My eyes fluttered open at the sound of my alarm the next morning. I had barely gotten enough sleep, which could explain why my eyes were still heavy and sleep-filled. The lack of proper rest was probably due to the unfamiliar environment or the conversation I had heard last night. I had so many questions I wanted to ask, but I had to keep them to myself. If they did not tell me about it, it meant I had no business with it, and I was not going to poke my nose into their matters.I was tempted to go back to bed and sleep for at least one more hour, but I knew that was a bad idea. The last thing I wanted was to wake up late on my first day.As the rays of the sun filtered into my room through the open window, I dragged myse

  The rest of the morning ran slower than I expected. I cleaned my room, and the kid's room, read a book, and gave myself a mini-tour of the house. Emma was busy with laundry, and I had offered to help but again, she said no. It would still take a few more hours before the kids got back from school, I had to keep busy till then or I would probably die of boredom.I thought of doing some crochet, but I only had my pins and not even a ball of yarn. I would have to wait till I had the time to go to the store to pick up what I needed. I watched a movie on my phone and played a few games.I had not seen Lucas all day, but it was better that way. I picked the kids up from school at the exact time they finished and took them home. After they had a snack, we played hide and seek and ran around a little before going ove

  "What?" Lucas turned to me sharply. I could almost see the fumes from his head."Benard didn't pick us, so Chris took us on the subway," Abby continued, oblivious to the anger seeping from her father as he glared at me." It was so much fun. But Aiden fell asleep the way.""Abby," I called, with a nervous laugh, desperate to stop her from talking more. "Would you like to have dinner now? I know you're super hungry.""Yes, but I want daddy to feed me.""Um... Princess, go with Chris, I still have a lot of work to right now." He brushed his hand through her hair, and slowly brought his eyes to mine in a gripping glare.Oh boy... I had a lot of explaining to d

The next few days went by really smoothly. The kids loved the car and insisted I drove them to school every day in the car. I had to give Abby a new style of hair every day before school, and they no longer found it difficult to talk to me about school problems. A milestone for me, because I enjoyed listening to them and knowing their challenges, and helping them.Lucas and I had not been best friends, but we had managed to be in the same room without exchanging death stares at each other and without all the sarcastic remarks for more than one week. I could tell that he was still very uncomfortable from his one-word replies around me but he was putting up an effort and I was helping him by giving him as much space as possible.After doing homework with the kids and some numbers and letters, I got the kids ready for the park.

   The next morning, the kids and I went through our usual weekday routine. I bathed them, braided Abby's hair, explained for the 100th time why she could not take her cuddle buddy with her to school, went through a little whining, separated a few arguments, and prepared their bags for school. After getting them ready for school, I took them downstairs for breakfast."Good morning, everyone," Lucas greeted with a broad smile as he joined us at the table. He was already dressed for work in a pair of black slacks and a white button-down, a black waistcoat, and the main suit jacket on his arm. He shoved his phone in his pocket and pulled out a chair to sit.Despite my best efforts, I could not let my mind drift away from last night and how close we had come to complicating our relationship. I felt a ton of guilt coursing through me, seeing as I had led things on, and I knew I had to apologize for that. Maybe later, for now, I could n