“I’m not sure what you have planned for today. I usually take Katie to the park. There’s a group of moms that meet every week for a playgroup of sorts. Afterward, we get lunch in town somewhere. I got some charcoal at the store last week, so maybe we could cook out later?” he suggested.
“Oh. Uh, that sounds ... yeah …” I stuttered lamely.
“But if you have other stuff you want to do, don’t feel you have to hang out with us. I know you’re living here now, and we’re technically married, but that doesn’t mean you have to play family. Only when it counts, right?” He was rambling. Shit, I made him ramble.
“I have no plans, Kyle. I’m not exactly Miss Social anymore. I’d love to hang out with the two of you.” I pretended to snatch Katie’s nose, and she squealed, which made me laugh.
I looked up to find Kyle watching me, and I wished I knew what he was thinking. “Okay, then. Well, let me clean up our breakfast dishes and get Katie’s stuff together, and we’ll head out.”
“What can I do? I mean, I live here now. I can’t expect you to wait on me hand and foot.” I rinsed out my coffee cup.
“You could clean up the grub monster and maybe grab some snacks from the cabinet to put in the diaper bag,” Kyle said, wiping down the counter.
“I’m on it.” I turned to the little girl who was literally covered in food. “Um, what do I use to clean her? Should I take her out in the yard and hose her off?” I teased.
Kyle handed me a packet of wet wipes. “No hose necessary. This time at least. Wait until you see what she looks like after ice cream.”
And then we went about our tasks. Kyle cleaning up after breakfast, and me getting Katie ready for the day. It felt so familial. Like a damn Norman Rockwell painting. All sweet domesticity.
I looked over at Kyle just as he glanced my way. Our eyes met. We smiled. Then quickly moved on.
I couldn’t get too comfortable. That would be dangerous.
**
“Should she be climbing that? What if she falls?” I asked as we watched Katie scramble up the jungle gym, seemingly unnerved by the height.
“Are you going to be the one to stop her?” Kyle chuckled, going to stand beneath her in case she slipped. “She’s actually a pretty good little climber. I haven’t been able to keep her on the ground at the park since she learned to walk. She’s been climbing all over this thing since she was ten months old.”
The park was crowded with children and families, all taking advantage of the good weather. I recognized quite a few people we went to high school with, but I couldn’t remember their names. It seemed Kyle knew everyone, and he made a point to greet them all.
When he arrived at the park, I grabbed the diaper bag, and he put Katie in her stroller. As he pushed her down along the path, he took my hand, holding it lightly in his, our fingers laced together.
My heart speeded up at the contact, but then I remembered—we were in public. We had to make it look good.
I noticed how everyone looked our way. Eyes widening. Whispers going back and forth. We were the talk of the Southport community park. I tried not to pay attention to it, but it was kind of hard when they were being so blatant about it.
“Web, how are you? We’ve been missing this little cutie,” a woman said, leaning down to smile at Katie, who was already trying to make her way back up the climbing wall.
“I’ve had to work the past few weekends,” Kyle was saying to the woman who seemed vaguely familiar. The woman, who had dark hair tied back in a ponytail, looked about my age, and from the way she was making goo-goo eyes at Kyle, and the lack of ring on her left hand, she was very, very single.
She played with a piece of hair that had come loose from her ponytail like a teenager with her first crush. She smiled wide and batted her eyelashes. I had to give her credit for her brazenness. “Well, we’ve all missed you at the kid’s playgroup. You shouldn’t work so hard.” She put her hand on his arm in an overly familiar way that I didn’t like. Not one bit.
Kyle, finally realizing how uncomfortable this was becoming, pulled his arm back and turned to me. “Dani, do you remember Whitney? Meg’s older sister?”
Dani? Oh right! Dani Baker. She was a year older than me in school. A quiet girl who played the flute in the school band if I remembered correctly. It seemed, by the doe eyes she was throwing Kyle’s way, she’d gotten over her wallflower tendencies.