“Thanks for letting me come over,” I said.
“You’re welcome. I hope you weren’t too disappointed by dinosaur nuggets.”
“Never,” I said. I lowered my voice. “I want to kiss you and hold you right now, but I don’t want to push you if that’s not okay.”
Piper glanced over at Preston, who was tossing a teddy bear in the air and then catching it.
“Come here,” she said, and I went to her. She hugged me close, and I inhaled in relief. It was unnatural for me not to be able to touch her.
“Hi,” I said, pulling back.
“Hi,” she said back.
“Are you okay with this?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said, but her voice was a little shaky.
“I don’t want to push you.”
“You’re not, I promise.” And then she kissed me, and I was so shocked, it took me a moment to kiss her back.
“It’s good having you here,” she said when she pulled back with a smile.
“Mama’s Tickle Friend, Mama’s Tickle Friend,” Preston sang, and I turned around to see him standing right next to us. How was he so sneaky?
I looked at Piper and her face was red, but she burst out laughing.
“I guess the cat’s out of the bag?” I said.
“I guess,” Piper said, leaning down to pick up Preston and give him a smacking kiss.
He turned and cupped his hand around her ear and whispered something.
Piper nodded and she put him down.
I looked at her and she just rolled her eyes.
“Can Kenna come see my toys?” Preston asked.
“I’d love to see your toys,” I said. I knew there was a playroom upstairs, but I’d never been up there.
“Come on,” Piper said, leading the way up the stairs. It felt special, to be escorted into the inner sanctum of the Patrick house.
Preston held my hand and towed me toward a door that I opened.
“Playroom!”
Was it ever. The room was absolutely massive and even though it was meticulously organized, it was full.
There was even an indoor trampoline.
“My niblings would lose their minds,” I said, looking at Piper.
“His grandparents won’t stop buying him things,” she said. “The trampoline was a whole thing, and I lost that battle.”
“Jumpy, jumpy,” Preston said, before he ran to get onto the trampoline. “Watch me!”
“We’re watching,” Piper said.
“Whoa, big jump!” I said and Piper laughed.
“Honestly, anything that tires him out so he’ll sleep at night is fine by me. His other favorite thing is the kitchen.” She showed me a play kitchen that was so fancy, it even had a stainless-steel fridge that worked.
“They’re also determined that he needs a treehouse,” Piper said, lowering her voice so Preston wouldn’t overhear. “I’m not sure he’s old enough yet.”
“My brothers built me a treehouse. It was my favorite place in the entire world. I’d go up there and read and just be by myself.”
Piper looked at me for a long time.
“So, what you’re saying is that I should let them buy him a treehouse?”
“That’s up to you, but I just know how much I loved having that little place.”
“This whole house is his place,” she said, laughing.
“That’s true. I didn’t even have my own bedroom until I was a teenager, let alone a whole room for my toys. He’s a lucky little guy.”
Preston climbed off the trampoline and ran over to grab my hand again.
“Come see my room,” he said, and I followed him toward his bedroom. His name was on the door in wooden letters.
“That’s my big boy bed,” he said, pointing to the child-sized bed.
“You’re so grown up,” I said.
“I am,” he confirmed, nodding.
The room was simple, done in soft browns and tans and blues, with a teddy bear theme and a few small nautical touches to go with the rest of the house.
“I try not to cry thinking about the day when these walls are going to be plastered with posters, or he demands to repaint the walls,” Piper said, touching a teddy bear lamp.
“Kids always grow up too fast for their parent’s comfort,” I said.
“True,” Piper said with a sigh. “Do you want to see the rest?”
She took me into her second office, several guest rooms, and then she paused outside of what was probably the master bedroom.
“And this is my room,” she said, opening the door.
It looked how I thought it would: soft, white, clean. There were rare pops of color here and there, but the overwhelming scheme was whites and neutrals.
It was so clean that it looked like it was ready to be photographed. I was a tidy person, but nothing like this.
Sunlight filtered through delicate white curtains. I could feel Piper waiting for me to say something. Like she wanted my approval.
“It’s lovely,” I said. “The view is incredible.” The windows faced the front yard.
“Thank you,” Piper said, joining me at the window. “This was the last room I decorated. I couldn’t decide what I wanted. I had to redo it recently.” Oh. Because of the divorce. It was true, there were no remnants of another person. Just Piper.
“I bet you’ve got a big closet,” I said.
“Why do you say that?” Piper asked.
“You do, don’t you?”
Piper laughed and led me through one of the two doors in the room.
“This is the size of my room at the farmhouse,” I blurted out as I took in the cavernous closet. It was so large, there was even a seating area, and a vanity for putting on makeup.
“I might have gotten a little carried away,” Piper said, and her cheeks were red.
Rows of designer shoes and bags and clothes greeted me, all arranged by color so they made a rainbow around the room.
“Is it weird I find this kind of organization S-E-X-Y?” I didn’t think she’d like her son learning the word “sexy” and then saying it at daycare. We were already in trouble with “Mama’s Tickle Friend.”
“I’ve never heard that before, but I’ll take it as a compliment.”
The bathroom was similarly extravagant, organized, and clean.
Sasha had told me about the tub at Jax’s house, and I would put Piper’s tub up against it in a bathroom battle.
“So, there you have it,” Piper said, closing the bathroom door.
“Mama, can we play now?” Preston asked, tugging on her shirt.
“It’s almost bath time,” Piper said. “You don’t have to stay for all that.”
“No, I want to,” I said.
“Are you sure?” Piper looked skeptical.
“Do you have any food coloring?” I asked and she blinked at me for a second.
“Yes, why?”
“You’ll see.”
Piper got Preston into the tub in his little bathroom attached to his room that was decorated with friendly sea monsters.
I went downstairs and found the food coloring, bringing it all up with me so Preston could choose what color he wanted his water to be.
“My parents used to do this for us and my niblings go nuts for it,” I said. “Preston, what color water do you want? We can do red, or blue, or green, or I can make purple,” I said.