“Like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are!”

It’s the fourth time they’ve sung Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star. It’s quickly reminding me of one of the many reasons I have yet to have any children of my own.

We’re in a taxi on the way to Central Park and by now I’m sure even the driver is going crazy.

“Another round?” Simone asks.

Please God, no. I’m positively certain she’s encouraging this just to annoy me.

“I don’t think so,” Stuart says becoming suddenly quiet. God bless him.

“Okay then,” she says, pulling him in closer to her side. He snuggles in with a relaxed look on his face as she strokes his head.

“You know, Stuart, you can talk about Mommy and Daddy with me if you’d like. If you’re feeling sad or lonely or want to cry, that’s perfectly okay.”

He just looks ahead thoughtfully, then turns to bury his face into the side of her breast. I turn my head to look out the window again. Emotional moments were never my strong suit.

“Oh you sweet boy, it’s okay. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. Actually, a friend of mine knows someone who can help you talk about it. We can meet with her this week, okay?”

Alarm bells go off in my head, realizing she’s most certainly talking about a therapist.

Obviously, it would be a good idea for Stuart to see someone to help him handle losing both of his parents, but hell if I’m going to let some new age kook that Simone probably has in mind fuck with my nephew’s head.

I’ll have to make sure to tell Mike to get his people on this, stat. That hearing to change guardianship can’t come soon enough.

We reach the park and the taxi pulls over to let us out. Stuart hops out, eagerly following his aunt who has gone first. She reaches out to take his hand and they begin walking toward the entrance. Despite the platform wedges she’s got on, Simone’s strides are surprisingly agile and rapid. Stuart has that quick energy that young kids seem to have, so they keep pace with one another perfectly. After handling the payment for the fare (naturally) I actually have to use my longer stride to catch up with them.

As soon as I’m next to them, Simone gives me a look of irritated resignation, as though she was hoping I’d change my mind at the last minute. It deepens when Stuart reaches out with his other hand to take mine.

I give her a broad smile. Let her interpret it how she sees fit.

“So, Stuart what would you like to do in the park?” she asks.

“I don’t know,” he says shrugging. I suspect he’s just happy to be here between the two of us. Hell, if I don’t feel an icy part of my heart melt a bit. Perhaps being an uncle isn’t so terrible after all, even with Simone still in the picture.

“Well, the park has all sorts of things. There’s the carousel, the paddle boats, the Museum of Natural History with lots of dinosaurs, the zoo, lots of playgrounds—”

“Dinosaurs?” he offers hesitantly.

“The museum, a fantastic idea!” she says encouragingly, which brings a smile to his face. “It’s on the other side of the park, which gives us a chance to see most of it.” I eye those shoes of hers wondering how she’ll hold up. So far she’s impressively working them.

I have to admit that it’s a perfect spring day and it’s nice to be outside in the park. The occasional break from spending every daylight hour in an office, no matter how spacious it is, might be a good thing to consider in the future.

“Can I look at the boats?”

We’re passing by the smaller lake with the model boats, which have caught Stuart’s eye.

“Of course, sweetheart. You can do anything you want today.”

He disengages his hand from ours to walk quickly to the edge and settle down, watching the small boats as they slide across the water.

That leaves Simone and me standing there in one another’s company. She drops her glasses down to her nose and patently ignores me, which is fine by me. I focus my attention on Stuart to avoid having to say anything to her.

“Do you honestly think I don’t know what you were up to last night?”

I turn to her with my eyebrows raised. She still has her attention focused on Stuart. “I have no idea what you mean.”

“Oh drop it, Archer,” she says, turning to me and raising her glasses again. “What was it, were you looking for some reason to criticize me yet again?”

I have no idea what she means by “yet again.” We haven’t seen one another since the wedding and she certainly wasn’t ever a topic of conversation during any phone calls or meetings with Kevin.

“Stuart was anxious to see you so I thought—”

“—you’d just drop in unannounced. God, you really are something.”

“Whatever malicious games you suspect me of playing at Simone, you’re wrong.”

“You just keep in mind that there is a little boy here who’s just lost his parents.” She actually pokes her finger in my chest as she says it. “A little boy who needs love and support from everyone in his life.”

She turns to look at Stuart again. “Frankly, if it was up to me, you wouldn’t be a part of it. Why disrupt the status quo, after all? But he seems to have…grown attached to you. I can’t fathom why.”

For some reason, this fills me with a dose of pleasure heavily colored by confusion. A nephew I never bothered to get to know has somehow managed to grow “attached” to me in a manner of days.

I know that I’ve never been her favorite person, but there’s a resentment radiating from her that seems to go beyond even my little stunt last night. For the life of me I can’t figure out why. After six years, I would have thought she’d completely forgotten about me. Even at the wedding, we said a maybe total of five complete sentences to one another.

I know why it is that I’ve never been particularly fond of her. If I’m honest with myself I’d realize how immature the reason is. It’s something I should be completely over by now, but once again, Simone Parker has managed to work her way into my system. I was twenty-six at the time, which was old enough to know better even then, but—

I see Stuart reaching a bit too far to touch one of the boats and on the brink of falling into the pond. We both react at the same time.

“Stuart!”

“Whoah there, buddy!”

I reach him first, grabbing him underneath the arms before he teeters in. Simone is right on my heels as I pull him up into a standing position.

“Are you okay, sweetie?” she asks, squatting down in front of him with a concerned look on her face.

“He’s fine,” I say with a confident chuckle, letting go of him.

She frowns up at me then softens her face when she looks at him again for confirmation. Stuart is actually laughing, which causes her to frown even more.

“See?” I point out, feeling that Bennett pride come back.

She just glares up at me and rises, smoothing down his hair for good measure.

“If you’re interested in actually getting on the water, I think there are some real boats we can rent somewhere,” I say to him.

Why the hell did I just propose that idea?

“Can we?” he’s directed the question to me, which causes Simone to cross her arms and plump out her bottom lip my way.

“Sure thing,” I say with a grin.

* * *

In retrospect, the boat probably wasn’t a great idea.

Stuart is loving it, leaning over the side to drag his fingers in the water with a lazy smile.

Simone is sitting there pretty as a picture in her pink lace dress and lace-up shoes and handbag on her lap. Her glasses are back down on her face, but I can sense the smug look as I’m the one left rowing the three of us across the pond.

I’ve done plenty of sessions on the rowing machine as part of my workout routine but the real thing is a far different beast. It took a bit of coordination at first, but I finally have the hang of it.

“Is there a heaven, Aunt Simone?” Stuart asks, his focus still on the water.

Simone and I look at each other in surprise, then down at Stuart. I wonder if being on the lake has made him think of Kevin and Bette lying somewhere in the Atlantic. She lifts her glasses and leans over to his back as she replies. “Hmm, what do you think?”

“I don’t know.”

A sad smile comes to her face. “I don’t know either, Stuart.”

“Do you know, Uncle Archer?” he asks squinting my way.

“I don’t know,” I echo, feeling that it’s a safe enough answer.

“I do know this though, sweetie,” Simone continues. “Wherever your parents are they are together and happy and looking out for you to make sure you are safe and happy too.”

That kind of susses it up to them being in heaven after all, but I leave it alone. This is one area I’m not going near with a ten foot pole.

Stuart turns to her. “Are they looking at you too?”

“I certainly hope so,” she says with a smile.

“And Uncle Archer?”

“I certainly hope so as well,” she says in a way has an entirely different meaning.

Stuart turns his attention back to the water to process all of this.

I’ve never really thought of the afterlife one way or another, but it does make me think. Are they looking down at us right now? I’m sure they’d both be surprised at the picture they found.

Simone, Stuart, and Archer happily enjoying a Sunday afternoon rowing a boat in Central Park.

How fucking quaint.