You, Me, and Riley

Chapter 35

Hayden

"What do you mean he's sick?" I asked in surprise looking at my dad who was sleeping on the couch "with what?"

"How about we talk about that when your father is awake." Mom says with a small smile and a sigh "tell me more about Riley."

"How about we wake up Dad and we talk about him being sick now." I said shaking my head in disbelief.

"Hayden." My mother started "You can't just-"

"No Mom" I said cutting her off "You can't come in here tell me something like that and then just move on. I need to know more."

"I'll tell you what he has, but we're not waking him up." she said sitting next to me on the couch "He doesn't sleep very well anymore."

"Okay." I said glancing over at him with a sigh "continue."

"He has lung cancer." she said nodding at my confused surprise.

"But Dad doesn't smoke does he?" I asked "did he start after I left?"

"He's never smoked" she said with a sigh " but 15% of lung cancers are found in people who have never smoked."

"This is insane" I mumbled sitting down next to her and rubbing my eyes with a sigh "How sick is he?" I asked.

"Very" she said after a second "like you said he never smoked, we weren't looking for lung cancer" she said with a heavy sigh "so it sort of snuck up on us."

"I don-" I started before I heard Riley running down the stairs "no running on the stairs Riley Peters" I yelled in her direction "You know better."

"Sorry Mom." she said with a smile peeking her head in the room "What's for dinner?"

"I don't know" I said standing up and turning her towards the kitchen "Go ask your Ma and I'll be in there in a second."

"She calls you Mom?" my Mom asked as we watched Riley skip into the kitchen.

"Yeah." I said with a smile turning to her "Mommy and Mama when she is little and Mom and Ma when she is big."

"Interesting" she said following me into the kitchen "Is she big often?"

"I would say she's little more than big." I said "but it varies, I'm surprised she's not little now honestly, stress usually pushes her into little space" I laughed as we walked into the kitchen and watched Riley helping Dana cook dinner.

"We havin pa'sketty fo dinner Mommy" she said with a smile looking up at me her hands covered with spaghetti sauce.

"I see that." I said with a laugh "How are your hands already dirty? Dinner hasn't even started."

"I turned around for two seconds." Dana said rolling her eyes as she started washing Riley's hands off with a dish towel.

"I ike pa'sketty." Riley said clapping her hands together with a laugh.

"Well before we eat are spaghetti" I said picking her up with a smile "Mommy thinks we should change you out of your white big girl clothes and into some play clothes what do you think." I said pointing at the white t-shirt she had put on when she walked upstairs.

"Ok Mommy." She said with a smile as I walked upstairs with her.

"Oh my goodness." My mom said following me into Riley's nursery "This is-"

"Dis my oom" Riley said proudly as I walked to her closet and picked out an outfit for her to wear.

"I see that." she said with a smile as she followed me around the room "Do you like dinosaurs?" she asked Riley as I laid her down on the changing table.