The Will of Love and Life (Peterick)

Chapter Twenty

November 15, 2016

Pete stopped in his tracks once he was standing at Patrick's office door. The door was open, but Patrick was on the phone, so Pete knocked on the doorframe to try and make Patrick look up.

Patrick beckoned him in without looking, and Pete sighed before walking in. Wendy was holding tight to Pete's hand as she hid behind him. Patrick finally looked at Pete when he hung the phone up. A nervous smile was etched on his face, and Patrick just raised his eyebrows before looking back over to his computer.

"What're you making that face for?" Patrick asked.

"I brought my sister," Pete said.

That made Patrick look up. Pete couldn't read Patrick's expression, but he didn't seem to be particularly pleasant.

"Don't hide, Wendy," Pete said, looking down. "Say hi."

Wendy stepped out from behind her older brother, and Pete was surprised when Patrick smiled at her. Sometimes he forgot that Patrick knew how to be nice.

Wendy just gave a small wave and clung to Pete's pant leg. She had never met her brother's boyfriend before, and she only knew who he was because she often heard her mother picking fights with Pete about it after they thought she was asleep. She was often kept awake at night to her mom and brother fighting, but she was far too young to even begin to understand.

Pete picked her up and sat her down on the chair in front of Patrick's desk. He brought up a game on his phone and handed it to her to keep her distracted so he could talk to Patrick.

Pete sat on Patrick's lap and whispered in his ear, "I'm sorry. Can she come to lunch with us?"

"You don't have to be sorry," Patrick whispered back. "Of course she can."

Pete knew that Patrick was only just being nice. Patrick didn't know what to do with a kid.

"My mom dropped her off at my work so she could go out. I have no idea where she went. Probably her boyfriend's. I called Mary. She's going to come get her in like an hour."

"Is your mom going to be back tonight?"

Pete shrugged. "I doubt it. She took the baby with her. I'm going to have Wendy stay the night at Mary's, just in case. We have to go back to work after lunch and tomorrow morning, so she can't stay with us. If my mom doesn't come back by tomorrow night, I'm gonna have to take time off of work and stay home."

"We'll deal with that if it comes to it," Patrick muttered. "Don't worry about anything yet."

Pete sighed and laid his head on Patrick's broad shoulder. "I'm hungry."

*****

Wendy took a liking to Patrick very quickly, considering how weary of him she was in the beginning. And Patrick, more surprisingly, liked her. She sat on Patrick's lap instead of next to Pete in the booth, leaving him to be the one to cut food for her.

Pete kicked Patrick's foot under the table to make him look up.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Patrick asked.

Pete slowly released his bottom lip from between his teeth. "I think you know."

"You shouldn't have that seductive look in your eyes without a reason."

"Good thing I have one then," Pete whispered.

The boys were just glad that Wendy was too young to comprehend what they were really talking about. Wendy was too busy pushing the broccoli around on her plate to pay attention, anyway. Pete didn't want for her to turn around and start asking their mother questions about him and Patrick.