I laughed, picturing the Matt I used to know telling this stranger’s kid that. And it was weird. And stupid. But I could totally picture it. Even though there was no way Matt was this little girl’s uncle. She didn’t look anything like Mason. Her eyes were more intense. Actually, those eyes did look a littlefamiliar... I quickly shook the thought aside. I did not know these people.
“So you can pet one when your Uncle Matt takes you.” Penny shrugged at me.
Scarlett sighed. “But I told Jacob we could pet them. Isn’t that right, Jacob?”
My son nodded.
Penny looked over to me for help.
“That’s okay,” I said. “Maybe next time. How about we go look at the snakes again instead?”
Scarlett gasped.
“She hates snakes,” Penny said with a laugh. “And Scar, we’ve been here for hours already. It’s getting late. We should head home for lunch.”
“Peanut butter and jelly?” she asked.
Her mom nodded.
“Can Jacob come?” Scarlett looked up at me.
“Oh,” I said. “Thank you so much for inviting us, but we were just going to grab some lunch here.”
“But Ellie makes the best peanut butter and jelly. I was just telling Jacob. Puhleeeeease.”
I didn’t know who Ellie was. And I really didn’t want to impose. I still wasn’t sure Jacob and I were staying in the city. Letting him make friends was probably a mistake…
But my heart melted when Jacob looked up at me. “Please, Mommy. I want peanut butter and jelly.”
I looked back at Penny. “I mean…if it’s not too much trouble…”
“We’d love to have you,” Penny said. “But…”
“It’s fine,” I quickly said. “We didn’t want to inconvenience you anyway.”
She laughed. “It’s no inconvenience at all. Really. But I have a few errands to run today right after lunch. And I really need to get those errands done or I’ll have to take tomorrow off too.”
“Really, it’s okay…”
“Could we maybe do Wednesday instead?” she asked before I could finish. “If you’re free? That way the kids will have time to play.”
I smiled. “That sounds great.” I needed more to fill up my days. It was the quiet moments that killed me the most.
“We actually live really close to here. So hopefully it’ll be easy to find.” She was still balancing Liam on her hip as she pulled out a pen and paper. She jotted her address down on the paper. “Does Wednesday at noon work?” Apparently her writing disturbed Liam’s slumber, because she handed me the paper just as he started crying again.
“That sounds great,” I said over his cries.
“Fantastic. See you both on Wednesday!” she said as she wrassled a very protesting Scarlett into Liam’s spot in the stroller so she could manage on getting the two of them out of the zoo.
Jacob smiled up at me. “This was the best day ever!”
“You like your new friend?”
“And the sea lions. And the little red pandas. And the snakes!”
“Well we still have time to see the grizzly bears. Race you there?”
He took off before I could even count to three. The little cheater. We were both laughing as we reached the next enclosure. I lifted him up so he could get a better view. Jacob had made a new friend. And I was pretty sure I just did too. Maybe staying here a little longer wouldn’t be the worst thing.
