best! Thanks, here’s Grammy.”
A few scuffles and mumbles of a conversation pass before my mom gets on the line. “Hi Lis. I’ve already spoken to Laney at pickup to make sure those two weren’t pulling a fast one like last time. I swear, it’s always the sweet looking ones you have to watch out for.”
“Explains why I was such a handful.” That statement makes her laugh. “I’ll shoot her a text anyway. Can I grab you anything? I was going to do a quick stop at Target before heading back to town.”
“I think we’re fine. Your dad is grilling some burgers and Clem is in charge of shucking corn.”
I love my dad’s burgers. Just the thought has my stomach rumbling and then I remember the pizza I had for lunch. That’s a lot of indulgence for one day, but tomorrow morning is yoga and I can burn some of the extra calories.
“Sounds good. I won’t be long. You can just set some aside for me.”
“Oh hush, we’ll start everything in say forty-five minutes. Give you some time to wander the aisles.”
“Thanks, Mom. How’s Clem?”
“She was a little quiet on the ride to school but seemed fine this afternoon. I think a night without her brother around will be good for her. Maybe we can do a little spa party after dinner.”
“Sounds perfect. I’ll grab some masks and new polish at the store.”
“Drive safe, honey. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
Disconnecting the call, I toss my phone in my purse and pull out of the space and head for my favorite time-suck store. I would never tell my mom how much I enjoy roaming their clothing section. Her clothing store, The Closet, is great for dresses and clothes for work but nothing beats the clearance section at Target.
Chapter 7
Connor
Technically it’s winter for a couple more months. Technically. Someone should tell Mother Nature that because it’s more like walking through Death Valley at the height of summer in Taylor’s backyard. I shed my shirt hours ago, the sun high in the sky, beating down on my skin. I can feel the burn and regret not applying the offered sunscreen.
“Connor, you are going to be in a lot of pain tomorrow,” Scarlett warns. She doesn’t know the half of it. My back aches on a regular day and doing all this work is only aggravating things.
“Nick is worth it,” I say, attaching the swing to the wooden beam on the massive playset Taylor insisted on building. As a kid I never had anything like this. We spent our playtime at the park on the public playsets and even those weren’t as nice as this. Swings, a slide, mini fort, and even a picnic table setup; it has a little of everything.
“Eventually. I tried telling Taylor we should wait until he’s at least talking before we put something like this up.” Scarlett nibbles on her bottom lip in worry.
Once the swing is hooked in, I walk toward my friend, placing my hands on her arms.
“It’s a cool setup and he can use the swing now and his Uncle Connor will come over for some male bonding in the fort. Have no fear.”
She smiles at me, releasing a breath. “It’s not ridiculous? I mean, I think it’s cool, but Nick is more interested in sticking smashed bananas up his nose than going down a slide.”
I can’t argue with her there. I watched him try to eat a plastic hot dog yesterday. I think we should be more concerned with his relationship with food than building a playset. Scarlett offers me a bottle of water, the condensation dripping onto my chest as I lift it to my lips. One sip and then I dump the rest over my head, the coolness a relief to my hot skin.
“Where’s your worse half?” I joke.
Giggling, she smacks my arm and says, “Inside. Ashton called about a few invoices and he needed to hop on the computer. I can’t believe you let him con you into doing this.”
“It’s no big deal. What else was I going to do today? Play video games? I’m cool. Besides, there was a promise of a steak later.”
Our conversation is interrupted by my cell phone. Pulling the device from my pocket, I look at the screen and smile. “I’m going to take this then clean up the mess.” Scarlett nods and walks toward the house as I slide the answer button.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Sweetie guess what?” Her news must be huge because I don’t recall ever hearing her hit