Page 60 of Daddy, Sir

In less than three seconds, a completely empty tray filled my vision. Even as a kid just starting grade school, I knew howto count. When math included cookies, pieces of candy or slices of cake, I’d become extremely good at division as well. There had been an even dozen Almond Joy cookies oozing with gooey chocolate chips and chewy coconut on that tray. Two for each of the Flanagan clan as Dad called us kids. The fact there was now zero told me someone had taken more than their share.

I stomped my foot, planted my hands on my nonexistent hips and glared up at the boys busy stuffing their faces with the after-school treat.

“That’s mine!” I said, jumping up in an attempt to grab my oldest brother Jimmy’s arm as he lifted the cookie that belonged to me to his mouth.

“Go away.” At almost eighteen, he wasn’t just over three times my age, he was easily double my height.

“And so is that one!” I pointed an accusing finger at Sean who was two years younger than Jimmy.

“Does anyone else hear an annoying buzzing?” Sean asked, making a show of devouring the entirety of the cookie in two bites.

Furious, I spun on my heels to demand a confession as well as my cookies from my remaining three brothers only to stop mid accusation when I counted not three, but four boys in various stages of eating. Confused, I counted again and when the number didn’t change, I realized one of the faces was new to me.

“Who are you?” I asked, pointing my finger at the boy standing between my brothers Ronan and Nolan.

“He’s the cookie monster,” Ronan said with a guffaw as he and Nolan high-fived each other over the stranger’s head. Ever since Ronan had hit that magical age of thirteen, he’d become quite the asinine teenager, much to the delight of Nolan who, at fourteen, considered himself the far more experienced of the two.

I wanted to point out the boy was neither blue nor fuzzy, but at the sight of the cookie in his hand, I couldn’t argue he was not a thief. I didn’t care if he was what Mom called “company” or not as I hadn’t invited him to my house. Left with only one more chance of rescuing my cookie, I turned to my last hope, my twin, Finn. Not only were we the youngest of the clan, Finn and I had been what I’d heard Gramps refer to as ‘quite the surprise’. When asked for an explanation, it was my father who’d told me that our mother had birthed four boys in just over four years and had thought her family was done. He’d laughed and said he would never forget the look on her face when eight years later, Momma learned she was not only pregnant again but she was having twins.

The boy looked at Finn who was standing beside me. “Is she your sister?”

“Yeah, that’s Foo-Foo.”

“Foo-Foo? Like the bunny?”

“Yeah, because she’s always hopping around bugging us,” Sean contributed as he dug his baseball glove out of his backpack. “Come on, the guys are gonna meet us at the field.”

“What about my cookie?” I demanded.

“Grab faster next time,” Nolan suggested as he and the others scrambled for other sport paraphernalia they were always tossing to or kicking at each other.

Jimmy’s call of, “Finn, you and your friend grab a couple of footballs and come on,” had my twin abandoning me, leaving me and the outsider facing off.

Instead of instantly running off to join the others, the boy held out the cookie. “I’m Landon. I wouldn’t have taken it if I’d known it was yours. I’m sorry.”

Reaching out, I half expected him to snatch his hand back, but he allowed me to take the cookie.

“Well, what do you say?” he asked as he brushed his hands together to remove the crumbs.

“You owe me a cookie.”

I left him standing with his mouth open as I filled mine with a bite of heaven.

“It’s good to hear you laugh.”

I hadn’t realized I’d laughed aloud. “I was just thinking about when we were kids. I think the day we met I knew no matter where life took us, we’d always find our way back to each other at some point. Even when I was so hurt, so angry when you left and swore I never wanted to see you again, fate has me walking smack-dab into your office. When I heard your voice, I was surprised, but the moment I saw you standing there, I realized I wasn’t shocked.”

“Could have fooled me. I mean, with the falling at my feet and all.”

I huffed and threw my head back against the seat to stare up at the headliner of the truck. “That wasn’t shock, that was plain old being clumsy. Don’t you remember how many times I had tape wrapped around my ankles or wrists during football season?”

“Yeah, I remember seeing you scrambling up to stand on top of the cheer pyramid the night of the Homecoming Game. It was quite the impressive sight until you forgot you weren’t on solid ground and started jumping up and down. It was like watching dominoes falling in slow motion. One minute you had your feet on two guys’ shoulders, your arms spread wide, waving those ridiculous pom-poms. The next, your arms were windmillingand you toppled backward.” Landon chuckled. “By the end of the game, my dad asked my mom if she thought the Flanagans owned stock in athletic tape.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the memory his story evoked. “Wouldn’t that be considered insider trading? I mean, with five rambunctious sons and one gangly girl determined to keep up, he would have to know we’d go through miles and miles of the stuff.”

I turned my head to look at him. The amused expression on Landon’s face shifted as did the color of his eyes. They darkened just the slightest to an almost steel-gray blue. It was enough to have my mind moving to a far more intimate memory I’d only shared with my diary until now.

“Do you know why I climbed up to the top even though I think I twisted or sprained something all the time?”

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