The Summer Home

1. Driving Out

     That brought them to the task at hand, which was traveling to the summer house and living there in peace for the next two months. It was a tradition that actually started accidentally. A few years ago, before the summer started, Peter took the family to visit his father and over that weekend their house had burned to the ground, and they lost everything. They also had nowhere to go, and this is when one of Peter's best friends came in to save the day. One of Peter's former roomies from college named Raymond Langer offered to let them have his beach house for as long as they needed it. Turns out they only needed it for the summer and Peter made sure he compensated Ray for letting them use the summer home. The kids had so much fun at the house that summer Peter decided to rent it from Ray the next year so they could spend the summer out there again and from there it just became a yearly thing for them. It was something the kids looked forward to and busted their humps in school to be a part of. With the incentive to do so well, Peter didn't mind shelling out a few bucks to enjoy themselves. Compared to what most people spend just to fly somewhere for a week, Peter was actually getting away with quite the steal. He never had any complaints but was hoping this summer Peter would have impending deadlines that were quickly approaching. While he wasn't the most popular writer out there, there were always many obsessed fans out there that wanted more stuff to read as soon as human possibly. Peter had to make sure to keep them marginally satisfied so that he could make a living and support his family without having to do any real work. Despite wherever they were or whatever they were doing, a writer was always working. Peter often found himself thinking about writing whenever he wasn't actually doing it. Even as he drove the van, Peter was still thinking about his next chapter and what direction he wanted his current novel to go. It was while Peter was going over some of those plot points in his head when his wife had begun to emerge from her slumber.

     "Good afternoon." He said to her with a smile.

     "Afternoon?" Sonya repeated, rubbing her eyes. "How long have I been out?"

     "Quite a while, dear." Peter said as he kept his eyes on the road. "We're not far out now. We should be at the summer home within a few hours."

     "Finally." She said with a huff. "I was getting ready to jump out."

     "I understand," Peter said as he picked her hand up and gave it a small peck. "We're almost there, and thus shall commence two months of rest and relaxation."

     "After the school year I had, I could really use it." Sonya said, sitting up and looking around for something familiar. "How are the kids?"

     "They're fine." Peter said, as he took a quick glance himself. "I put Jacob between the girls to make sure they didn't tussle as much."

     "What did you promise him?" she slyly asked.

     "Whatever he wanted for lunch; he gets to pick the place." Peter said, checking his watch. "We'll give it another half hour."

     She paused for a moment and read his face like a book. "Something bothering you, Peter?"

     Peter looked back at her for a second before putting his eyes back on the road. "It's nothing."

     "No, it's not." Sonya retorted. "Something is really bugging you and I doubt it's your agent. You never let him bug you before, so I know it can't be the new book nor the deadline."

     "You know me well," Peter said, trying to fake his jest.

     "Spill it," Sonya commanded.

     Peter took a deep breath and let out a sigh that let her knew she was right. "I had a brief talk with Christina earlier this week."

     "Well, that would certainly do it." Sonya said, now understanding what was going on. She really didn't like talking about Peter's first wife.