Page 14 of Everything I Want

“Scott, who are you - Oh.” Lorelei notices that we have company. “I see you don’t have nosy daughters. But your sons might be debatable.” She narrows her eyes at them but then laughs, showing them her playful personality that she has with her daughters too.

“Ooh, Dad. We like her,” Keith says, taking a seat down next to Lorelei. “Hi, I’m Keith, and this is Jason. We’ve heard so much about you but we’ve not been allowed to meet you officially.” He finishes shaking her hand, and looks at me. “Why is that, Father?”

I close my eyes, hoping for some peace from these two. “Seriously, boys. Please go. Next time you run into Lorelei in town you are welcome to go talk to her, but now is not the time.” I groan at their ability to still have the worst timing ever.

“No can do Pops. Gotta talk to you. But we can give you two a few moments.” Thankfully they walk out to the kitchen and I hear them fighting over who gets coffee first. My boys may be grown now, but they still annoy each other as much as when they were little.

“God bless whoever those boys settle down with.” I shake my head while the commotion in the kitchen gets louder.

Lorelei looks up to me and kisses my cheek. She asks about borrowing some sweatpants and a shirt so she can shower. I get her set up and head to the kitchen.

“Boys, was all that necessary?” I ask as I pull out a mug of coffee for myself.

“Oh, yes, it most certainly was,” they respond in unison, and I shake my head.

Her daughters are the same way, and they’re more mature than my two. I guess it could have been so much worse.

"Is Lorelei coming down?”

“No, she is going to shower,” I answer Keith.

“Oh good. Listen Dad, Keith and I have something to tell you. I think you should sit down.” Jason pushes a chair out with his foot.

“You mean that your mother is back in town for the foreseeable future?” I say, shocking both of them.

“What? How did you know that?” Jason's eyes widen.

I explain everything that happened the other day at the store with Mrs. Smith and Susan. They told me that she showed up at their doorstep without telling them, or giving them a warning. She and her boyfriend broke up, and she isn’t sure if she still wants to live so far from them. So she is staying with them until she decides what to do. So it appears that she is in fact back. Whether or not it's for good has yet to be determined.

“Hey boys, any coffee left over for me?” Lorelei appears in the kitchen.

“Of course. I’ll get you a fresh cup. You sit down.” I get up to get her a cup of coffee but instead of sitting she is in the kitchen pulling out things to make breakfast. “What are you doing, beautiful?”

“I’m making you boys some breakfast. Is that not why children show up at home?” She winks at my boys.

“We love breakfast, Mrs. Harper,” Jason says eagerly without missing a beat. And with that Lorelei is cooking breakfast for me and my boys.

A sight that I could get used to.

“Well since you’re here, and it snowed last night, I think today’s activity should be building a snowman. What do you think?” I ask Lorelei as we are cleaning up dishes. Of course the boys excused themselves before clean up, and ran out claiming theyhave errands to run. I’d like to say I raised them better, but I didn’t.

“I think that sounds like a great idea,” she smiles up at me. “It’ll make us feel young again!”

After cleaning up from breakfast, I lead her around the house and we try to find the things we need for snowmen. We gather extra scarves, mittens, and carrots from the fridge.

Lorelei looks like a little kid wrapped up in some of the boy’s old snow gear.

As we are building snowmen, I quickly realize that Lorelei is a pro, she finishes well before I do.

As I’m finishing up putting the items on my snowman, I see Lorelei building something else off to the side.

“What are you building?” I ask while I watch her work.

“A seat! My girls used to do this when they were little. They would dig out a little seat and sit to take a break. I’ve never done it but they always looked so happy to sit out here in the snow.” She waves her hands in the direction of her new furniture.

I walk over and dig out my own seat before I sit next to her. We sit on this snow seat and admire our snowmen. Slowly, our hands creep toward each other. I feel like a teenager at the movie theater again, wondering if I should make a move or not. I guess it all fits with our day, doing things that we would do as children.

We sit in the quiet of the falling snow for a moment. “So, how are you feeling about everything? Especially after spending the night?”

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