Summer Days

Chapter 61

I was sitting on the couch at Nathan's later in the week, staring at the tv but not watching the movie that was playing. It was a nice day that had started with some exercise, a modified hours session since no one had gotten themselves into trouble and then a swim before we decided to take shelter in the house due to the heat of the day. Luke, North, Silas and Gabriel had all showered and changed into diner clothes before leaving at scattered intervals for their shifts.

I felt a little bad because I really should have taken a diner shift today too but it had been a full week. I'd spent time at the hospital with Sean, gone on an extended lunch date with Owen and even hung out with Victor while he practiced for an upcoming event his mother had booked him for.

But now, it was just Nathan and Kota at the house with me, eating lunch and watching the movie. "What's on your mind, Sang?" Kota asked, curiously.

"Nothing much at all, really." I smiled at him. "Just trying to think of what's left to be done in the last week of summer."

He tilted his head and looked at me. "Is there a lot left on your list?" He asked. "Do we need a Lord of the Rings or Hobbit movie marathon."

Nathan laughed.

I frowned at Nathan. "If you want to have one, that sounds fine to me." I said. "I've done a lot of things this summer, I'm not overly concerned that I'm missing out on something." I shrugged.

Nathan snagged my hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. "So, what, housing?"

I nodded. "I'd really like to figure that out. And maybe figure out what I'm meant to do with my life besides love all of you for the rest of it."

"Maybe we should start looking into those options. You can do anything you want. The Academy encourages it." Kota pointed out.

"But at what cost? What risk?" I voiced some of the lingering concerns I had.

"We'll let Mr. Blackbourne go over those things with you." Nathan said. "He and Doc would know the best. Doc especially since he's the full-on career guy in the family."

I smiled. "Okay. I can handle waiting to talk to them. But don't any of you have any ideas about what you really want to be when you grow up?"

Kota shrugged before smiling shyly at me. "I kinda want to be a physics teacher or professor but I know that means I need to hurry and get a lot of schooling done because I'll need a masters to be a professor." He admitted.

"Then you should." I said, holding out my other hand to him and waiting for him to take it. "What's holding you back from doing that?"

He shrugged again. "Being the family lead is a lot more work than I thought it was going to be." He admitted.

"Do you regret taking it on?" Nathan asked.

"No, I just... sometimes I just can't believe how well Sean did the job while he was in school. It was too much for him to take on with the internship and I get that but it's just a lot of things to handle for a family our size."

I thought about it for a long moment. "I did handle a lot of that part of the job back in November, right? When we were going old school with no phones?"

"You did." He nodded. "You did a great job with it too."

"So, if it freed you up to pursue the schooling you need to do in order to make your career dreams come true... would it be out of line to make the suggestion that maybe I could step in and be family lead?" I asked. "Do you think anyone else would want to do it?"

Nathan chuckled. "I don't want to do it. Sean might want it back if his internship is over but then again, Mr. B and he have always led our team as co-leaders anyway. Kota would have been involved in more decisions with just Mr. B and that's not how it's gone since Sean stepped aside."