allowing the orange and brown colors to show through.
“Wow!” he shouted, trying to sound as enthusiastic as he could. “I got one!”
The next thing he knew, Josh and Kristen were peering over his shoulder.
“Be careful with it, Daddy!” Kristen cried.
“I will, baby. Look at how pretty the colors are.”
They leaned in even closer.
“Cool!” Josh shouted, and a moment later, he was off and running, swinging the net with abandon.
Kristen continued to study the butterfly. “What kind is it?”
“It’s a skipper,” Alex said. “But I don’t know exactly what kind.”
“I think he’s scared,” Kristen said.
“I’m sure he’s fine. But I’ll let him go, okay?”
She nodded as Alex carefully pulled the net inside out. In the open air, the butterfly clung to the net before taking off in flight. Kristen’s eyes went wide with wonder.
“Can you help me catch one?” she asked.
“I’d love to.”
They spent a little more than an hour running among the flowers. They caught about eight different kinds of butterflies, including a buckeye, though the vast majority were skippers like the first. By the time they finished, the kids’ faces were red and shiny, so Alex drove them to get ice cream cones before heading to the creek behind the house. The three of them jumped off the dock together—Josh and Kristen wearing life preservers—and floated downstream in the slow-moving water. It was the kind of day he’d spent as a kid. By the time they got out of the water, he was contented by the thought that, aside from going to the beach, it was the best weekend they’d had in a while.
But it was tiring, too. Afterward, once the kids had showered, they wanted to watch a movie, and Alex popped in Homeward Bound, a movie they’d seen a dozen times but were always willing to watch again. From the kitchen, he could see them on the couch, neither one moving in the slightest, staring at the television in that dazed way particular to exhausted children.
He wiped the kitchen counters and loaded the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, started a load of laundry, straightened up the living room, and gave the kids’ bathroom a good scrubbing before finally sitting beside them on the couch for a while. Josh curled up on one side, Kristen on the other. By the time the movie ended, Alex could feel his own eyelids beginning to droop. After working at the store and playing with the kids and cleaning the house, it felt good to simply relax for a while.
The sound of Josh’s voice jarred him awake.
“Hey, Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s for dinner? I’m starved.”
From the waitress stand, Katie peered out at the deck and then turned back again, staring as Alex and the kids followed the hostess to an open table near the railing. Kristen smiled and waved as soon as she saw Katie, and hesitated only a second before scooting between the tables and hurtling directly for her. Katie bent down as the little girl threw her arms around her.
“We wanted to surprise you!” Kristen said.
“Well, you did. What are you doing here?”
“My dad didn’t want to cook for us tonight.”
“He didn’t?”
“He said he was too tired.”
“There’s more to the story,” Alex announced. “Trust me.”
Katie hadn’t heard him come up, and she stood.
“Oh, hey,” she said, blushing against her will.
“How are you?” Alex asked.
“Good.” She nodded, feeling a bit flustered. “Busy, as you can tell.”
“It seems like it. We had to wait before they could seat us in your section.”
“It’s been like that all day.”
“Well, we won’t keep you. C’mon, Kristen. Let’s go to the table. We’ll see you in a few minutes or whenever you’re ready.”
“Bye, Miss Katie.” Kristen waved again.
Katie watched them walk to the table, strangely excited by their visit. She saw Alex open the menu and lean forward to help Kristen with hers, and for an instant, she wished she were sitting with them.
She retucked her shirt and glanced at her reflection in the stainless steel coffeepot. She couldn’t make out much, only a blurry image, but it was enough to make her run a hand through her hair. Then, after a quick check to make sure her shirt hadn’t been stained—nothing she could do about it, of course, but she still wanted to know—she walked over to the table.
“Hey, guys,” she said, addressing the kids. “I hear your dad didn’t want to cook dinner for you.”
Kristen giggled but Josh simply nodded. “He said he was tired.”