Page 20 of Sweet Tooth
I couldn’t help but smile. Her calling felt like a small victory.
“Because we have a lot of history.”
“So?” she challenged.
“So I think we can maybe work toward building at least a friendship back up again. I know I have a lot to atone for Jess and if you’ll let me, I’d really like to try to do –”
“Fine,” she huffed, cutting me off.
“Fine?” I asked, genuinely surprised.
“Yes, fine. We can try to be friends. But that’s it,” she said, her guard clearly still up.
“I’ll take it,” I said, relishing in another small victory.
“Can this friend meet your son?” I asked, afraid I might be pushing for too much too fast.
A long pause had me thinking I’d blown it, but finally her voice came on the line again.
“I guess so.”
10
Jessica
What had I been thinking?
As Parker moaned about the puffy jacket I’d wrestled him into, the answer was behind the front door I was afraid to open. I’d told Zane we’d be waiting on the porch. But why in hell’s name was I even agreeing to see Zane at all, let alone have Parker meet him?
Maybe it was how determined and certain he’d seemed. Certain enough for the both of us.
Whatever the case, the void in me had taken on a heartbeat, thoughts, and wishes of its own. I’d never really gotten over Zane, had I?
The sound of a knock rattled me back to reality.
At the door, Zane had the kind of overwide eyes that I knew meant he was excited – and nervous.
Parker sized him up quick. “This Mommy’s friend?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Parker, this is Zane.”
Zane crouched down and stuck out his hand. “Nice to meet you. Did your mom tell you where we’re off to today?”
“Nope.”
He grinned, holding out a pamphlet. “Birds of Paradise. Managed to snag us some tickets, even though it’s the busy tourist season. You like birds?”
Parker shrugged. “I like cars.”
Zane nodded. “Birds are kind of like cars with wings – they’re pretty fast. You’ll see.”
“Ok!” Parker said.
“Let’s get going then,” Zane said, straightening with a wink at me. “We’ve got some tropical birds to see.”
The drive there was oddly easy. Zane was a natural with Parker, while I found myself at a loss for words. All the time we’d dated, and I’d never noticed how great Zane was with kids. Probably because we hadn’t been around them much, if ever. We were both only children from small families.
By the time we pulled up to the tall, windowed building where the birds were, I barely had to do anything. Parker trotted along behind Zane as easily as if he was his kid.
Zane’s voice broke me out of my daze; “Remember when we came here?”
“The macaws flocking you, how could I forget?” I had to laugh at the memory.
“C’mon, that whole no-food rule was stupid,” Zane said, smiling himself. “I mean, look what a hands-on experience we got with me sneaking in a few berries.”
“If by ‘hands-on’ you mean every personnel was called in to help lure away the birds, then sure,” I said.
He smiled, and I felt my walls crumbling. Just how much longer was I going to be able to keep up this grumpy bitch act; to hold him at arm’s length?
As we made our way into the first room, Parker slipped his hands in each of ours. “I wanna see birdies!”
Zane laughed. “And birdies will you see.”
Although ‘birdies’ was a major underestimation for what we saw in the next few hours. There were colorful parakeets, chatty macaws, squawky cockatoos. There was a waterfall (which Parker sprayed me with), long tropical plants (which Zane poked me with). There were tortoises and bats too.
It was like a little teeming world in there. So completely did I lose track of time that I only noticed it’d been hours when, with no ceremony, Parker plopped himself on the floor and declared himself, “starved to deaf”.
Zane laughed heartily.
“Well then we’d better get to feeding this one.” I mussed Parker’s hair before scooping him up in my arms. “When he gets hungry, he gets super sleepy too.”
Sure enough, Parker was dozing off.
Back at home, we ended up getting Chinese food. Zane and I shared a massive helping of General Tso’s chicken, while Parker, once he’d had his fair share of chicken balls, amused himself by throwing dirty napkins off the table and onto the floor.
“Parker,” I scolded him as I leaned down to pick one up.
Giggling maniacally, Parker clutched another dirty napkin in his hand. Then, he chucked it on the ground.
“Parker!” I said.
“C’mon now,” Zane said. “You’re more of a big guy than that.”
Parker studied Zane for a minute as he reached for another napkin. At the last second, he popped a chicken ball in his mouth instead.
“It’s a miracle,” I whispered to Zane.
“What, that Parker has enough good taste to appreciate the glory that are chicken balls at a young age?” Zane asked.
