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RICK GRIMES
their voices grow louder as i walk up the front path, the muddled noise slowly turning into audible conversations.
"you're such a cheater!" carl exclaims, the smile on his face laced through his words.
"how am i cheater if this is how you play the game?" her familiar voice runs through my ears as i turn the knob of the front door.
"this isn't how you play the game! you made it up!"
she laughs, and i walk in just in time to see carl whack the game pieces off the board.
their heads whip around at my entrance.
"hey, dad." carl smiles, his cheeks pink from laughing.
i head into the dining room where they sit, "what's all this talk about cheating?"
"grey." carl folds his arms, accusing his friend who sits with her knees to her chest in the chair beside his.
"what?" a laugh spills out of her mouth and he playfully rolls his eyes.
"hey, where's mom?" i ask him quietly as grey starts to clean up the game of clue.
"bedroom." he jerks his chin.
they're preoccupied as i head back to the front of the house where our bedroom door is cracked open. inside, lori stands with her back facing me as she folds laundry into the dresser drawer.
"hi, baby."
"you're home late." she says, peering over her shoulder at me for a second.
"yeah, i'm sorry. the meeting ran overtime."
"and you're working tonight." she speaks the truth of my nightshift.
"i am." i sigh, wrapping my arms around her waist as she continues to do what she's doing. "what's grey doing here so late?" i mutter into her neck, leaving small kisses across her warm skin.
"i asked if she could stay with carl once he got home from school. i got home late too."
she closes the wooden drawer loudly, causing me to pull away from her.
"where were you?" i speak over the ticking clock that sits on our shared dresser.
"out with sarah, we got coffee."
"you let carl come home to an empty house after school so you could go get coffee?"
"we had important things to talk about." she says. "and carl's old enough to be home alone, grey's just here for company."
