Shoe Strings

  “These are for you.”   He handed her a wilting bouquet of
camellias.   “I think they need some
water.”
    “Thank you.   That
was really sweet.”   She filled a
large mug and set the flowers at the end of the bar.   “You hungry?”
    “I could eat.”   He settled back into the chair.  
    She got him a glass of sweet tea.   “What would you like?”
    “Whatever you’ve got in the kitchen is fine.   You know I like all your cooking.”
    He made everything easy.   Everything, but where their relationship
was headed.   “How about the
lasagna?   It’s a fresh batch and I
can have it out in just a few minutes.”
    “Perfect.   Will
you join me?”
    “Oh, I…”   She
looked at Ty first, then around the restaurant.   The dinner crowd had yet to arrive.   “Okay, but just for a few minutes.”
    “Great, I’ll go grab a booth.”   Bryce looked at Ty.   “You want to join us?”
    “No, thanks.”   Ty
winked at his mother.   “This
homework’s got to be done.”
    Kerri Ann set the plate on the table and slid in the booth
opposite Bryce.   He took her hand
and lifted her knuckles to his lips.   “You’d better taste it first.”
    “That’s not for the food.”  
    She blushed and looked over toward the bar.   Ty sat hunched over his books, engrossed
in angles and curves.  
    “He’s fine with it, Kerri Ann.   I just talked to him.”
    “You did?   What’d
he say?”
    Bryce dove into the steaming lasagna before she could warn
him about the temperature.   “Damn,
that’s hot.”
    “If you hadn’t shoveled it in so fast, I could have told
you.”   She twisted the paper from
Bryce’s napkin in her hands and waited for him to tell her about Ty.   “So?”
    “I told him we’d hang out like usual, that I wouldn’t be
trying to take you away from him.   It’ll basically be the same as it was, except for the sex.”
    “What?” she practically screamed.   She ducked her head and whispered, “Are
you out of your mind?”
    Bryce laughed.   “I’m just kidding, Kerri Ann.   I think that part’s implied.”
    She watched him attempt another bite, decide it was okay,
and take another.   “How are we going to…ya know?”
    He sipped his tea.   “Have sex?   The usual way,
missionary style, you on top, against the wall…”
    “Bryce, I’m serious.”
    “So am I.”
    She slapped his arm.   “Think about it.   I live with
a teenager.   It’s not like he goes
to bed at eight o’clock every night.   What are we going to do?”
    He looked at her with his brows raised, seemed to think a
minute.   “I don’t know, Kerri
Ann.   It all depends on what you’re
comfortable with.”
    “You want to sleep over.”   It wasn’t a question and the answer was
written all over his face.
    “Wasn’t that the whole reason we both had very uncomfortable
conversations with him?   Okay, maybe
not the only reason, but a big part of the reason?   I don’t think we’ll fool him if you walk
me out to the car and you’re gone for an hour.”
    Hell, there’d be no getting around it.   “We could just do it at your place.”
    “We could, but you don’t leave here until late at
night.   I know you, Kerri Ann.   You won’t feel comfortable leaving Ty
alone at home for hours at a time.”
    “No, you’re right, I won’t.   Damn it, why does it have to be so
complicated?”
    “Because it is.”   He dropped his fork and picked up her hand.   “I guess we’ll just have to do it when
he’s at Jesse’s.   It’s not ideal and
not nearly enough,” he said with a grin, “but it’ll have to do.”
    “I knew this wouldn’t be easy.”
    “Nothing worth having ever is,” he said.

 

 
    Chapter 22
    The pizza carton sat on the coffee table, empty except for
the paper napkins and plates Jesse and Angelita had used to devour it.   Jesse had put the extra box in the
refrigerator before he’d been tempted to start in on it after finishing off
three-quarters of the first.   They’d
dived into the pizza as if it were their last meal.
    “I’m stuffed,” Angelita announced as she leaned back into
the futon and patted her flat stomach.   “I shouldn’t have eaten that last piece.”   She looked over at Jesse and shook her
head.   “I don’t know where all the
food you put in your body goes.   How
many pieces did you eat?   Five?”
    “Six.”   He
mirrored her position on the couch and angled his head to study her.   They’d been so