“Everything okay with her and the kids?”
“Yeah, sure.” I picked up a sheet filled with data and handed it to Kyle. “Let’s go over these numbers.”
When Kyle and I finished, I headed out of the office and back towards home, stopping at the elementary school where Lanie attended first grade and Noah pre-kindergarten. I didn’t understand pre-kindergarten. It seemed to me that a few days of pre-school until kindergarten was enough. But Terra thought the all-day four-year-old program would be good to help Noah socialize and prepare him for school.
I parked in the lot and walked to the office to sign in, and then waited as they called Lanie and Noah down.
Noah was the first to enter the office. When he saw me, his face lit up in surprise, like he’d forgotten I was going to be there.
“Daddy, I did messy painting today.” He held his hands up and I expected to see them covered in finger paint. There were a few dots of color on his fingernails, but other than that they were clean. “I made a picture of George.” George was the name of the new fish I’d bought him a few weeks back.
“When can I see it?” I squatted down to see him at eye level.
“It has to dry first.” He put his arms around me, and savored the feel of my son in my arms. If Terra and I didn’t make it, at least we had Noah and Lanie to show that at one time, we’d loved each other.
The door to the office opened and Lanie walked in.
“Hi daddy.” She rushed over to hug me too. I hoped to hell that I wasn’t going to turn out to be one of those dads that only saw his kids on the weekend. As I stood and took their hands, I realized, I already was. The epiphany had me stopping.
“What’s wrong daddy?” Lanie asked.
I looked down into her little face. “Nothing baby.” I smiled. “How about a stop at the park on the way home?”
“Yay!” they both jumped up and down.
I took them to the park, pushing them on the swings and sliding with them on the slide. We took a short break from playing tag to have some water. “How was school?”
“Good,” they said in unison.
“Are you both doing okay? Happy?” I didn’t know what I was doing. They were kids, so of course they were okay. I guess I was just wanting to be sure that Terra and I weren’t fucking them up.
“Yep. Daddy, can I have a fish too? I want a shrimp,” Lanie said.
I quirked a brow at Lanie’s request. “A shrimp?” Was that even possible?
“It will clean the tank. Nina said she had a shrimp and I want one too.”
I nodded thinking I’d need to ask Emma about shrimp. “We can look into that.”
“Can I have a shrimp too?” Noah asked.
“If a shrimp and George can get along, I don’t see why not.”
When we finished playing, I loaded them in the car and took them home. Terra’s car was in the garage, and I was annoyed that I’d cut my meeting with Kyle short to get the kids if she’d have been able to do it. That was followed by guilt at being so willing to give up the afternoon I’d just had with my kids to work.
“You guys hungry?” I asked as I opened the door for them.
“I want apples and peanut butter,” Lanie said.
“No peanut butter,” Noah said.
“Why not?” Didn’t all kids like peanut butter?
“It’s sticky in my mouth.”
I needed to find Terra, to find out what was up with her. “Put your packs away and meet me back in the kitchen,” I said as I made my way up the hall to our bedroom.
She was sitting on the bed. For once, she was dressed in something other than sweatpants and a t-shirt. The basic outfit wasn’t as nice as she used to wear, but at least it showed off her curves. If we weren’t so estranged, I’d have liked to rediscover the body she developed once she had kids. I’d always been turned on by her body, but before it was lean, with straight lines. Now it was curvy and feminine. As a man, I liked that.
What I didn’t like was that she appeared to have lied to me about needing me to get the kids. “You’re home.”
“Yes, I finished earlier than I expected.”
I stepped into the room, shutting the door, so the kids wouldn’t hear if this discussion turned into an argument. “You said you were busy and needed me to pick up the kids.”
“I thought it would take longer.”
I set my hands on my hips as I looked down at her. “I had to cancel an important meeting, Terra. You could have picked them up.”
She wore the expression she normally got when I talked about work.
“I didn’t know I’d be done so soon.” She stood and took off her jewelry. She rarely wore it anymore, and I stopped buying it for her as a result.
“Now I’ll have to stay late. My wife gets annoyed when I work late,” I bit out in annoyance. She was always getting on me for working so much.
“Yes, heaven forbid she would want her husband home to have dinner with her and the kids.”
I shook my head wondering if we were going to hash out the same old argument. My eyes caught a letter on the bed.
I picked it up. “What’s this?” I saw the name on the stationary and realized one of my fears was coming true. She’d been talking to a lawyer.
When I looked at her, her reflection in the mirror was staring at me. But I didn’t see any concern on her end about what I’d just learned.
“You want a divorce?”
She turned to me, and with the same non-affect said, “No.”
“Then what’s this?” I waved the letter at her.
“I thought about it—”
“This looks
