Page 91 of Fierce-Baker

Just the two of them, side by side, enjoying each other’s company, playing with plastic trucks without words, loading, hauling and dumping.

Building something no one knew or felt but him.

After a while, Micah leaned into his knee, almost trusting, still pushing his truck in lazy circles, but slower, more tired.

He didn’t move. He just rested his forearm on his thigh and let the moment be what it was as he looked down at Tasha’s son playing on his own.

It was easy. Quiet. Just about right.

Through the glass door, he caught a glimpse of Tasha watching them with a small smile on her face. Not surprised. Not worried. Just…soft.

He looked back down at Micah, who was now carefully lining the trucks up and picking the rocks back up to bring to the side. Like he knew it was time to clean up without being asked.

He swallowed the lump in his throat.

He hadn’t planned this. Hadn’t expected it either.

But sitting there, helping a toddler open a bin and build a tiny world on a concrete patio, it didn’t feel complicated.

It felt simple.

And wasn’t that what they’d said they wanted all along?

How the hell had it come in the form of this?

But when his phone buzzed in his pocket, the moment seemed to end before he wanted.

He pulled it out and saw it was his sister saying she was close.

“Can we pick all these rocks up now?” he asked Micah. “Who can do it faster?”

And just like that, it was a new game. A new race, and he was letting Micah win, listening to the giggles, and letting the quiet confidence of always wanting a family of his own settle back into his soul as if it’d never been shattered before.

This time when he looked up, it wasn’t just Tasha watching him, it was Brittany and Emme, and his sister looked damn near tears.

27

DOUBLE DOSE

“And here we are once again,” Bella Morgan said two days later. “Getting ready for the little monsters. How many fights do you think we are breaking up on the first day?”

Tasha looked up from where she was arranging the desks in groups of four.

“I don’t normally have that many fights,” she said. Bella taught fifth grade with her, in the room next door, and they worked together the most, often switching the kids over since she’d specialized in Math and Bella in Science. “I think you look forward to it. What, did you have too quiet of a summer off?”

Bella laughed. “No. Maybe I’m just used to all the fighting in my house with three teens. Thankfully, the older two had jobs and were out of sight for most of it, but the younger, she was on my case daily wanting to go shopping, go to a friend’s house, complaining she was bored. I couldn’t get away with any of that at her age.”

“I couldn’t,” she said. “But I was an only child so I learned to entertain myself. My parents worked all year round and I was in daycare and then had a sitter at the house.”

“Speaking of daycare and sitters. How is that little man of yours? I bet he’s running everywhere and talking a mile a minute.”

She smiled and walked back a few steps to check out her handiwork in the room. It wouldn’t hurt to take a few minutes for a break and chat because she knew Bella wasn’t going anywhere.

“Yes, to both things. He’s so much fun. But I worked part time this summer too. I don’t think he wanted to give up daycare time and I need to pay to hold the spot.”

“That’s a bummer for you. Having summers off is the best part of being a teacher. Especially with kids.”

Yeah, sure, it was. If you had another income coming in from a partner. Which she didn’t.