I grinned and made a come-here motion with my hand and she scooted over and let me put an arm around her. The highlight of my entire week, hands down.
“So what do you want to watch?” I asked, hoping she couldn’t feel my heart racing, though I was pretty sure she could.
She tilted her head up and her mouth was very close to mine. “Whatever you want.”
“Okay. Hellraiser it is.”
“Ha.”
I picked up the remote and started scrolling. “How about The Sopranos?”
“Sure. But from the beginning though. It’s been a few years.”
“Got it.” I was scrolling down to season one when my phone pinged on the coffee table. “Sorry, I leave the ringer up when I’m babysitting,” I said.
I looked at my screen and cracked up. “Look what Brad just sent me.”
It was a picture of a shirt with the Toilet King on it and a text that said, “Your birthday gift motherfucker.”
She laughed. “When is your birthday?” she asked.
“Not until next year. When’s your birthday?”
“In a few weeks, actually.”
“Oh. Well, do you have plans? Can I take you out?” I asked.
“It’ll be after my contract’s up.”
Her way of saying she wouldn’t be here for it. I only got to feel disappointed for a second before my phone pinged again.
“Sorry,” I said, looking at it. “It’s my mom. I have to reply to this.”
I took my arm away from Emma and typed a short message about Sarah being home and Chelsea being in bed.
“What time does she get home?” Emma asked.
“I don’t know. Midnight?”
She must have heard the tone in my voice.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing.” I hit send and put my phone away. But when I went to put my arm back around her, she didn’t scoot in.
“It doesn’t feel like nothing,” she said.
I looked away from her. “She’s dealing with some pretty serious legal issues at the moment.”
“For what?”
I paused, not sure how much I wanted to share. I decided on all of it. Emma was going to be here when it all hit the fan anyway, so there was no point in keeping her in the dark.
“She’s going to prison.” I stopped because the next part was hard to say out loud. In fact, I had never done it with anyone besides Brad and Benny. “She embezzled money. A lot of money.”
Emma just stared at me.
“She wrote herself fake checks. She was doing it for the better part of a year. She got caught.”
“Had she ever done anything like that before?” she asked.
“No. Never. She didn’t have any priors, not even a speeding ticket,” I said. “We hoped for a slap on the wrist, probation, restitution. Even her old boss asked for leniency.” I shook my head. “She didn’t get it. She worked for a nonprofit and almost put it out of business. It pissed off the judge. He gave her some time to get her affairs in order, then she has to turn herself in. She got six years.”
“Oh my God,” Emma breathed. “How much did she take?”
“A lot. Flew the kids to Disneyland. Redid the landscaping. Stupid shit. Shit that wasn’t worth it. I don’t even know why she did it. To be honest I don’t even think she knows.”
“And who’s taking the kids?” Emma asked.
I paused. “I am.”
I couldn’t read the expression on her face. “Oh.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It only became official a few days before I met you. It was hard to talk about,” I said. “Mom’s best friend Leigh agreed to take them, but they’d have to move twenty miles away to live with her. Leigh’s got horses and she can’t board them. Alex and Sarah were having a really hard time with it. I didn’t want them to have to change schools. Plus if I move in here, I can keep paying the mortgage so Mom won’t lose the house. She already had to liquidate her 401(k) and all the college funds to pay back the money she took. I couldn’t let the house end up sold after all that.”
“When does she leave?”
“Next week.”
