Meant-to-Be Mum. Karen Templeton

Eyre is not a ‘sappy’ book, moron. And it’s better than playing those stupid video games all the time—”

      “Like the ones Dad designs, you mean?”

      Brooke blew out a cherry-scented sigh. “It’s just, after Mom...”

      “I know. But Dad already said—”

      “Oh, and like grown-ups never say whatever they think you want to hear?”

      “So why wouldn’t she do the same thing?” Wes said, nodding toward Sabrina.

      His sister’s mouth got all squinchy, as if maybe he had a point. But then she looked back at him with those big eyes of hers and said, “Please?”

      One thing about Brooke, she never whined. Well, hardly ever. And she wasn’t now. But he could see the worry on her face, that they’d barely solved one problem and here was another one, knocking on their door. Because they’d seen it over and over, not only with Mom, but with other kids they knew with single parents—the minute a new adult appeared on the scene, the kids got shoved to the back of the line. Okay, maybe that wasn’t totally fair; he could think of a couple of times where it worked out okay.

      But only a couple.

      Wes glanced outside again, thinking, wouldn’t it be nice, for once, to not have to worry about the grown-up stuff? To simply be a kid? Seriously, even if they didn’t know where they were going to live after the summer yet, or go to school, things at least felt more or less normal. Finally. Because Dad...he really was there for them. Also, he was cool with being the grown-up. No matter what he said. Meaning Wes could already tell getting to live with Dad full-time was the single most awesome thing that had ever happened to them.