22
Aug

The English Parent

Emma was sitting on her fold-out chair, and Thomas was next to her in the grass. He was leaning back on his hands and had his legs crossed at the ankles. They were laughing really hard, and Nicky wanted to know what the joke was.

Not that Emma was much to look at in his opinion, but she was a great mom, upbeat, and obviously knew how to make a man laugh.

Nicky felt stung. He could imagine her leaving her husband for Thomas; it’s what he would do if he were her. And Emma wasn’t the only one he felt jealous of when Thomas talked to her. There was Valerie, whose husband was English too. Thomas wasn’t as thick with her as he was with some of the other moms, but she looked stunning; worse, together they looked stunning.

Nicky watched Tommy walk off the pitch, and then, hand in hand with his father, walk away. The kid was tiny, didn’t look like his father at all, but he was a cute kid, and Nicky liked him, but getting along well with Tommy didn’t get him any closer to his father. Nicky sighed.