Rumor Has It

Part 3

He didn't hear from them until he had already sent Lea to bed in the evening and he finally got the chance to look at his phone to discover that Ashley had happily confirmed their play date. It was a relief for him to see and it added to his feeling that this choice he made was the right one.

Moving here and grappling with Irina until they had found an arrangement for this had been a struggle and it had taken a while until they had even picked this part of the country. They had almost moved to New York for good until it had become clear that Lea would spend more time with him after all and he needed to be here near the industry.

So far, that was working out well. Lea was still liking the school after the first few days and was doing as well as he had hoped she would. They were slowly growing into a new routine, which helped with keeping himself sane. Bradley was only afraid of that changing when he would take up his next job and he could sense that Lea wasn't fond of the idea, either.

*

When he heard the buzz from the gate outside on the sunny Saturday afternoon, he didn't make it there first, his daughter having been excited and planning things for her to show to her new friend all day already.

Lea squeezed past him to greet the little girl in front of the door, immediately pulling her inside when she had barely had the time to give Bradley a wave. He looked up and at first, he was only briefly looking at himself mirrored in a large pair of sunglasses while a woman who wasn't Ashley was walking up the stairs. A baseball cap sat low in her face and she reluctantly took off the sunglasses when he held out his hand. He could see the obvious resemblance instantly.

The strange woman was dressed in a t-shirt too big for her and black, ripped up jeans, different from the people he usually saw in his neighborhood.

"Hey, I'm Bradley."

"Hi, yeah, sorry for the confusion, but Ashley's off today. I'm Stefani, I'm Emily's mom."

He didn't know what he expected her to look like, but he thought he would be able to recognize who she was when he saw her. While she did indeed look familiar, he couldn't place where he could know her from. It was faint, like he could have seen her in a newspaper or a magazine before.

"Charlie!" Emily shouted suddenly behind them and the dog was already at her feet before Bradley could intervene.

"Sorry, he's excited" apologized and immediately turned around to grab the dog's collar while Charlie proceeded to yip happily.

"I told her about him already" Lea explained and kneed down next to the other girl to pet him.

"I usually close the door to the hallway so he doesn't run up to people, I'm sorry." He said again, turning back to Stefani. Some people didn't have the best reactions to dogs and he hadn't managed to train Charlie to stay when someone was at the door yet.

"That's okay, we have dogs too." she smiled down at them and Emily rushed back to her, bouncing on her toes. She twisted herself out of her jacket to push it into Stefani's hands in a hurry.

"I'm showing Emily my room." Announced Lea and they watched the kids dash upstairs, Lea pulling Emily behind her.

Stefani folded up the jacket in her hand and looked around, like she wasn't sure if it was okay to leave yet. He knew the feeling and he hadn't really thought she would leave after dropping Emily off.

"Are you staying?"

"Are you sure that's okay ?"she asked.

"Yes, of course, please don't worry at all."

Stefani set the sunglasses down on his kitchen table and lifted the baseball cap off her head, sending obviously dyed blonde waves tumbling down her shoulders. Bradley was so sure he had seen her before, it was like having a song stuck on the tip of his tongue.

Something that has always worked really well to bridge any awkward moments was busying themselves with something and so, making a batch of cookies seemed like an ideal way to spend the afternoon. In the few attempts he's made at play dates, the worst had been the ones where they were stuck sitting around in silence with nothing to talk about. It turned out that this was sharing something in common, Stefani being someone who enjoyed a bit of work in the kitchen the same way he did, and it made it easier to talk when their hands were busy.

He found out that Emily hadn't gone into a daycare like Lea had, but had spent time with a nanny instead, only meeting other kids through friends and rarely strangers. Stefani looked relieved to have someone to speak about all this with and it felt good to talk with someone in a similar situation to him, too. With both him and Irina traveling a lot, he hadn't made many friends who were parents. Bradley only brought Irina up briefly, not wanting to ask about Stefani's situation if she wouldn't mention it herself.

What felt strange was that she wasn't asking about his work at all. Usually, his name quickly became the topic of any conversation, but Stefani was instead only interested in the person behind it. It took him a while to realize that this way, he also couldn't find a good opportunity to ask what she did.

The girls stormed back downstairs when the oven spread the smell of cookies through the house. Lea was suddenly blinking up at him like he had done something to cause a great offense, like putting raw onions on her sandwich.

"Daddy, do you know who the Beatles are?"

He looked at both kids confused, then at Stefani. "Yes? They're a band."

That was when Emily perked up next to them. "Do you know all of them?"

"I know there's Paul and Ringo and..." he hesitated, looking at Stefani for help, but she made no effort to save him and busied herself with the oven instead.

"I know ALL of them," her daughter announced and began rattling the names down while Lea still looked at him with disapproval. He had to admit this was one area where his knowledge was lacking a bit.

Bradley ended up having to shoo everyone outside into the yard to keep them from sneaking cookies off the tray before they were cooled off. It was nice to have adult company around that wasn't his mother and he was almost a little embarrassed to mention how much he was relying on her help. Nice enough that he found himself trying to draw the time out.

"Would you like to stay for dinner? We were just going to make something quick, I don't mind making more. And Lea loves cooking, maybe Emily would like to try it as well."

He could already see it was a No when she pulled her hair up to hide it under the baseball cap again. "Oh, Emily tries, she's actually fairly good at making a few things already. She just wanted to become a chef for a while last month. Thank you for the invitation, but I'm afraid we have to go."

*

"Stefani's pretty. I like her hair." Lea explained when they had left and the two of them stood in the kitchen to prepare their dinner. She ran her fingers through her own long strands and he hoped she wasn't going to ask to dye it in the next sentence.

He cleared his throat and thought about how to react for a moment. "That's sweet of you to say."

"She's working tonight. And then she has different hair sometimes."

Bradley would admit that now his curiosity got the best of him. "Did Emily say what her mom does for work?"

"She's an artist." Lea explained, drawing out the word, and wrinkled her nose when she saw him reach for the onions. "I think she sings."

Oh.