“Do you want some?” Sam asks. “I can make them.”
“Of course I want some. How about if we do it together?” He sits down next to her as Trixie and Kerry-Anne migrate away from the table, leaving them alone.
“Gabby taught them to play jacks,” Sam explains to him as she starts to measure out a pair of wings for Aaron. Trixie and Kerry-Anne settle down on the floor where they can bounce the ball easier.
“Your mom was good at jacks. She could do tensies without blinking an eye,” Aaron tosses out casually. He watches as Sam’s face lights up, and then he shoots me a wink.
I grin, and I go to find something to cook for dinner. I guess we’re having company. And they’ll all be wearing fairy wings.
10
Eli
“Knock, knock!” someone calls from outside the cabin door just before it opens. Katie pokes her head inside. “Sorry, I should have waited for you to invite me in,” she says with a wince.
“You’re at the lake,” Jake says from behind her as he walks in. He’s carrying a big basket full of food. “No one waits for an invitation at the lake.” He walks into the kitchen and sets the basket on the counter. He starts to unload it.
Up until that moment, Bess had been rifling through our cabinets looking for enough food to feed everyone. Even I knew that we didn’t have enough for that. Unless you counted crackers and cheese, Bess wasn’t much of a snacker, not to mention that we haven’t been to the store since we got here.
Jake walks over close to Bess and leans down to ask her quietly, “How’s he doing?”
“Fine, I think,” she says with a shrug. “He only puked once.”
“That was because of your driving!” Aaron says from across the kitchen. He points at me and says, “She’s a terrible driver, dude.”
“Tell me about it,” I toss back, and she sends me a warning look. It’s one of those looks that wives send to husbands, the one that means you’re in trouble. My heart takes a flying leap in my chest because she hasn’t even noticed I’m in the room for years, much less scolded me for anything. “What?” I ask dramatically, raising my hands in the air like I’m surrendering to the cops. “The man has a valid point.”
“My driving is just fine,” Bess complains. “Have you ever thought that maybe your riding just sucks?”
“She didn’t use her turn signal once,” Aaron continues. He reaches into the basket and retrieves a container of grapes. He pops one into his mouth, chews for a second, then he spits it back into his hand. “That tastes like ass.”
Bess stares at him, her gaze softening when she realizes it’s from the chemo. “Do you want another juice pouch?”
Jake elbows me in the side and says out of the side of his mouth, “Not going to lie, dude. I kind of like the taste of ass.”
“Jake!” Katie hisses at him. She punches him on the shoulder.
Aaron bursts out with a laugh, just as Bess tries to put a juice pouch in his hand. He makes her wait long enough to high-five Jake and then he takes the juice pouch from her. She lays her hand on his shoulder and gives it a gentle squeeze.
Katie points at both of them, one after the other. “I’m watching you two,” she warns, her face stern. Then she goes into the other room to ask the kids if they want peanut butter and jelly or turkey sandwiches.
I see that Aaron is struggling to stab his juice pouch, so I reach over and do it for him. “You okay, man?” I ask as I hand it back to him.
“Chemo has a way of wearing you out,” he says just as Katie walks back into the kitchen.
“I’m taking the kids with me tonight,” Katie informs him. “The girls are planning a sleepover. Jake already built the blanket fort in the living room.”
“Dude, you made a fort?” Aaron asks. “Why don’t I get to sleep in a fort?” He takes a dainty sip of his juice pouch.
“I’ll make one for you tomorrow,” Jake teases. “If you can be a good boy all day long.” He shakes his not-at-all-menacing index finger at Aaron.
I snort out a laugh. “No worry that you’re going to be making a fort tomorrow.” I toss a grape into my mouth.
“I hope it’s okay that I already talked to Sam and Kerry-Anne about the sleepover,” Katie says to Aaron. “They were helping with the fort. And I thought you might need a break, after today.”
“I’ll keep Miles with me,” Aaron says. “He’s a good sleeper, most nights anyway.”
“Are you sure?” Katie looks worried.
“I’ll let you know if something changes.”
She leans down and presses a soft kiss to his hairline. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath while she does it.
Katie serves sandwiches, fruit, and chips to the kids, cafeteria style, and they all migrate onto the porch to eat sitting on the steps. Katie goes with them, and she takes Miles in his bouncy chair with her, giving me a wink as she steals him from his spot next to my feet.
“You got a good wife, Jake,” I state.
“Don’t I know it,” he says as he sits down at the little four-top table in the kitchen.
I look at Bess, I and see when she stiffens as she stares into the open refrigerator, retrieving nothing. I want to say something, but no matter what I say, I’m afraid it will be wrong.
“Hey, Bess,” Aaron suddenly calls out.
She turns to face him slowly, warily, like she’s waiting for a big bucket of goo to dump on her from the ceiling at his command. “Hey, Aaron,” she replies almost caustically, as only a good friend can get away with.
“Do you still have that camera here? The one you used to carry everywhere?” He drags the straw in and out of his juice pouch as he winks at me. He’s planning something. I just wish he’d told me what beforehand.
“The old thirty-five millimeter?” she asks. She closes the fridge door and turns to face him. “Probably. Why do you ask?”
He shrugs. “I was just wondering if you might take some candid shots of me with the kids. Just shots of us doing normal stuff. Summery stuff. Pictures they can look at later?”
Oh, fuck. He just asked her to take his end-of-life photos with his kids. Fuck me. I jump to my feet and walk to the tiny closet that serves as a pantry. I reach onto the top shelf and retrieve the camera, and take it back out to her. Her eyes meet mine as she takes it from me.
“I haven’t seen this in so long,” she says, but she smiles at me. And my heart does that plummet again, the one where it feels like my brains are falling into my toes. All because she graced me with an elusive smile. It’s kind of like I just saw Bigfoot, her smiles are that rare.
She blows the dust off the dials and uses her shirttail to wipe the lens. “There’s a half a roll of film in here.”
“So, is that a yes?” Aaron asks. He might be acting casual about it, but I can tell this is important to him. He wants photos so his kids can remember his last summer at Lake Fisher.
“What do I get if I do it?” She puts her hands on her hips. There’s the woman I fell in love with. There she is! Holy shit, this is the woman I married.