Page 56 of Shattered Dreams

Jolynn

I worked Monday through Thursday and my kids went with me. Richard set the boys up in his apartment to play video games or watch TV. The girls had a play area downstairs with me and Libby.

Working with Olivia was amazing. She never lost her temper with me or the girls. She took time to teach me everything, and we worked out the weekend tradeoff.

Today, Richard and I were off to get the camping trip underway.

The plan was to go for two nights. I stared at the pile of clothes on the bed.

I’m over-packing.

“Do you need all that?” Dad asked, standing beside me.

“You never know what can happen.” I shrugged.

Full box of diapers, butt cream, sunscreen, bug repellant, and soaps.

Are we crazy going camping with five kids?

“MOM! HE’S HERE!” all three boys screeched out from downstairs.

“Okay!” I yelled back, cringing when my dad scolded all of us for yelling in the house.

I pushed my tears back. Now is not the time to cry.

Richie and I might be crazy, but the boys needed this. They needed time to scream and run and be kids.

I filled each bag for each person, learning long ago that this way was by far the easiest. If one kid asked for something, they could look in their bag, and we wouldn’t need to dig through everything.

My boys stomped up the stairs, making me laugh. No matter how many times I’d told them no stomping, they still managed to stomp like a herd of elephants.

“Mom, we’re here to help carry bags down.” Harrison said, with the younger boys nodding behind him.

“Thank you, boys. Those are packed and ready to go.” I thumbed behind me.

Each boy grabbed a bag as I managed the last three. We looked like a train going down the stairs and when I got to the bottom, I saw my prickly Briar snuggled in Richard’s lap with Emma sitting on the floor. Next to her sat the portable playpen and a bag of toys.

“Ready?” He smiled at me, and my heart stopped.

“I …” tipping my head, I looked at him. “Did you get the girls’ things together?”

He nodded. “It was easy to do. The boys helped.”

“We did, mama!” Grady made a duck face and nodded. “Hims said dat big boys help dere mamas.”

“Had to be done.” Tyler nodded along with Grady.

“Thank you, everyone.”

“Let’s load up.” Richard stood up and reached out for Emma. She crawled over and pulled herself up on his leg. He wrapped his free arm around her and lifted her up.

Both girls were taken with him, and I knew just how they felt.

My boys were being helpful without arguing, and I was pretty sure I stepped into the twilight zone.

The boys helped Richard load the van up and then they got in and buckled up; we got the girls in, and he held his hand out for the key as he opened the passenger door for me.

“It’s the gentlemanly thing to do, ma’am.” He tipped his baseball cap at me.

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