Page 5 of His Best Friend's Widow
Landon laughed as they moved toward the boy’s room. When Carter produced his creation, Landon put his hands to his face and dropped his mouth open. “Wow! Dude, that’s so cool. Tell me about it.” Landon dropped to his knees on the floor and listened as Carter explained every detail. When the boy was done, Landon gave him a high-five. “That’s creative, buddy. You’re one smart dude.” Then he grabbed Carter with one arm and ruffled his hair with the other.
“Hey!” Carter yelled in protest.
“Oh, what? You don’t want me to mess up your hair?” Landon ruffled it again, and Carter let out a combination of squeals and laughter. They dissolved into a wrestling match on the floor with both of them laughing.
“What’s going on in here?” Charlotte appeared in the doorway to ask. She must have been trying to sound grown-up.
Landon reached over and tugged her braid. “Just a little fun.”
Charlotte giggled.
“Kids, come eat dinner,” Hailey called out.
“Uh-oh,” Landon said, poking out his bottom lip. “The fun police said it’s time to stop.”
“Pizza!” Carter yelled, and all the kids ran down the hallway.
Landon took his time standing up from the floor. A brightly colored fabric being blown by the air vent caught his gaze, and he turned to look at the window. The curtain hung at a strange angle. He reached for the fabric and pulled it back, revealing the problem. The curtain rod had been pulled from the wall and hung by a loose screw. Hmm, Kyle would never have let something like that sit broken. Poor Hailey probably hadn’t had time to fix it. Or didn’t know where Kyle’s tools were.
Landon knew. He could fix that up in about five minutes.
The loud voices of the kids drew him back to the kitchen and he walked that way. Taking in the room, he noticed a few other things that needed to be fixed, or at least some attention from someone taller than Hailey. The fan blades looked like they had an inch of dust on them. His mind went to Hailey’s van, and he wondered if she was keeping up with the maintenance on it. That was something Kyle had always handled.
His mind reeled. How could he bring up those things to her? Should he even be the one to do that?
As he made his way into the kitchen, he caught Hailey’s eye as she wiped her hands on a kitchen towel. “Do you want some pizza?” she asked. Her voice was kind, but her face said she was ready for him to leave.
“Nah, I’m good. I’ll get out of your hair.”
“It’s alright, you bought it. There’s plenty here.”
Landon had never been one to say no to pizza. “Alright, just a slice, and then I’ll go.”
“Thanks again for today. I’m sorry that I needed to call you.”
Landon shrugged. “I didn’t mind. I probably needed to stop staring at my computer screen for a little bit anyway.”
“Well, I’ll try to plan better next time.”
Landon furrowed his eyebrows at her. “How would you have planned better? You couldn’t know there would be traffic. Was there any other time to take them to the doctor?”
“No, it was the only appointment.”
“So it’s not your fault. You did the best you could do. It’s okay to need help sometimes.”
Hailey shrugged. “Like I said, I appreciate it.”
Landon took a bite of pizza and chewed it as he rolled her words over in his mind. Surely she needed help sometimes. “Do your parents help with the kids?”
“Sometimes,” she said in a tone that wasn’t convincing. “They’re out of town this week.”
“They’re out of town a lot,” Carter said around the pizza in his mouth. “We don’t see them much.”
“That’s not true,” Hailey said, rolling her eyes. “Kids exaggerate. I called Claire today, but she’s sick. You were my last resort.”
Landon reached for a napkin and wiped his hands and mouth. “I don’t have to be. I’m happy to help. Especially on a day when I'm working from home. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do.” He wanted to ask about the curtain, and when was the last time she’d changed the oil in the minivan, but he stopped himself. “But I’ll let you guys get on with your evening.”
“Aww, we were just having fun,” Carter said. “After dinner all we do is homework and laundry.”
