Page 105 of Finding Us
Once we start, we get so into it we forget about being tired. But when we’re done I’m even more tired than before, but it’s a good tired.
“You ready to sleep now?” Garret asks. “Or were you hoping to do this again?”
I flip on my side, my back to him. “I’m going to sleep.”
“You know Harper’s going to ask you about tonight, too. You can’t tell her we only did it once.”
“I’m not telling her anything. Just like I didn’t tell her about the night before.”
“She’ll still ask.” The bed moves as he repositions his pillow. “I’ll just tell her six times.”
“Donottell her that.”
“I have to. We can’t go from eight times down to one. She’ll think something’s wrong.”
“Fine. But then we’re doing it again when we wake up so at least the real number isn’t so far away from your made-up number.”
“Then let’s do ittwomore times so we’re at least halfway to six.”
“Okay, but in the morning, not now.” I turn my head back and kiss him. “Goodnight. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
The next day we sleep in, not getting up until we reach our goal of three times. We skip breakfast because it’s already 11 and we’re having lunch with Frank and Ryan at noon.
We go out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and sit outside because as usual, the weather is perfect.
“So I’m putting the house up for sale,” Frank announces during lunch.
I set down the salsa-drenched chip I was about to eat. “You are? When did you decide this?”
“A couple weeks ago. It’ll be another month or so before I actually get it on the market. I need to fix a few things and clean up the place before we start showing it.”
“Where are you moving to? Did you get a house already?”
“No, I’m going to custom build. I’ve hired a contractor and we’ve looked through some plans.”
“Where are you building it?”
“I found a couple acres out in Waukee.”
“It’s a good piece of land,” Ryan says. “It’s got trees all around it, a pond in the back, and it’s close to the interstate.”
Garret leans toward me and asks, “Where’s Waukee?”
“It’s a suburb of Des Moines,” I tell him.
“It’s on the west side,” Frank adds. “The doctor I’m seeing has his office in a clinic next to one of the new hospitals they built out there so it’ll be more convenient to get to my appointments living on that side of town.”
Frank has a new doctor now. He can’t see Dr. Cunningham anymore. Cunningham works with members of the organization and we can’t have any connection to that group. He probably never should’ve been working with Frank in the first place.
Cunningham recommended a new doctor for Frank and so far, everything’s been good. Frank continues to follow whatever treatment plan Cunningham gave him and the new doctor just checks to make sure Frank is still doing well.
“What’s the new house going to look like?” I ask, just as our food arrives.
“I’m still in the planning stages, but it’ll be all one level, three bedrooms, three bathrooms. Nothing too big but compared to the current house it’ll seem huge.”
Ryan reaches over for the hot sauce. “The builder specializes in handicap-accessible housing so that’s why Dad picked him.”
