We walk in silence into the school and follow the colored arrows on the ground to his classroom. Kindergarten class two is the blue arrows.
When we walk into his room, my chest tightens. I’m not ready for my little boy to grow up and be a kindergartener.
I look down to Jack, who’s taking in his surroundings, not looking fazed in the slightest.
A little boy across the room waves at him, and Jack smiles and waves back with the biggest smile on his face.
He turns to me and tugs my hand, pulling me down to my knees. “Mommy, it’ll be okay.”
The well of tears I’m holding back breaks, and a loose tear falls off my eyelashes and travels down my cheek.
Jack reaches out and wipes the tear away. Which only makes me want to cry more.
I pull him against me, hugging him tightly. “I love you, buddy.”
And he replies with the line he always does, “Even in the rain?”
I kiss the top of his head. “Even in the storm.”
12
After a couple of hours working on my project for The Crooked Spine, Jack barges into my room. “Moooom, hurry up, or we’re going to be late.” He tackles my knees, wrapping his small arms around my legs. “Come on!” He tugs me.
I push my arms through my sweater and chase him downstairs. He quickly puts on his Spider-Man light-up shoes and heads out the door without a coat. I roll my eyes, pulling a coat for him and a coat for me out of the closet, and then we take off.
The drive to the harbor is pretty short. Oohs and aahs are pouring out of him when we approach the viewing dock. His excitement never wavers, no matter how many times we come. It’s been too long since the last time we were here.
“Mom, look!” He jumps up and down, pointing to the giant vessel in the water. He audibly gasps when the bridge begins moving.
I can’t help but giggle at his excitement. Children are the purest form of joy—the world hasn’t tainted them yet.
Jack and I spend another hour or two watching the ships go in and out, just letting the world move around us.
But we have to leave around seven because Char and I work tonight. The theme is witches, and I’m going to need time for the makeup look I have planned.
Hopefully, it’s not too late of a night though because Jack’s parent-teacher conference is tomorrow morning at seven thirty. I couldn’t make the scheduled evening ones last week because I had work. But his teacher offered to have me come tomorrow morning, and I couldn’t really say no.
I’m a little nervous. She said that she needed to talk to me about something, and I haven’t really been able to get that phrase off my mind since she said it.
I’m excited to see Callie, Hannah, and the boys. With how emotional this week was, I feel like I haven’t seen them in forever.
Jack and I head back to the house soon, and before I know it, Char and I are walking out the door and heading to Fireflies.
We end up getting there pretty early, finishing the prep before anyone else even arrives. They are ecstatic when they see it all done and ready to go. Tonight is the first night that Char and I can fully serve. We know the menu front and back, and we’re ready.
The first group I mix for is really simple. They just order eight Scooby Snack shots. I add the rum and whipped cream and slide the platter across the bar to the man who ordered. He winks at me, slides me four twenty-dollar bills and grabs the platter.
The entire night, we are swamped. I literally have no idea how they kept up with orders before Char and I could help.
The benefit of being nonstop busy is that time flies by. When we clock out, I feel like I just clocked in. Except now, I’m five hundred and fifty bucks richer. Not too shabby.
The drive home is a blur. I’m exhausted to the core. It’s not like I got a lot of sleep last night.
When I got home from the party, I considered punching a wall. Not my finest moment. I held myself back. I was not going to let Alec have that kind of control over me. Ugh, just thinking about him is boiling my blood all over again.
I wring my hands on the steering wheel, my knuckles whitening from the pressure. Char is already passed out next to me in the car. I slap her thigh when we finally pull into the garage.
She shoos my hand away. “Five more minutes.”
