“The kids at the playground. They were talking about some girl you were on the Internet with.”
Levi sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. “This is a conversation I wasn’t planning to have today, but if you want, let’s all sit down and talk about it.” He turned to me. “If your mom is okay with that.”
I nodded.
The three of us took a seat at the table. I had no clue how this was going to go down.
Levi twiddled his thumbs while I bounced my knees up and down. Alex just kept looking back and forth between us, waiting for someone to answer his damn question.
“Okay, Uncle Levi’s going to explain everything,” I finally said, turning to him. “Right?”
Levi’s eyes went wide. “I am?”
“Yeah, I think it would be nice if it came from you. You know, man to man.”
I watched as Levi’s ears turned red. Then he proceeded to grab his phone and scroll.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Googling birds and bees talk.”
After a few minutes, Levi flipped his phone around and faced it toward Alex.
I momentarily panicked. “What are you showing him?”
“Relax. It’s an e-book for kids about where babies come from. We’re gonna read it together.”
I exhaled. That was actually an amazing idea. I pulled my chair around to their side of the table. Over the next several minutes, I watched as Alex’s uncle read him every page of the book, which illustrated the anatomical differences between males and females and explained the process of how babies are made in as innocent a way as possible.
I watched and listened as Levi stopped to answer each question Alex threw at him. For someone who didn’t have kids, he certainly handled this situation like the champ he was—unlike me, who had totally frozen.
“How old were you when you found out where babies came from?” he asked Levi.
“I think I was about eight when my dad told me. So, only a little older than you.”
“Thank you for explaining it, Uncle Levi.” He stood up from his chair. “Now I’m gonna go puke, cuz it’s sort of gross to think Dad did that to Mom.”
Levi patted Alex on the shoulder. “You do what you need to do, buddy.”
After Alex ran out, I shook my head. “You totally saved the day there. Thank you. I don’t know why I froze up like that. I’ve often thought about the moment he’d ask me, but I totally wasn’t prepared.”
Levi shrugged. “I winged it.”
“You did amazing.”
“Well…anything for him.”
“That was a conversation he should’ve had with his dad. But if not with Tanner, I’m glad it was with you.”
“It’s the least I could do for him.” He paused. “Speaking of Tanner, have you heard from him at all?”
“No. Not in the past couple of weeks. I do expect him to check in soon, though. He doesn’t usually let it go past a few weeks.”
Levi shook his head. “It’s shocking to me that he hasn’t tried harder to be a better father. It makes me feel like he’s struggling more than I realize. Only someone terribly wrapped up in their own head acts like that.” Levi rested his head in his hands. “I do worry about him.”
I put my hand on his arm. “I know. Me too. It’s why I’ve always tried to give him grace. I never shut him out of Alex’s life, when he wants to be part of it.”
“You’re a saint for the way you handle it all. And if I haven’t said this to you already, you’re an amazing mother. You try so hard every day. You’re always smiling and attentive to Alex, even when I know you’re having a bad day.”
“Yeah, a bad day like today when you walked in and I couldn’t even form a response when my poor kid asked me about sex.”
“Well, no one’s perfect. And if I hadn’t walked in, you would’ve figured it out.” He smiled. “Alex is really lucky to have you as a mom.”
I got goosebumps. “Thank you. That’s nice of you to say.”
“It’s the truth.”
An overwhelming feeling came over me. I didn’t know what plans Levi had tonight, but all I wanted was to spend more time with him. So I went out on a limb.
“Hey, after Alex goes to sleep, would you…want to watch a movie with me?”
He blinked a few times. It felt like minutes went by, though it was only seconds.
Levi toyed with his phone. “Actually, I told Patrick McGibbons I’d meet him for a drink.”
My stomach sank. I shouldn’t have asked. Faking a smile, I said, “Oh, okay. Yeah. Have fun.”
That night, as I watched a movie alone, I couldn’t stop thinking about Levi and how great he’d been with Alex today.
I shouldn’t have, therefore, also been thinking about that DVD of him tucked away in my drawer. But after I went to my room, I was tempted to take it out and watch it. For some reason, though, it didn’t feel right. It sort of felt like exploitation, even if he was the one who’d given it to me. After everything that happened today, what he’d done for Alex and the kind words he’d said to me after, it felt wrong to touch myself while looking at shirtless images of him. So, I would abstain—tonight.
There’s always tomorrow.
***
The next few days kept me too busy to spend much time dwelling on my infatuation with Levi. The air conditioning crew finished installing the new system while I painted two more bedrooms and planted flowers in the beautiful flowerboxes that hung beneath each of the windows in the front of the house. Unfortunately, though, as had been the case since I arrived, taking one step forward was immediately followed by taking two steps back.
Yesterday evening, when I’d started clearing out the furniture in the next bedroom I planned to paint, I discovered mold on one of the walls. The old air-conditioning system had only cooled three quarters of the house, mainly the common areas and eight of the fourteen bedrooms. The remaining four bedrooms on the south side of the house had been added after the original construction of The Palm Inn. Those rooms had individual AC units in the windows, and apparently one of them had been leaking water for a long time, which then spawned mold, and the heat and humidity had encouraged it to grow up the wall.
So yesterday, two guys wearing hazmat suits had ripped that wall down to the studs, and today the same men had been banging away all afternoon installing sheetrock.
“Hey, Miss Sullivan.” Ned, the carpenter, came into the kitchen. “Sorry to be here so late, but we finished hanging the new boards and slapped on the first coat of Spackle. That’ll need to dry overnight, so I’ll be back tomorrow morning to sand the walls and apply the second coat. We’ll be out of your hair by lunch.”
I nodded. “Oh, that’s great, Ned. I really appreciate it. I have six boys sleeping over Friday night for my son’s birthday, and I was hoping I wouldn’t have to find them little Martian suits like you guys had on yesterday.”
Ned chuckled. “Nope. All good. I’ll see you in the morning.”
After I showed the two men out, I turned off the light in the kitchen and paused to listen to the noise in the house—or rather the lack thereof. There had been a constant barrage of hammers banging and electric tools whirring over the last week. The newfound quiet was music to my ears. There weren’t even any voices since Alex was staying at my friend Katrina’s tonight for a sleepover with her son, and Levi had gone to his mother’s for dinner. Even Fern was out. She’d left early this morning with some friends to drive up north for the night to go on some river gambling cruise.