When they were gone and sometimes when they were there, he had Cher.

A night at J&J’s with his woman who worked there.

No other place he’d rather be.

Chapter Fourteen

Fucking Happy

Cher

Mom wants to know if there’s something you don’t eat.

It was Sunday, late morning, and Merry had a day planned at his sister’s house to commune with family and play with his niece.

I had a day planned watching football with my kid before having to go to work, both of us eating ourselves sick, our every-Sunday plans when football was on.

I was at the stove frying sausage.

It was almost done when I got a text back.

Onions.

Gotcha.

And tofu.

I grinned.

Knew that without you telling me. Red-blooded. No way you eat sissy excuse for meat, I told him.

Damn straight, he replied.

I looked back to my sausage.

I ate tofu.

But, then again, I ate anything.

I drained the sausage, mixed it with the other shit, and poured it into the wonton wrappers to put in the oven to bake.

Then I texted my mom so she’d know not to serve onions or tofu for dinner on Thursday.

* * * * *

Ravens lost. You owe me 20.

That came from Merry later that afternoon and I read it with a grin.

As I was reading it, another came in.

Bears are gonna lose. Another 20. I’ll take it in trade.

I felt my grin turn naughty.

Bears aren’t gonna go down, I told him.

They are, then you are, he told me.

That gave me a shiver.

I nearly bobbled my phone when Ethan asked, “You textin’ Merry?”

I looked to him lounged in the bucket seat. “Yeah.”

“Tell him Browns lost. He owes me ten bucks.”

I stared at my son.

Then I looked to my phone and texted Merry.

Ethan says Browns lost. You owe him ten bucks.

I sent that, then immediately typed more.

You betting with my kid?

Within seconds, I got back, Babe, he’s the commissioner of the fifth grade fantasy league.

That was when I stared at my phone.

I had no idea my son ran a fantasy football league.

How could that even be?

I didn’t look at my kid.

I kept my eyes to my phone while I made a big decision.

Ethan and I had our things, just Ethan and me. Mom and Ethan had their things, just Mom and Ethan.

And Ethan had shared something with Merry that he hadn’t shared with me.

I had no idea if running a fantasy football league at age ten (almost eleven) was good or bad. I just knew, unlike any other man I’d let into my life, Merry had a moral compass. If he thought it was bad, he’d say something and not the way he’d just said it.

So the big decision I made was that I was going to let my son and my man have their things, just Ethan and Merry.