Page 82 of As The Shifter World Turns

82

ON THE MOVE

Martin

“Micah did offer it to me first,” Daire said firmly. It was unlike him. Why was he so insistent on living here? He had an entire building and he was the one who chose to move into 3B and let Ivor and family have 1A.

The entire thing was bugging the crap outta me. And really it had nothing to do with the new place at all. Not really. It had everything to do with Neil. I’d thought we’d gotten over some invisible hump and were going to be able to get past everything and move into a place together as a family. I pretended we were fine. Held his hand and smiled but I was hurting.

Toby absolutely adored Neil so that wasn’t an issue.

I hadn’t counted on Neil just not wanting to. He said it had to do with not being able to leave the manor, but really that made no sense, and this basement apartment… there was something about it that shouted home. Maybe it was the garden or Toby being able to play with Patch whenever he wanted. Patch could have sleepovers. But whatever it was, it felt good here with the one exception, that exception being Neil refusing to come.

Not even being here with him while Toby explored made a difference. Maybe we were at the point where it was time to cut and run. There was no sense pursuing someone who just wasn’t that into me. That was a saying for a reason. I just didn’t like the reason. But even as that thought occurred to me, I pushed it away. No way did I want to break up with Neil.

“And if Micah had told me about that we might be in a different situation, but he didn’t and unlike you, Martin has a kid.” That was Archer.

Great. The last thing Toby needed was to hear the adults fighting. I tried not to shelter him too much, but this was ridiculous, they were acting like children.

But then again, so was I if I stopped to think about it. I could just say that the apartment was his and go back to the manor and figure out a plan B. There was nothing must have about this place, not with an entire city’s worth of apartments to look at.

“I did tell you… I think. I meant to. But in any case I did give it to Daire.” Micah pressed the heel of his hand into his left eye. “This place isn’t really big enough for a family.”

“Yes, it is,” Toby piped up. “It has a bedroom just for me.”

I shushed my son so fast. Was he right? Yes. Was it ever a good idea to get between adults fighting? Not at all. Micah and Archer were safe. They didn’t have a violent bone in their body, but many people did and it was best to be careful because you never knew when an argument would turn into a fist fight.

“Toby, come here.” He must’ve sensed my distress, immediately joining my side.

“I feel awful about this.” Micah let out a long sigh.

“You should. If you had told me, we could’ve avoided all of this,” Archer snapped. “And now you need to tell Daire the place is gone.”

“No. You need to tell Martin that,” Micah countered.

“And they are both standing here, listening to you. Maybe you should ask them what to do.” Neil never spoke up like this. Awkward situations often had him hiding in the corner. Not literally, but he would close in on himself.

Because things like fighting were hard.

Just like leaving his place used to be.

Just like… crap. Was leaving the building really about the place and not me? No. Now I was just making excuses for him, something I had a history of doing for people and swore I wouldn’t do again.

“I don’t see why this is even a conversation.” Daire was speaking directly to Archer.

Archer started talking over him and then Micah began over both of them. I couldn’t pretend to keep up with it all. I didn’t want to. I wanted this decided and to go home with Toby and away from the chaos.

“Here.” Toby held out two play swords. “Duh. You need to duel it out. Dad and Daire.”

“To what? To the death?” Daire asked and I wasn’t sure if it was a joke or not.

“No.” Toby rolled his eyes and this one time, I wasn’t going to correct him. “To the move. You and dad. Or maybe me. I’m the one studying up on medieval history. I should be the one to duel.”

And that escalated quickly.

“There will be no duel,” Micah interjected. “Daire gets the apartment.”

“Nope. It’s Martin’s,” Archer snapped back.

“Maybe the duel should be with them,” Neil said under his breath .

There should be no duel. The idea was utterly ridiculous. And yet there I was taking a plastic sword from my son and Daire taking the other one.

“On the grass with plenty of space around you. That’s a dueling one-oh-one.” Toby marched out, looking behind every couple of steps to make sure we were coming.

“We’re dueling?” Daire spoke low as to not have Toby overhear.

“Guess so. He’s a hard kid to say no to.” Especially if he somehow managed to get people to stop fighting. I felt like I was a kid again right before my father decided to sleep with my dad’s best friend… in their bed… when my dad was expected home.

We walked out and Toby told us each where to stand.

“I never took dueling one-oh-one,” Daire told Toby. “I’m going to need the rules.”

This is where things should've fallen apart and the duel deemed officially over. I mean how did Toby have rules for such a thing.

But my son did. Nineteen of them as a matter of fact. And the way he recited them, they were truly rules in his mind and he said he’d repeat them if we forgot.

The gist of it was that if a sword touched another it was over and the swordsman was victorious.

It sounded easy enough until he began part two, the thirty three ways you could be disqualified and while I did appreciate that swearing was one of them, having your toes point the wrong way seemed a bit like he was making things up at this point.

Kudos for being creative.

“Does everyone understand the rules?”

We each responded in the affirmative. As ridiculous as this was, I tried to remember that in twenty years Toby was going to be telling this story as a fond childhood memory. Unless I lost and then it was going to be how his father ruined his life. Great. What had I gotten myself into?

“And the winner picks who gets the apartment.” He held up his hand. “Now turn around and face the opposite direction.”

We both did. I had to give it to Daire, he was a good guy for at least pretending to go along with this.

“Now take five large steps,” my son instructed. I had a feeling he was combining pistol challenges from the days of old with duels, but it didn’t matter. We had play swords, no one would get hurt, and the winner picked the one who got the apartment, if I understood things correctly.

“When I count to zero, turn around and the duel will begin and remember the rules. Being disqualified is a very non respectable way to lose.”

As if there was anything hi-brow about this entire thing.

“Three, two, one, and zero.”

I pivoted around on my foot and Daire was already heading toward me, his sword drawn, his foot clearly pointing the wrong way, at least according to the rules.

Toby didn’t seem to notice, his eyes fixed on our swords.

The swords clashed and I went to “stab” Daire, his sword hitting mine first. He had won. Which was probably for the best given he’d officially been the first one to ask for the place.

“And Daire is the victor, my father’s going home in defeat and disgrace.”

Jeeze, thanks, son.

“What say you, victor of the duel? Who will move in here?”

“I deem this garden deserving of a small boy as does the royal pup.” Wait? What? He was giving it to us. After all that fighting he was just saying it was ours. Not that I should be surprised, he had tried to throw the duel, still… It caught me off guard.

Toby ran to Daire, throwing his arms around him. “Thanks, Daire. I really wanted to live with Patch.”

And I really wanted to live with Neil. I just hadn’t quite figured out how to make it happen.