Like Father, Like Son ✔

Chapter 35 - Jealous

CHAPTER 35

LUKE

"Hi Luke, my name is Angela. Is it OK if I talk to you for a little bit?" said a tall lady with a sleek bun on top of her head. She crouched down in front of Luke in the waiting area of a building he had never been in before. It looked pretty cool though, with really high ceilings and a lot of glass that made it possible to see people walking in the halls on the upper floors.

Luke glanced up at his mother sitting next to him.

"It's OK sweetie, she's very nice and I'll be waiting right here for you," Cat said encouragingly.

Nick was there too, seated next to Cat with Duke lying down at his feet. He didn't say anything as Luke walked by, but he did sneak him an encouraging grin that Luke returned easily.

The three year-old walked off with Angela, heading into a hallway with doors on either side, the majority of which closed so that he couldn't see what was going on inside.

"So how old are you, Luke?" Angela asked.

"I'm two and—I mean I'm three!" Luke said, holding up three fingers toward Angela and beaming up at her.

"Right in here, please. Did you have a birthday recently?" Angela went on, leading Luke into a rather small office at the end of the hall just a dozen feet from the waiting area where his mom and Nick were waiting. It had toys in one corner, a big desk taking up most of the space, two chairs, plants, and a lot of photographs of people Luke didn't know. "You can sit down right there. Can you reach?"

"I had two birthdays! I got a lot of presents," Luke nodded, managing to hoist himself up in one of the two leather chairs all by himself.

"What did you get?" Angela asked as she took a seat in the other chair on Luke's side of the desk rather than her own. She felt it'd be less formal that way. She wanted him to feel at ease, and so far that didn't look to be an issue.

As Luke started listing off all of the things he got for his birthday, Angela started jotting down a few things for her notes. He was definitely an outgoing kid and incredibly smart too. She let him ramble for a few minutes, asking him questions about his birthday party and listening to the way he replied to her with so much gusto, as though there was nothing better in the whole wide world than his battery-powered jeep or the water guns they'd used to spray his uncle with.

"Was he all wet?" Angela smiled.

"He was soaked! Grant said he looked like a drowned monkey. It was funny," Luke nodded excitedly.

"Who's Grant? Is he a friend of yours?" Angela asked.

"He's Adam's dad. Adam's my best friend," Luke explained.

"Ah, I see. So it looks like you do a lot of cool things with your mom," Angela went on.

"Yeah," Luke nodded.

"What's your favorite thing to do?" Angela coaxed.

"I like to play with my toys," Luke told her.

"Does your mom play with you?" Angela asked.

"Yeah," Luke nodded.

"What about your dad? What do you do with him?" Angela asked.

"We do a lot of things! We do story time and he does funny voices. We play with my toys a lot too. I have a lot of cars and tools... they're not real tools, they're just pretend tools. I can't use real tools until I'm older because I'll get hurt and that's not fun," Luke told her in a very serious voice, his eyes wide as if he was telling Angela the most interesting story.