Yours, Mine & Ours by Jennifer Greene

water-sprinkling schedules. Still. Mike should realize the guy was just a pompous wannabe bully…not a real problem.
    In the meantime, though, she couldn’t be the one to calm him down.
    She definitely had her hands full with Molly.
    Her daughter submitted to a bath, willingly changed into pink baby-doll pajamas, but after that, she folded her arms across her chest with a major diva scowl. “I want some mommy time and I want it now. ”
    It wasn’t as if Amanda hadn’t been through this before. She put a fluffy blanket on the deck. Brought out the tray of nail polishes. Molly brought her doll-size tea set. The teapot was filled with milk.
    â€œDaddy tricked me!” was the dramatic opening to Molly’s tirade.
    â€œHow, honey?”
    â€œHe was real nice and real nice and real nice. Only, then we got to his house. And there was a lady there. A stupid lady.”
    Across the way, Amanda could see lights popping on and off at Mike’s house. Her attention was on herdaughter, but a thick clog seemed to have settled in her stomach. Mike was probably doing exactly what she was. Dealing with a child wounded by their divorce. Through no fault of their own, his Teddy and her Molly were both still reeling from the mistakes of their parents.
    Molly, temporarily, stopped her rant to study her hands, which had been soaked and filed and were now ready for the fun part. Color. “Can we do our toenails after our hand nails?”
    â€œSure.”
    â€œI want yellow for my toenails.”
    â€œI’m pretty sure we have yellow.” Amanda didn’t actually look at the basket of polishes, but since color was always a major issue for her daughter, she was almost positive they had the whole crayon set of choices.
    â€œAnd I want different colors for every hand nail.”
    â€œOkay.” Amanda had learned a long time ago never to sweat the small stuff. “Now tell me more about your day.”
    â€œShe had on this big fakey smile. Like grown-ups use for kids. And she says, ‘How would you like to go shopping with me?’ And I say, ‘No, thanks, I’m here to see my dad.’ And she says, ‘If we go shopping, I thought I’d get you an American Girl doll.’ And I say, ‘No, thank you, my mommy gets me all the American Girl dolls I could possibly want.’” Molly looked up with stormy eyes. “Okay. So that was a lie. Andit was really hard to say no, because I really, really need another American Girl doll. But she was being a pain.”
    â€œHoney. Sweetheart. Now, think a minute. It doesn’t sound like she was being a pain. It sounds as if she was trying very, very hard to be nice to you.”
    â€œNo. She just wanted to give me a doll so I’d like her. And I’m never going to like her. She had three boxes of games. And grape Kool-Aid. So fine. I played some games with her. But you know what?”
    â€œWhat?” Amanda finished one of her daughter’s hands, then started on the other.
    â€œDaddy wasn’t even there half the time. And he didn’t play any games with me. But when he was there, you know what he did?”
    â€œWhat, honey?”
    â€œHe and that lady took me to the back of the house, opened the door and said, ‘Ta da!’ And there was this room where I’m supposed to sleep when I’m there. It had a big white chair. And a big white bed. And shelves that already had books in them. And lots of stuffed animals all over the place.”
    Amanda felt her heart clutch. “It sounds very pretty.”
    Molly glowered at her mother. “I know it’s pretty. That’s not what was wrong. What was wrong is that I don’t sleep there . Which I told them. Daddy said, ‘But you will.’ And the woman said, ‘And when youcome and stay with us, we want you to have your own special place.’”
    Molly started blowing on both hands, trying to dry the polish