Page 14 of Manny Included

The two oldest glanced to Pete, who winked dramatically.They grinned and laughed.

“No, a little birdie named Pete told me you guys might be pretty happy if I ordered chicken fingers and fries.So guess what?I did.”He opened the take-out bags and began handing out the boxes.

“Hooray!”

“Ray!”Merida cheered.

The kids did dig in, munching away, and he thought it was unfair that they were already starting to heal.No, not unfair, he didn’t want them hurting a single second longer than they had to.He just wished it was easy for him.

He gave Pete his burger platter, and grabbed his own, sitting at the empty seat at one end of the table.He’d bet this was where Tony would sit.

Pete stayed where he was, and he noticed Belle staring for a minute, watching him with worried eyes.

“How are your chicken fingers?”he asked her quietly.“They yummy?”

She nodded.“Are we going to have to move away?”

He shook his head.“No, honey.I think we’re going to stay right here.Would you like that?”

She nodded.“In case Momma and Daddy’s ghosts need to find us.We need to be here.”

“Okay.Then it’s settled, we’ll stay.”It didn’t matter why she wanted to, only that she did as that was what they were doing.

“Okay.I want to stay in my school.”She went back to eating.

“Yep, you can stay in your school.”He looked over to Pete.“I know she and Eric have been home this week.Is the plan to send them back on Monday?”

“I think that’s the best, don’t you?They don’t have long left.”

“I think getting things back to normal for them would be good.”But what did he know—he was basically agreeing with the expert.

“I don’t want to tell anyone about Mommy and Daddy,” Belle said, and Eric frowned.

“Me too!”

He looked over at Pete.Surely the teachers already knew.

“You don’t have to tell anyone.I spoke to the school, and they understand.”

“What did they say?”Belle asked.

“That they were so sorry, and that they understood, and if you two wanted to talk, you could talk to them.”

She thought about it for a minute and then nodded.“Okay.”

All right, that had been easy, almost reasonable.

He grabbed his burger, checking the condiment situation.It looked pretty even actually.He took a big bite, grease running down his chin.Oh yeah, this was exactly what he’d been needing.

“Smells good,” Pete murmured, then took a bite of his own.“Uhn.”

Oh yeah.Someone was loving that.

He just nodded and kept eating.This was the best he’d felt since that phone call.He stopped eating his burger long enough to taste his fries.Damn, they were amazing, too.It was kind of wild, how certain foods could just help a situation out.

“Can I try a bite, Petey?”Eric asked, and Pete blinked over at him, eyes wide.

He let one of his eyebrows go up.Was there a problem with Eric having a bite of hamburger?