Promises (TP 6)

5 - Boyfriend

When chapters are shorter, I may have a double update. Two chapters today.

Kristi untied her golden retriever, Tucker's leash from the Bennett's porch rail and finished her walk. Dan didn't know she was stopping, although it was a stop she made often. She and Erica had become friends about a year before her diagnosis. When Ben and Kevin started playing, they just clicked. Some of it was because they were both at home while her other friends worked. Most of it was because they really enjoyed each other's company. The day she learned her friend was ill, she cried. There was no way she could quantify the tears she cried since that day, but she never wavered in her support.

Perhaps she should have been upset that her friend's husband was dating, but it was what Erica wanted. She made Kristi promise to remind Patrick to be happy and to go on with his life. What Patrick didn't know was she had told Kristi to stop him from making any big mistakes and to encourage the right choices. Kristi had decided if Patrick Bennett ever fell in love and married again, it would be after she gave him a thumbs up. Truthfully, it would do him no good to marry a woman she didn't like.

It was a cold night, and she felt the warmth of her house immediately. The news was on and Dan glanced up as she entered. They had eaten earlier, but she hadn't cleaned the kitchen yet. Ivy had both her friends Sophie and Keira for a sleepover. Luckily, the three got along, which wasn't always the case with girls. Ben, Kevin and Nick had no problems, but Kevin was at home and Ben was sleeping at Nick's.

Dan came up behind her as she washed the pot she used to cook the angel hair pasta. She stopped scrubbing as he slipped his arms around her. He whispered in her ear.

"How's your boyfriend?"

"What boyfriend?" Could he know she stopped by to see Patrick?

"The one who has a date. I know you. There is no way, you didn't go check out the details for yourself."

"Are you jealous?"

Dan laughed. "Honey, no other man loves you like I do. I'm not blind. I know that I'm not a hunk like Patrick and all the others you flirt with. Some are too young for you."

"Patrick says I hit on every married man on The Point. Surely not every..."

"Year-round resident. Everyone we know. You can hit on me anytime."

She giggled. "We have a house full of tween girls."

"Why can't our kids sleep over their friend's houses?"

As if on cue, the three girls appeared. "Mom, what's for dessert?"

Kristi sighed. She just finished cleaning the kitchen. "I have fixings to make sundaes."

She listened as the girls prepared their sundaes and talked. She liked to know what they were talking about. It wasn't because she was nosey. It was a mother's job.

Sophie said, "The baby was so cute."

The other girls nodded in agreement. "What baby?" There were plenty.

Keira answered. "Anna's cousin was at The Landing with Mike and Tim."

Kristi grabbed her phone. She texted Patrick. I never hit on Tim Bassett. Do you need an escape call?

Patrick didn't respond for an hour.

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