We’ll get take-out and eat at the park.”
    “It’s your turn,” Annette said to me, and pointed at the discard pile.
    “Sounds good,” I said into the phone. “Talk to you later.”
    Annette hung up the phone for me. I drew from the deck and discarded.
    She took her turn and sighed.
    “Sometimes, can we do it the other way, where I live with my mom and dad and visit you?” She put her elbow on the table and leaned her chin into her hand.
    I squeezed my lips together.
    “Would that make you happy?” I finally asked.
    She smiled broadly and her eyes squinted the same way Jack’s used to. His laugh lines were the only thing missing.
    “Then I suppose we could do that once in a while,” I said, unsure and yet strangely certain at the same time about the rightness of her request.
    She laid down a card. “Can we especially do that on the nights you cook fish?”

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