Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
As I suspected, Anthony had nothing to worry about.
Our eldest boy was calm, confident, and determined to do things right. So while he was far from a marksman, he definitely wasn’t accidentally shooting anyone or himself.
We were walking as a trio down the subway steps when Anthony… I don’t know, lost his footing, and started to topple.
I shit you not, both me and our son reached for him in unison, yanking back on his jacket until he righted himself.
“Really, Dad?” our son asked, shaking his head at his father’s clumsiness.
“Thought it would be a couple of years before I started to be an embarrassment to him,” Ant said, draping an arm over my shoulders.
“Well, let’s make it worse,” I said as we waited for the subway car to pull up. Reaching up, I grabbed Ant’s lapels, and pulled him down for a big, long, passionate kiss, getting whistles and chuckles from those around us as our son went an almost concerning shade of crimson.
“Mommm,” he grumbled, even his ears going scarlet.
“Hey, it’s only natural. You see, when a man and a woman love each other, and they want to show that love—“ I started, watching as he shoved his fingers in his ears and hummed. “It’s going to be so fun when they’re teenagers,” I declared to Anthony as we got in the subway, and made our way to Keith’s place.
Well, Keith and Katie’s place now.
Sometime after learning what sunlight was and growing out his silly alpaca haircut, Keith happened upon a lady lawyer. And, as they say, opposites had attracted.
He now lived in a fancy apartment, had a bed with a headboard, and his very own office/gaming room.
I knew as we let ourselves in that I would find him in there with our daughter as our other son lounged on the couch watching TV.
Much to Keith’s dismay, neither of our boys liked video games. They were more action-type kids. They wanted to go out and do, not play at doing.
But Keith had been delighted to find out that our little girl was obsessed with everything to do with video games.
“Girl gamers are so cool,” Keith had declared. “I’m gonna teach you how to kick all the boys’ as—butts.”
That’s exactly what he’d been doing.
“Hey, bud,” Ant called to our other son who was engrossed in some ridiculous kids’ skit show on YouTube. “You ready to get going? We have to get to Grandma’s for dinner.”
“Dinner?” Keith asked, rushing out of his office as our little girl trash-talked some stranger on the game while she reached for her bright pink pony water bottle for a sip. “Can I come?” he asked.
“When has my mom ever not saved a spot for you?” Anthony asked as our other son got up off the couch and went in a frantic search for his shoes.
My appetite? Yeah, that was something all our kids had inherited. Our grocery bill was absolutely astronomical.
When they went through that big growth spurt in their tweens and teens, I was worried I might have to sell some of my gold bars just to keep them all fed.
Keith rushed back to lean over our little girl’s head, pulling one of her pink headphones off to tell her in a comically serious voice, “Finish him! We have to get to Grandma’s.”
We were all about to walk out of the door when Keith’s lady, Katie, came in wearing her black pantsuit, her belly round enough that the jacket had no hopes of closing around it.
“Where are we going?” she asked, looking at all of us.
“Dinner at Grandma’s,” Keith said, throwing an arm around her shoulders.
“Oh, thank God,” Katie said. “Think she made those pizza roll appetizers again?” she asked, making Anthony and I share a smile as we waited for the elevator.
“Mama,” our little girl said as we sat in the back of a taxi with her, Katie and Keith taking the other two with them.
“Yeah, baby?” I asked.
“I know what I want to do for my birthday,” she told us, tone very serious. She’d been giving it thought for over a month at this point, unable to decide on anything, despite the day approaching quickly.
“Oh yeah? Great. What is it?” I asked, figuring she’d want to rent out an arcade or something like that.
Nope.
Not our little girl.
“I wanna go on the ferry!”
Anthony and my gaze met over her head, both our minds flashing to the last night we’d taken that ferry.
It practically felt like a lifetime ago now.
But the memories came back in vivid detail.
“That’s, ah, an interesting idea,” Anthony said. “We can do that,” he decided.
“It’s okay, Daddy,” she said, patting his leg. “I won’t let you fall over.”
The idea of our clumsy little girl trying to save her father from falling over was enough to make me have to turn toward the window to keep her from seeing me trying not to laugh.