Page 52 of Get Me to the Starting Line
she tortured me
did you crack?
Never
good to know
Three small dots appear at the bottom of the screen, disappearing and then reappearing again. But no text comes through. I’m consumed by my phone for longer than I’d like to admit, but it stays silent. He has to know this is just as frustrating digitally as it is in person. Goes to say something and then doesn’t. Frustrating man.
I make my way to daycare to pick up Levi, snuggling him to me as soon as I sign him out.
“Mama, mama, woo,” he says.
“Yes, little wolf?”
“Mamamamama.”
I sigh but smile and cheer for the words he gives me. I talk to him about my day, since studies show the more you talk to a child, the more they can understand.
Being exposed to adult speech has a positive influence on their vocabulary and social skills.
When we get home, my door is already unlocked. This can only mean one of three things: I’m being robbed. Paige is here to rip me a new one. Or Maggie and Thomas are here to steal Levi from me.
Sure enough, when I walk in, Maggie bounces over to me, scooping Levi from my arms.
“Hello, little man!”
“Woo,” he says to her. Maggie beams before turning to me, raising a brow.
“Loup. It’s French for wolf.”
When she gives me a questioning look, I shake my head and tell her it’s from a friend and leave it at that.
“Well, you’ve got the night off. We’re claiming time with our grandson,” Maggie says. I know exactly what that means. Paige called her and told her I needed babysitting.
“I guess I’m going over to Paige and Adam’s,” I say with a sigh.
“Yes, I think she’s expecting you.”
After a big hug and kiss to Levi and a meaningful nod from Thomas that I cannot, for the life of me, decipher, I’m out the door again and headed to my sister’s house in the country.
They have a beautiful house on the water, a modern cottage with black-framed window walls and high-peaked roofs. The wraparound porch Adam built still smells of fresh-cut wood as I walk up the steps to the front door. Paige wanted to paint it bright blue. I think she was joking, but Adam talked her out of it.
I let myself in, knowing she’s expecting me.
But when I enter the house and look around their open floor plan, I don’t see her. Maybe she’s in the bathroom. Something catches my eye as I head to the kitchen for a glass of wine.
Outside the giant back wall of windows that faces the bay, Adam and Paige sit on the edge of the deck he never fixed after building it with his siblings. She’s on the step below him, his long arms draped over her, wrapping her in his embrace.
Their dogs run around the backyard, chasing each other. I watch as he places a kiss on the top of her head, and she turns to gaze at him. There’s so much love in her eyes I have to lookaway.
Ninety percent happy for her, I remind myself.
Has anyone ever looked at me that way? I don’t think so. Even Ian, who I was supposed to marry, never looked at me that way.
I turn my back, giving them some privacy, and pour a glass of wine while I wait.
Sure enough, the back door opens and when I turn around, they walk in hand in hand, giggling to each other as Q and Penny race into the house. The pups come and say hello before collapsing on their beds, tired and happy.
