Page 29 of The Ex Next Door (Charming, Texas #8)

Rob scowled, following David’s retreating back with his eyes. “He’s been this way all weekend.”

“I’m sorry. I guess we didn’t do a very good job in preparing him for this moment.”

“I tried talking to him.” Rob shuffled his feet and looked at the ground.

“Don’t worry, I’ll see what I can do.”

“I appreciate that. He listens to you.” He beckoned Amy to step outside.

“I’ll be right back, sweetie,” Amy called out to Naomi. “Just going to talk to Daddy for a minute.”

She was sitting on the living room couch, unzipping her backpack. “Okay.”

Outside, Amy closed the front door and faced Rob. “What is it?”

“So, you and Declan?” He nudged his chin in the direction of the house next door.

“That’s right. We’re…back together.”

“With the guy who broke your heart? You’re giving him another chance ?”

“Um, I find this quite ironic coming from you, but yes.”

“It’s just… What if it doesn’t work out, again? The kids have already been through you and me breaking up and that’s bad enough.”

“Well, what if you and Shannon break up?” She crossed her arms, hating the double standard Rob attached to everything.

“Okay, I deserve that, but the thing is, Shannon and I are a blank page. We haven’t already failed each other once.”

“Wow. Declan was seventeen when we broke up because he didn’t want to get married .”

He scoffed. “All I know is he’s all I heard about when we first met, and how the man shattered your heart.”

“Did you ever consider you were only hearing one side of the story?”

“Forgive me for wanting to save you from some grief and pain, Amy.” He shook his head.

Amy quirked a brow. He must be joking.

“Fine! I screwed up, too.” He held out his palms. “Okay, I screwed up worse . But you have to admit, it wasn’t right between us for a long time. We weren’t… We weren’t happy .”

“Yes,” she said. “I know that now. You were right.”

“Wait. What? ” Rob jerked his head. “I was?”

“I wish I’d seen it earlier. You weren’t happy and neither was I.

Somewhere along the way we lost each other in the hustle and bustle of raising kids and putting them first. We’re both to blame.

I don’t know about you, but I learned my lesson.

I’m never going to take love for granted again. I’m going to—”

Rob blinked. “Love? You’re already in love with him again?”

Until Rob repeated what she’d said back to her, she wasn’t even aware she meant the words.

But they were true. How easily she’d slipped back into a love that fit like a worn-out glove.

No, not a worn-out glove. A seasoned glove.

It fit. It was the perfect size and worked because it had molded itself to her soul early on.

They’d failed for one reason only. They were too young.

“I… I don’t know. But let’s just say the possibility is there.”

Rob grimaced like she’d socked him in the stomach.

“Oh brother! Well, whatever you do, don’t say that to the kids. It’s all they can handle with both of us seeing other people.”

With that, he climbed into his sedan and was off without another word.

Amy headed back inside, finding Naomi still on the couch but now she’d pulled out a book and was drawing inside it with her markers. She wondered if she should wait a little while before she told the kids about Declan. Rob had a point.

Amy sat next to her little girl, draping a hand around her tiny shoulders. “Did you have a good time yesterday after the park ordeal?”

“Shannon said I never have to call her Mom, that she’s not my mom and only wants to be my friend.

I call her Shannon and she’s not Daddy’s friend, but she’s mine now, I guess.

We played dolls for a little while.” She shrugged and used her blue pencil to color in the clouds she’d drawn over a little cottage.

“But David… He’s still upset?”

“Yeah.” Naomi sighed like the little worrier she’d already become. “I tried to tell him Shannon isn’t going to be our mom. He still doesn’t like her.”

Amy was about to go into David’s room to talk to him when he came wandering out himself, tablet in his hand. “Could I have a sandwich?”

“Sure!” She shot up. It seemed to be their way of bonding and talking. “How about you, Naomi?”

“Cookies,” she said. “And milk.”

David followed Amy into the kitchen and sat at their little table in the corner while she fixed him his favorite, a PB&J. He played a game on his tablet, the one with the annoying song on repeat.

“I’m so sorry about what happened yesterday,” Amy said, taking the peanut butter and spreading it evenly on the wheat bread.

He said nothing.

“Naomi said that Shannon explained she doesn’t want to be your new mother. Just a friend to you both. It’s nice to have another adult friend.”

David grunted.

“This is a lot of change to get used to. Daddy and I living apart, then we move to this new house. Now Daddy has a girlfriend. It’s a lot.”

“Yeah. It’s super stupid. At least you don’t have a boyfriend.” David snorted.

Amy froze in the middle of spreading the grape jelly. “W-why would that be stupid?”

“D-uh,” David said, his thumbs flying over the tablet. “Because if you have a boyfriend and Daddy has a girlfriend, then we’re never getting back together.”

No. Not this. A sharp ache stabbed through her chest. Routines were good.

They kept order in an emotionally chaotic world.

Throat tightening, Amy cut the sandwich into four triangles, the way she did when her life was far less complicated.

David and Naomi were little, and she could protect them.

There was so much. Stranger danger, carbon emissions, dirty water, pollution.

High-fructose corn syrup, food dyes and pesticides, overly processed foods, too much screen time and hormones in their milk.

She’d done her best to keep them healthy and happy but that hadn’t been enough.

In the end, she’d ruined her children by being one half of the couple who had ruined their family.

“Here you go.” She set the sandwich down.

“Thanks.” David barely looked at her, not even noticing the triangles as he used one hand to take a bite.

“What did we say about eating and electronics?”

“They don’t go together.” David paused his game and took two huge bites of his sandwich.

Amy sat in the chair across from him, wondering how best to put the truth to him. She had to be at once firm but also compassionate. Her little boy wanted something she was never going to be able to give him, and to say that stung was an understatement.

“David, look at me.”

“Yeah?” He did, his beautiful eyes so filled with hope it nearly killed her.

“Daddy and I are not going to get back together.” Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat.

“You never know!”

“I do know, honey.” Meeting his gaze, she refused to look away from those hazel eyes so like her own.

“Why won’t you give him a chance?” David whispered and he sounded so grown-up she had to blink for a moment.

“Honey, it’s not that simple.” She reached for his hand, but he pulled it away.

“Yes, it is!”

“Remember we said some things are too complicated for kids to understand? This is one of them.”

“Why? You always say I’m super smart.”

Amy struggled for an analogy that might make sense to a nine-year-old boy’s emotional maturity.

“Well, remember when soccer just didn’t work out for you, even though I made you stick with it?

Even though I didn’t want you to quit? You tried, I know you did, but it just wasn’t a good fit.

It wasn’t fun. Then you found baseball and you could see what you were missing.

You’re good at baseball and you have fun, too. Right?”

No, this wasn’t right, either. Terrible analogy. She was sinking fast and could only think that Declan would know what to say. He was so good at positive self-talk, so good at being someone’s personal cheerleader.

All of these intense feelings David had expressed were real and complicated and there was no place for more platitudes here. Only real talk, age-appropriate.

“Never mind. That might be a bad example.” She gave up and tried again. “What I mean is—”

“It’s because of Daddy! All this is his fault, and I hate him!”

David stood up from his chair so fast that it made a scraping sound across the tile floor.

“David, honey, wait,” she said but he left the kitchen, taking his tablet with him.

In a fantasy world where Amy reigned as queen and everyone else were her subjects, of course it would be wonderful to be the favored parent. The great unblamed. The favored.

Let the kids take their anger of the divorce out on the father they once adored. Realistically, it was his fault anyway.

In the real world in which she lived and functioned, this hatred was going to cause more division and anger that wouldn’t serve anyone.

If left to grow, it would infect her children like a parasite.

David hated the world right now, because he was almost a year behind Amy and Rob in terms of acceptance.

He’d only now come to the full-blown realization that his perfect and previously protected bubble had popped and forever shifted.

And all he wanted to do was get his world back in order again.

She was David’s mother, and so she felt his suffering like a blade knifing through her heart, looking for the best place to cut the deepest. Amy blinked back tears.

“ Mommy! What about my cookies and milk?” Naomi called out from the living room.

Right. Amy rose, poured milk and plated some cookies. This was something she could do. Feed her children. Read them a bedtime story. Sit and cuddle. Love them.

The rest of this might never get any easier.