The Dream Team

43: help yourself

Raegan's POV

"Keith slide with me!" Dream yelled, running to the playground with Deuce on her heels. I smiled watching as Keith followed behind them and went down the slide holding both of them. "The slide shocked me!" Dream laughed as they hit the bottom. She ran from the slide to the seesaw and made Keith sit on the other side.

"This kinda hurts my legs, I feel old right now," Keith looked at me and laughed. The three of them ran around the park playing on everything they had out there. I joined in a few times but my mom job was to just watch. Keith was trying to win them over so he'd do anything they asked.

When he finally caught a break he came over and sat down next to me, looking tired.

"You good?" I laughed as he leaned his head back.

"Man, I forgot how much energy kids have," he said, sounding out of breath. "They're wearing me out," Before I could respond Dream ran over and grabbed his hand, pulling him off of the bench.

"Can you push me on the swings?" she asked, dragging him there. I watched happily at how well they were taking to Keith. I told Dream he was just "mommy's friend" because she was still too young to understand what a boyfriend was or why me and her dad weren't together anymore. She constantly asked why we had to live in different houses and why I couldn't just stay at daddy's. I tried to explain as best as I could but it was hard.

Jiles had been very different ever since he got back from St. Louis. It was like being back in our hometown made him find himself again or something. He was back to his usual happy, helpful self. And he wasn't pressuring me about leaving Keith or getting back together with him anymore. Everything was strictly about the kids and I appreciated him for that. He'd always be one of my best friends and lately that's how it felt when we were together. I talked to his mom a few times and she said she noticed a difference, too. Both of us were just praying it lasted.

"Can we get ice cream?" Dream asked as her, Keith, and Deuce walked over.

"How bout you ask your mom," Keith suggested.

"Mommy, can we get ice cream?"

"Please...." Keith said, prompting her. She laughed and restated her question, looking from me to Keith.

"Oh, can we get ice cream please?" I nodded my head and her face lit up and she hi fived Keith. "I'll beat you to the car!" she yelled, taking off. Keith ran behind her and Deuce chased after both of them.

When we got to the ice cream shop we sat outside eating our ice cream cones. Deuce rolled his cars from bench to bench and Dream danced around, making a mess with her ice cream.

"So how have things been with Jiles?" Keith asked while both of the kids were occupied.

"He hasn't been trippin like he was before. I told him you've been hanging out with the kids and he surprisingly didn't have an attitude or anything about it,"

"That's good. My main thing is I don't want him to think I'm tryna tread on his toes or nothing,"

"No, he's calmed down a lot lately, thankfully. He's been on a ten for a long time now it's good to see him back to normal," I stated. Keith just shook his head and continued eating his ice cream. I knew Keith wanted to just move on from the whole kissing incident I had with Jiles but I still felt like he worried about it in the back of his mind. He would probably never bring it up to me unless he honestly suspected something but I hated that I placed that doubt in his head at all.

"I'm glad y'all got things together. It's better for them that way," he said and we both looked over at Dream and Deuce happily playing together. All I wanted was for my kids to be ok. I knew they loved when Jiles and I spent time with them together and I wanted to keep things on good terms for their sake. They meant the most out of everyone involved in our situation.