Don't Say You Love Me

Chapter NINE

"No, it wasn't them. I just..." I let my voice trail off because even though my mom and I are doing pretty well relationship wise so far, I don't know if I want to tell her about my insomnia. "I always seem to wake up early."

"Well, then we are all up early!" she goes on, and Josie giggles from the table. "Eggs and toast this morning, easy breakfast."

"Eggs!" Josie yells.

"Need help with anything?" I ask, before walking to the coffee maker. My mom and I both seem to survive on coffee, too.

"Nope, just sit down. It's almost ready," she tells me.

With a black coffee in hand, I nod at her and sit at the table across from the kids. They are now talking to each other about some kids at daycare and something that happened yesterday, so I turn my attention back to my mom. She's flips scrambled eggs from the pan to a couple plates.

"So, what's the plan for today?" I ask, just to put it out there. I have nothing going on.

"I have a meeting at the bank at noon. I was going to take the kids over to Kelly's for an hour, but-"

"I can watch them," I say, finishing her sentence. "I have no plans."

"Are you sure? I told you that I wasn't going to make you babysit much this summer, and I plan to stick to that." She has her back to me as she talks, because she's dropping bread into the toaster.

"It's fine. It's good, actually. I'd be bored otherwise," I tell her, smiling towards the kids.

Now my mom turns and brings the plastic, bright colored plates over to the table and puts them down in front of the little ones. They cheer and get right to eating, and she clears her throat. "Manners."

"Thank you, mama," Josie says, her mouth already full of eggs.

"Thanks, mama," Oscar repeats, not even looking up.

"Okay then. That would be helpful. Francis called yesterday and said he won't be back until Tuesday now, so-"

"Mom, it's fine, I swear." I smile at her so she knows I mean it. "I'll take them down to the pier."

"Oh! That's a good idea. I'll leave money for ice cream. They love the little kids' cones from the Creamery. You remember where it is? Next to the The Pines?" she asks me, leaning against the counter.

I watch as she butters the bread that came out of the toaster and then places a piece of on each of the kids' plates. I wonder when she ever really get a break. It seems like she's working, in meetings, or with the kids at all times.

"Yeah," I answer, even though I haven't been down that far in years.

Isaac's party was about half way to the pier. The rental hut is by the water, on this side of the docks. The restaurant - The Pines - and the Creamery are a bit further down. I'm sure I'll be able to find it just fine.

"Okay, great. Well, eat up. I just have to leave here around 11:30A.M.," she finishes and then, finally, scoops some eggs onto a plate for herself.

*

I forgot that the little kids have little legs and it takes almost twice as long as I thought it would to get down to the Creamery. I remember it took about ten minutes for me to the rental hut, so I assumed fifteen at the most to get there. Twenty five minutes and one piggy back ride later, we are finally approaching the ice cream place. Plus, it's hot and the sun is beaming down on us. At least I remembered to put sun hats on the kids.

"Ice cream!" Oscar yells, stomping his little feet through the sand as we approach the strip of buildings. "Can we watch the boats?"

"Ice cream!" Josie echoes her brothers, squirming to get down.

I place her on her feet and grab both of their hands as we walk up to get in line. There's only two people in front of us and it only take a few minutes before I order. As we wait, the kids giggle with excitement and I glance around, noticing the picnic tables are all full. I guess I can take the kids down onto the docks to see the boats while we eat our treat.

"Here you are," the girl working at the little ice cream shack says to me, turning back around with two chocolate swirl cones and one vanilla, for me. "Enjoy."

"Thanks," I answer, taking the kids' cones first and passing them down to Oscar and Josie. I turn back to take mine from the girl, who looks like she's about sixteen.

The ice cream cone looks delicious, and as I'm leading the kids down the path to go to the dock, I am sort of looking down at them rather then in front of me. It's a busy area and I really don't want to lose one of my mom's kids, so I am just keeping my eyes on them.

Suddenly I hear someone yell "watch out!" and I can't even react before something hits me right in the back. I stumble forward and am very close to dropping my ice cream, but I save it. I mumble a curse word so the kids don't hear and then turn around to see what - or who - it was.

"Sorry!" a guy yells from about ten feet away. I've never seen him before. "My buddy can't catch, apparently."

At my feet is a bright yellow Frisbee. That is what hit me in the back, obviously. And this guy who is apologizing must have thrown it. I'm not hurt, the kids are fine and my ice cream didn't land in the sand, so I give the guy a look and turn back around to keep walking. Just as I'm about to carry on, I see the guy's "buddy".

He's tall and thin and has that dark, wavy hair and dark eyes. This is the first really seeing him in daylight, besides when he ran past me yesterday afternoon. Last night, when I told him who my step dad is, he took off like he was afraid of catching the plague. Now, he's standing a few feet away, reaching for the Frisbee.

"Seriously?" I ask him, but then glance back to make sure the kids haven't taken off. They are standing close to me, happily eating their ice cream, thank god.

The guy shakes his head and shrugs. "Sorry."

I turn away and call for Oscar and Josie to follow me, because I just wanted to have a fun day time with them and I ended up running into this guy, once again.

I guess that's what I can expect from this summer. Getting beer thrown at me. Being hit in the back with a Frisbee. So. Much. Fun.