Falling Into You

My Oh My You're So Good Lookin'

Chapter Seven

I didn't sleep well that night and I don't think Selena did either. At around four am I gave up on sleep and made my out to the kitchen. I put on a pot of coffee and read yesterday's paper. I glanced up when I heard stomping followed by an exasperated sigh. It was Selena and she looked exhausted. She had her phone in her hand and she looked hellbent on getting to wherever she was going. She walked over the junk drawer, pulled out a hammer, tossed her phone on the counter, and then brought the heavy tool down on its screen. Once she was satisfied it was completely destroyed, she tossed it in the trash and stomped back down the hallway mumbling under her breath. She breaks things when she's mad. She's clearly mad. I'm not even sure if she noticed me sitting there.

Like clockwork, Joe came stumbling into the kitchen about thirty minutes later. We were skipping our workout in favor of surfing this morning. It was slightly rainy and the waves were bigger than usual. It was my favorite time to surf. We drank our coffee in a comfortable silence then pulled on our wetsuits and headed out. We paddled out and immediately caught a couple good swells right off the bat. It was exhilarating. After my third wipeout, I was pretty much done. Fighting the undertow was exhausting and I was ready to head back in.

"Where's your sister?" I asked Gracie as I walked into the house to find her watching cartoons on the couch.

"She's snoring in bed." Gracie explained. "I'm hungry."

"Ok baby. Let me change and I'll make you some pancakes."

"Yay!" She said excited while clapping her little hands together.

I walked down the hallway and peeked into Selena's room. Sure enough, she was face first in her pillow and snoring loudly. I opted not to wake the beast and I carefully pulled her door closed so she wouldn't be disturbed. She obviously needed to sleep.

Making pancakes for Gracie was quite the adventure. She wanted heart shapes, Mickey Mouse, and happy faces. I was lucky if I could get one to look even remotely round. Once we finished with breakfast, we found ourselves engaged in a very intense game of go fish. It was so intense in fact, that Gracie was wearing a pair of my aviator sunglasses in an effort to maintain what she described as her "poker face". It was all I could do to keep from laughing. They were way to big for her and she looked like some sort of scary insect. We were also playing for money. So far she winning.

"Do you have a three?" I asked slowly.

"Go fish." She said quickly.

I drew a card.

"Do you have a three?" she asked.

"Hold up." I laughed. "You're cheating."

"No way!" She exclaimed completely horrified at my accusation.

"I might have been born in the dark but it wasn't last night." I said raising an eyebrow. "You're like a little thug!"

"Am not!" She said defiantly holding in a laugh.

"You're scamming me for money!" I exclaimed. "You might as well be a member of the mob."

"I don't even know what that is!" She said sticking out her tongue.

"Are you gonna have your associates send me to sleep with the fish if I don't pay up?" I laughed.

"You can't sleep with fish! You'll drown!" She said seriously.

"Child. I don't even know what I'm gonna do with you."

"Nothin!" She giggled. "Cause you love me." She smiled brilliantly.

"I think you're right about that." I said tapping her nose with my fingertip.

"You still me owe me fifty dollars." She said sweetly.