Teresa Hill (18 page)

“Oh. Okay,” he said, then looked very serious indeed. “It’s a mom thing, too, right? My friend Mickey Wilson said his mom hides all the really good food in the house, and he only gets a little bit of it every week.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s in the back of the cabinet on the very top, but he found it and climbed up there one day to get the stuff and fell and almost broke his arm,” Luke confided. “He got in lotsa trouble, and then his mom put a lock on the cabinet.”

“Oh, no.”

“Moms are really allowed to do that? Lock up all the good food?”

“I think so,” Samantha said. “Although I’m sure it won’t come to that here. I’m sure you and I and your father could come to an agreement, and we’d all stick to the rules. We wouldn’t need to hide things or lock them up. Right?”

Luke still looked troubled. “We can still have ice cream?”

“Of course. With all the chunks and swirls you want.”

“Okay.”

“Would you like me to make you that sandwich now?”

“Okay,” he said, putting the ice cream away. “Does that mean you want to be my everyday mommy?”

Samantha stopped in the midst of looking through a cabinet for peanut butter. She turned to face Luke and said, “What?”

“The everyday mommy? You know, the one who’s here every day? My mom and I—” He broke off, looking confused again. “Am I s’pposed to still call her that? Or you?”

“We’ll have to talk about it. About what you call me,” Samantha said. “But Elena’s still your mother. It’s fine for you to call her mom.”

“She’s gonna be the someday mommy,” he said. “But I don’t guess I’d call her that. I guess I’d just call her mom.”

“Someday mommy?” Samantha asked.

Luke nodded. “She told me all about it. About how some people have two, one that they see everyday and one that they only see sometimes, and she’s gonna be the someday mommy.”

“Oh,” Samantha said, thinking that maybe Elena was going to make this easier than she expected.

“And you’ll be the everyday mommy? You still wanna, right?”

“Yes,” Samantha said. “I want that very much. That’s what you want, too, right Luke?”

He nodded, looking terribly young and tentative in the moment.

Samantha sat down in the kitchen chair, so she could be on his level, and held out her arms to him. “I love you, Luke. And I’ll be here. Every day.”

He came to her and gave her the kind of hug only little people could give. The kind that came from little, bitty arms squeezing so tight. And she savored the feeling of having a little boy in her arms.

Joe came into the kitchen and stood there looking happy and touched and so very right.

“I’m going to be the everyday mommy,” she told him.

“So I heard.”

Luke pulled away and looked up at his father. “It’s okay?”

“Sounds just right to me,” Joe said, and then he pulled both of them into his arms.

J
oe had some trouble on a construction site and didn’t get home until dark. Samantha, his wife of six months, greeted him at the door, and after a warm kiss, he saw that she looked worried.

“What’s wrong?”

“Luke,” she said.

Joe sighed, resigned to the fact that his son was a schemer and always would be. “What’s he done now?”

“He lost a tooth today.”

“Oh?” They hadn’t had any more tooth episodes for almost a year.

“And he’s in bed already, but he wouldn’t put it under his pillow. I think he’s got the jelly jar again.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No, and I’m really worried. I thought he was happy. I thought everything was okay.”

“It is,” Joe assured her. He’d been so sure it was.

Luke couldn’t be happier with Joe and Samantha. Dani was happy. Even Elena looked remotely happy these days. She was still in town. She’d gotten an apartment with an old friend of hers from high school—a divorced woman who was starting over again, working at a temp agency during the day and going to school at night. Believe it or not, Elena was working part-time and was finishing her college degree herself.

She hadn’t figured out what she was going to do with herself yet, but she seemed determined to make something of her life, and she was building a tentative relationship with Dani and had a pretty good one with Luke. He was still a little wary, but he was coming around. Elena had the kids two afternoons a week and two weekends a month, and Joe thought she was actually growing up finally, and for his kids’ sake, he was happy about that.

So he didn’t understand this at all.

“Nothing happened?” he asked.

“No. I talked to Elena. She was as surprised as I was.”

Joe leaned down and kissed his wife. “I’ll talk to him. We’ll figure this out.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t worry,” he said.

“Okay.”

“I love you.”

She brightened at that. “I love you, too.”

“I’ll talk to Luke and grab a quick shower.”

He went and kissed his daughter good-night, then went into Luke’s room. It was dark in there, Luke snuggled up in the far corner of the bed against the wall.

“Hey, buddy.” Joe ruffled his hair.

Luke rolled over and said, “Daddy?”

“Hi. Sorry I’m late. Had a little trouble with a busted water pipe. How was your day?”

“Fine.”

“Samantha told me you lost a tooth.”

“Uh-huh,” Luke mumbled.

“She said you might want to start collecting them again.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Why, Luke? I thought everything was okay. I thought you were happy.”

“I am. I just need somethin’.”

“Something you can’t get from me?”

“I dunno. I think it takes magic,” Luke whispered. “I figured maybe twenty-five teeth. That’s all.”

“Twenty-five, huh?” Joe puzzled over that. If a new mother took a hundred… “What do you want, Luke?”

“I want a brother,” Luke confided. “People get those sometimes, after they get married. My friend Jimmy’s gettin’ one, and all of us and Samantha’ve been married for almost as long as they have, and I just thought…well, I thought if I could get twenty-five baby teeth… Do you think that would be enough?”

Joe laughed. It bubbled out of him, a joyous sound that often echoed through their house, which he’d finished just last month. There was so much joy in their house. He couldn’t believe how his entire life had been turned around so quickly.

“Luke,” he said, “I’ll tell you what. You don’t need the teeth for this one. I’ll take care of it.”

“You will?”

“Yes.”

“You’re sure?”

“Hey, I found you a new mother, didn’t I?”

“No, Daddy, I found her. Don’t you remember? She came to my school, and I knew right away she was magic, and she is.”

“You still think so?”

“Of course,” Luke said, no hesitation what-so ever.

“You’re right,” Joe agreed. “She is magic. No more teeth, okay? No pulling anybody else’s. No buying them out of anyone’s mouth.”

“Okay.”

“Good night.”

Samantha heard Joe laughing as he came down the hall to their bedroom. So it couldn’t be
that
bad. She’d gotten so scared when she realized what Luke was doing, because she wanted him to be happy, and she thought he was. But Joe had taught her a lot about love and faith and strength. She loved him, had absolute faith in him, and their relationship was stronger than any she’d ever known. They could get through anything, she believed.

So this was one more little bump in the road. Whatever was wrong with Luke, they’d deal with it.

“Well?” she said as Joe came in, whistling.

“Just a second,” he said. “I’m filthy, and I’ve got to have a shower.”

“Now?”

“Yes, now.”

“What about Luke?”

“I’m working on it,” Joe said mysteriously.

She frowned. Joe climbed into bed with her a few minutes later. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her deeply, and she kissed him back.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she said when he finally lifted his head.

“Nope, not a thing.”

“Luke,” she reminded him. “What’s wrong with Luke?”

“It’s all right, sweetheart. He just wants a brother, and I told him I know how to get us one of those.”

Samantha’s eyes lit up and happiness flowed through her. She pulled Joe closer and murmured, “Well, what are we waiting for?”