Chapter16
1189 Words
Christian noticed before Emma realized he was paying attention.
It started at breakfast.
Emma was standing at the counter packing lunches when her phone buzzed beside the coffee maker.
She glanced down.
Wade: I’m beginning to think you were right about the black coffee.
Emma smiled.
Emma: I need this in writing.
Wade: Absolutely not.
Another message came through.
Wade: I said you might be right. Don’t get carried away.
Emma shook her head, still smiling as she typed a response.
From the kitchen table, Christian watched her over the top of his cereal bowl.
Emma didn't notice.
Luke did.
“Why are you staring at Mom?”
Christian immediately looked at him.
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I was looking behind her.”
Luke glanced toward the counter.
“There’s a toaster behind her.”
“Maybe I was looking at the toaster.”
Luke stared at him.
“For that long?”
“Eat your breakfast.”
“You can’t tell me what to do.”
Emma finally looked up.
“Neither one of you needs to tell anyone what to do before seven-thirty in the morning.”
Christian shoved another spoonful of cereal into his mouth but continued watching her.
A minute later, Emma’s phone buzzed again.
She picked it up.
Smiled.
Typed something.
Christian frowned.
“Who are you texting?”
Emma looked over.
“What?”
“You keep texting somebody.”
“I text lots of people.”
“Not like that.”
Emma paused.
“Like what?”
Christian pointed his spoon toward her.
“You keep smiling.”
Emma suddenly became very interested in putting the lid on Luke’s lunch container.
“I smile all the time.”
Christian looked at Luke.
“Does she?”
Luke considered it.
“Yes.”
Emma smiled triumphantly.
“Thank you.”
Luke continued.
“But she has been smiling at her phone more this week.”
Emma stared at him.
“Whose side are you on?”
“I didn’t know there were sides.”
“There aren't.”
Christian leaned forward.
“Is it Dad?”
Emma’s hands stopped.
The question was so unexpected that she looked at him.
“Dad?”
Christian shrugged, but Emma caught the hope underneath it.
“You guys talk more now.”
“We do.”
“And you don't fight as much.”
“No.”
“And you sent him our first-day picture.”
Emma slowly set the lunch container inside Luke’s bag.
“I did.”
Christian smiled slightly.
“So is it Dad?”
Something tightened in Emma’s chest.
She suddenly understood what he was doing.
Her relationship with Jackson had improved.
To Emma, that meant they were learning to co-parent without turning every conversation into a fight.
To Christian...
Maybe it meant something entirely different.
“No, buddy. It wasn't your dad.”
Christian’s smile faded just a little.
“Oh.”
Emma walked over and leaned against the table.
“But your dad and I are getting along better.”
Christian looked up quickly.
“You are?”
“We are.”
“So you’re not mad at him anymore?”
Emma chose her words carefully.
“I’m sure there will still be times when your dad and I disagree. That happens. But we're trying really hard to be kinder to each other.”
Christian stirred his cereal.
“Because you like each other again?”
Emma’s heart squeezed.
Luke looked between them but stayed quiet.
Emma pulled out the chair beside Christian and sat down.
“Your dad and I will always care about each other.”
Christian’s eyes lifted.
“Always?”
“He’s your dad. We spent a lot of years together. We have you and Luke. That doesn’t disappear just because things changed.”
Christian seemed to think about that.
Emma could almost see him fitting the pieces together in his head.
“So maybe you won’t always be separated.”
There it was.
Emma’s stomach sank.
She hadn't realized how much hope Christian had attached to every small improvement between her and Jackson.
She reached across the table and rested her hand over his.
“I don't know what the future looks like, baby.”
Christian frowned.
“But you said you care about him.”
“I do.”
“Then why can't you just be married again?”
The simplicity of the question hurt more than she expected.
Because to a seven-year-old, maybe it really did sound that easy.
“You can care about someone and still have things that aren't working.”
Christian looked down at his cereal.
Emma wanted to say more.
She wanted to explain marriage and hurt and all the complicated ways two people could love each other and still not know how to live together.
But Christian was seven.
He didn’t need the weight of their marriage sitting on his shoulders.
“What matters right now,” she said softly, “is that your dad loves you. I love you. And we're both going to be here for you no matter what happens between us.”
Christian nodded.
But Emma knew that wasn't the answer he wanted.
A few seconds passed.
Then he looked at her phone.
“So who were you texting?”
Emma nearly laughed.
Of course he wasn't going to let that go.
“A friend.”
“A boy?”
Emma raised an eyebrow.
“A man.”
Christian's expression immediately changed.
“What man?”
“Christian.”
“What?”
Luke looked up.
“Probably Wade.”
Emma’s head snapped toward him.
Christian stared at his brother.
“Wade?”
Luke nodded.
“Mom has been texting him.”
Emma blinked.
“How do you know that?”
“I saw his name on your phone yesterday.”
Christian looked back at Emma.
“You're texting Wade?”
“He's my friend.”
“But why?”
Emma almost laughed at the accusation in his voice.
“Because friends talk to each other.”
Christian didn’t look convinced.
“Dad is your friend.”
“I'm trying to be friends with your dad too.”
“So why do you need Wade?”
The question landed harder than Christian intended.
Emma studied him.
His face had changed.
Not anger exactly.
Something closer to uncertainty.
Protectiveness.
Fear.
Emma reached for his hand again, but this time Christian pulled it back to pick up his spoon.
“We need to finish breakfast,” she said gently. “We're going to be late.”
Christian went back to his cereal.
The conversation ended.
At least outwardly.
But as Emma stood and returned to the counter, she could feel Christian watching her again.
And when her phone buzzed a few minutes later, she didn't reach for it.
For the first time, Emma realized that whatever was beginning between her and Wade wasn't going to affect only her.
Her boys were watching too.
And Christian, whether she had meant for him to or not, had already begun hoping for a very different ending.
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