Single All the Way (Single Dads of Dragonfly Lake #2)

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Emerson

I felt like I’d only been asleep for a few minutes when I was jolted awake by an awful noise. It sounded like a shrill, coarse woman’s laughter outside in the distance.

Skyler rolled into my side and ducked her head under the covers. “Mommy, what is that?” she asked in a high, small voice.

The sound came again. “The rooster,” I realized. “That’s awful.”

Skyler didn’t stir from being glued to me.

“He’s outside, sweetie. Just doing his wakeup call.” From hell , I added in my head.

“I don’t like him.”

I wasn’t sure I did either. Was that how we were going to wake up every day for the next month and a half? God, save my sanity.

I kissed my daughter on the head, then rolled out of bed, my eyes burning from lack of sleep. The air was chilly outside of the blankets. I went to the small dormer window and peered outside.

The sun wasn’t up yet. I could see the chicken house beyond the garage, and the birds were still locked up for the night. Wasn’t a rooster supposed to wait for sunrise to do his cock-a-doodle-death sounds?

I went back to the nightstand and picked up my phone. The time was ten after five.

“I’m going to the bathroom, Sky. Be back in a few.”

When I entered the hall, I was met with way too much activity for this time of day. I nearly ran into Ben, leaning against the doorjamb of Ruby and Xavier’s room.

“Oh,” I said, startled, though I shouldn’t be. He’d warned me they started early around here in order to fit in the morning chores.

“Good morning.” He was dressed in jeans and a thick hoodie, looking wide awake as he smiled down at me.

“Morning,” I mumbled. “Need the restr— Ah. After Evelyn.” His daughter went in before I could.

“Hi, Mom!” Xavier, my blond cutie, bounced into my sight beyond Ben, fully dressed as well, excitement lighting up his eyes.

“Hey, kiddo. How’d you sleep?”

“Good! I’m gonna help Dr. Ben and Ruby with the animals.”

I glanced at Ben to check his reaction. He nodded and smiled. “It’s what we do around here.”

“I don’t want him to be more work for you.”

“He won’t be at all. He can help Ruby with the horses today.”

“Should I— Can Skyler and I do something to help?” If it was what they did around here, we should probably all contribute.

With a chuckle, he shook his head and said, “No. It’s dirty work, and we’ve got it covered.”

Today I wasn’t going to argue, but maybe there was something Sky and I could handle in the future to earn our keep, so to speak. “If you’re sure…”

“I’m surprised you’re up. You had a long day yesterday.”

“So did you,” I said, recalling the tale of the horse emergency.

“Used to it, but I’m betting you’re not.”

“Does the rooster do that every day?”

He grimaced. “He does. Same time every morning and several times throughout the day. You get used to it.”

“I don’t hardly notice Gordon’s wakeup call anymore,” Ruby sang out as she pulled on knee-high socks with horses on them.

“Gordon,” I repeated, wondering how Gordon would taste.

“Gordon Ramsay is his full name,” Ben said.

“Oh, my God. Your hens…” His chickens had names like Cinnamon and Pepper and Ginger…all eight of them.

“Spices,” he confirmed.

My hair fell over my face when I looked down at Ben’s wool-socked feet and grinned slightly.

“Your room is closest to the chicken house,” Ben said. “Sorry about that.”

When I lifted my gaze to meet his, he brushed my hair back behind my shoulder with one finger. The tenderness and familiarity of the gesture startled me, but I hid any reaction. I didn’t hate it, just didn’t expect it.

“Front row seats to the crazy cock,” I said. “He sounds like a woman laughing.”

“A disturbed woman laughing,” he agreed. “We might need to get you a white noise machine while you’re here.”

Evelyn came out of the bathroom before I could answer.

“Anyone need the bathroom?” I asked.

“It’s yours,” Ben said. “If you think you can go back to sleep, feel free. The kids and I will be doing chores for an hour or so. I’ve got Xav.”

Both our gazes went to my son, who was stuffing his feet into tennis shoes.

“Might want to get him some work boots if his interest in morning chores persists,” Ben said.

I nodded as I hurried off to the bathroom.

After I relieved myself, I washed my hands, thinking I’d go ahead and shower as soon as Ben and the three kids went outside.

When I’d agreed to take Ben up on his offer for us to stay here, I hadn’t stopped to think about the logistics of the six of us sharing two bathrooms. Hadn’t stopped to think about many of the details at all of sharing a house with him and his family. I’d mostly been relieved one tricky detail was figured out as I’d busted my butt to pack an entire four-bedroom house—one Kizzy had lived in for fortyish years and had the stuff to prove it—in less than three weeks.

I glanced in the large mirror behind the sink as I turned off the water and gasped when I caught sight of myself.

My hair was a tangled mess from tossing and turning, my eyes looked puffy, and my nipples were sticking out through my sleep shirt like beacons of light in a dark storm for anyone to notice.

And I’d just stood a foot away from Ben and talked to him for five minutes without a thought to pulling a heavy sweatshirt on.

Super.

I could hear Ben herding Evelyn, Ruby, and Xavier downstairs, leaving me privacy to get back to my room and check on Sky.

Even though I was alone, I crossed my arms over my chest as I hurried back to Skyler. The outside door slammed beneath my room, and the house went quiet.

Enough light shone in from the hall that I could instantly see Skyler had fallen back asleep, bless her sweet heart. It was early, and she’d had a restless night too. I’d let her sleep while I showered.

Forty-five minutes later, I was showered and dressed with my hair and makeup done. I woke up Skyler, took her and Waylon into the room she was supposed to share with Evelyn, and encouraged her to get dressed and meet me in the kitchen. I planned to get breakfast going for everyone. It was the least I could do.

As I went down to the kitchen, I vowed I’d work on getting her to sleep in her own bed.

By the time Ben and the other three kids tromped in, I had a big skillet full of scrambled eggs and another with sausage nearly ready to serve. The four-slot toaster popped up, and I slid over to add the golden-brown slices to the plate of toast, buttering each one.

“Emerson, you don’t have to do this,” Ben said at the doorway as he took his work gloves off and tucked them in a cubby in the mudroom.

I shook my head. “Sure. I’ll just let you do all the chores while I sleep, and then you can feed me too.” I shook my head at him with a you’re crazy expression. “I need to pay you for groceries.”

“We’ll split the next grocery run,” he said, not seeming concerned at all.

I was concerned. I was already epically aware of how much we were imposing on him and his family. I’d do whatever I could to pull my weight by helping with the animals and kids as well as paying our fair share for food.

I’d find a way later to even things out. Right now, I had three chattering kids and a large man to feed.

As I turned the burners off and dished up the food, Evelyn and Ruby set plates and silverware around the dining room table as if they did it every day. I suspected they did.

My kids helped out whenever I asked them, but we had a long way to go to get to Holloway standards.

“What can Xavier do?” I asked Ben, who was pouring himself a mug of coffee. I’d found the pot already brewed when I got downstairs, so he must’ve started it before waking the kids.

He glanced toward the table in the other room. “Juice cups.” He took down colorful cups and handed the stack to my son. “Then you can get the jug of orange juice out of the fridge and put it on the table,” he said to Xavier.

My son did as he was told, which wasn’t always how it went with him.

“How do you do this?” I asked Ben quietly as I stuck a serving spoon into the bowl of eggs.

“Do what?”

I laughed dryly because pretty much his whole lifestyle confounded me. “Let’s see, get the kids up before the sun, get them to help with chores and set the table without asking, no arguments along the way…”

I couldn’t even get Skyler to sleep in her own bed, let alone help with chores. To be fair, she wasn’t herself at all. This temporary move was messing with her in ways I hadn’t expected.

“Llamas are cool,” Ben joked. “Who wouldn’t want to get up at five a.m. to help with them?”

I made a face and laughed. “I can think of things I’d rather do.”

“You’re not under ten.”

“Your household is so organized. Remind me to never let you into mine…when I have one.”

He inched closer and said in a low voice, “I made a deal with the kids when we got the horses and chickens. We could only get them if they helped me every day.”

“That was a couple of years ago, right?”

“Going on three. Then we added the llamas earlier this year. Same deal applies.”

“They help without you asking ,” I repeated. “Are there special pills for that?”

He laughed. “It’s not always as seamless as today. They’re excited to have your kids here and show them how it’s done.”

I nodded as we loaded our arms with the food and headed to the table.

“And one of mine isn’t even dressed yet.” I set the eggs and toast on the table, then went to the foot of the stairs and called up, “Skyler, you need to hurry. We’re eating breakfast.”

I heard a door squeak upstairs, then the bathroom door close. I’d check on her in a few minutes. She wasn’t the fastest riser in the morning, but this was slow even for her.

The rest of us had filled our plates when Skyler appeared, still in her nightgown. She looked on the verge of crying, then dashed over to me and buried her face in my side.

Ben caught my gaze with a concerned look that matched the feeling in my gut.

“What’s going on, sweetie?” I asked her, pulling her into me.

“I don’t wanna go to school,” she said, her little voice muffled by my sweater.

I made eye contact with Ben again without thought, even though this wasn’t his problem.

“You have to go to school,” Evelyn said.

“You’re doing Thanksgiving projects this week, Sky,” I said. “Remember?”

My daughter only burrowed deeper into me, twisting my heart. This wasn’t normal. Skyler liked school.

I wasn’t going to get answers with an audience, so I pushed back from the table, eyeing my hot food with a flash of longing. I had a feeling it would be cold by the time I saw to this challenge, but Skyler was more important.

Hoisting her up in my arms even though she was getting heavy, I told Xavier, “Get your tummy full and help with cleanup if I’m not back.”

He nodded, likely sensing I needed his cooperation more than usual.

I took Skyler up to her room, hoping to get her dressed and ready to go as we talked.

My hope would be throttled over the next ten minutes, during which Skyler mostly cried and gave me no specific reasons for her sudden refusal to go to preschool. I peppered her with questions, trying to ensure nothing bad had happened last week that was causing her reluctance, but it just made her cry harder.

I was almost certain it was nothing to do with school and everything to do with change. My heart went out to her. Change was hard. Our family had been through a lot, but Skyler was too young to remember most of it. She’d been quieter and quicker to cry since Kizzy went away to visit her college friend and ended up eloping with her and moving to Nevada. It didn’t matter that we FaceTimed with her grandmother several times a week and only marginally calmed her when I reminded her of her nana’s upcoming holiday visit.

“Okay,” I finally said, feeling defeated, because there was no way around a hundred more changes and six more weeks of being unsettled, minimum. My optimism that I could find a good house for sale within my budget and in the Dragonfly Lake school district by then was dwindling. I leaned down and forced eye contact with her, holding her hand. “I’ll make a deal with you. You can stay home today if you promise me you’ll go tomorrow and Wednesday. Then it’s Thanksgiving, and you’ll go back on Monday.”

Her lower lip protruded, and she inhaled shakily as I held my breath, hoping this would indeed solve this particular problem. Obviously there was a much bigger issue here, but all I could handle was one step at a time.

Peering at me with her big green eyes, she nodded slowly. “Okay, Mommy.”

“Okay?” I repeated. “You promise you’ll go to school tomorrow to see your friends and do Thanksgiving art?”

She looked about to cry, but she nodded again.

I exhaled as I pulled her in close. “We still have to take Xavier to school, so let’s get you dressed.”

When we returned to the dining room, all the places except mine and Skyler’s were cleared, and Xavier was in the kitchen with Ben and his kids, putting plates in the dishwasher. The serving bowls were still on the table, so I loaded up my daughter’s plate.

“Okay, you three. Thanks for your help,” Ben said. “Upstairs, brush your teeth, use the bathroom, get your school stuff.”

Xavier and Ruby raced through the dining room to the stairs.

“Hi, Mom! Hi, Skyler!” my son said before he stomped up the stairs with his best friend.

Evelyn came through more slowly, sedately. “Is Skyler okay?”

That was the question of the hour, but to the little girl, I smiled and reassured her, “Skyler’s just fine. You’re sweet for asking.”

Evelyn eyed Sky with skepticism but made her way up the stairs.

Before sitting down to my cold breakfast, I went into the kitchen.

“Thank you,” I said quietly as I sidled up alongside Ben at the counter. “For keeping Xavier on track. I owe you.”

“You don’t owe me a thing,” he said in that low, private voice.

I laughed at that. “Let’s see, you’re putting us up in your home during the holidays, letting my kid help with the animals, keeping him in line while I handle Skyler… I don’t know how I’ll repay you. Can I at least pick your kids up after school and drive them home for you?”

“No need. They take the bus. Grandma Berty will be waiting when they get here.”

“The bus. Of course they take the bus. Mornings too?”

“Mornings too. It’ll be here in”—he looked at his watch—“eight minutes.”

“I’ll call the school today and sign up Xavier for morning bus.”

“Afternoons too,” Ben said.

“He comes to the salon with me.”

“He can come here. Grandma Berty stays with Ruby and Evelyn. She loves kids.”

I shook my head. “No. No way am I taking advantage of your generosity in yet another way.”

“She’s here every day. She’s good with them.”

“I’m sure she is, but I’m not going to throw two more kids at her.”

“I need to get my two out the door and to the bus, then get ready for work.”

He went to the stairs and hollered up at his kids to get moving, and I went back to the table with Skyler and finally sat down to eat.

As Skyler tore into her eggs, Ben turned toward me and said, “We’ll discuss childcare later.”

With a bite of cold eggs in my mouth, I shook my head. As soon as I swallowed the bite, I said, “Waste of time. You’re already doing too much for me.”

Ben came up to the edge of the table on the opposite side, leaned his hands on it, looked me in the eye, and said, “For the next six weeks or however long you’re here, Emerson, we’re in this together. We help each other.”

His eyes were intense as he stared into mine. It got to me. The thought of having someone at my side, a partner in all the chaos, had as much allure as a restorative, full-service spa getaway. In that moment, I couldn’t help noticing how good-looking Ben was with his empathetic, handsome eyes and his just-right beard on an angled, masculine jaw.

I shook my head at myself, because that was a random and pointless thought. As tempting as it was to lean on someone, I couldn’t let myself. The kids and I would be moving on soon enough, and then I’d have to readjust to handling everything on my own. It’d be better to never let myself get used to it in the first place.

Peering back at him, I said, “Your kids are going to be late for the bus.”

He swore silently, straightened, and bellowed out to his kids just as they thundered down the stairs. I counted it as a win for me, even if only temporary.