Chapter 13
“There
you go. That wasn’t too tight, Ci. You’re a
weakling.”
“Thank
you, dear. Why don’t you get your smart ass back out there and beat Bri at some
basketball?”
“Me?
Beat him? Oh yeah…uh-huh. I’m goin’, though. Call us if you need us.”
Just
as the front door slammed behind Nick, Jane came back in from the back with the
6 year old twins in tow. Covered in mud no less. Or at least
“Twins
happened. We’ll uh, be upstairs in the bath. Bob’s out cooking the burgers. You
okay in here?”
“Yeah,
I’m fine. You sure you don’t need a hand up there? Nothing left here anyway.”
“MOM!
I don’t WANT a bath! It’s only
“You
should have thought about that before you flung that pail full of mud at your
sister, young man. Get upstairs right now.”
“NO!”
Aaron ripped himself free from his mother’s grip and ran into the kitchen
wrapping his muddy, sand-covered arms around Ciara’s
hips.
“Aaron,
go get a bath. It’ll just take a few minutes.” Ciara
tried to pry the young boys hands off of her and was failing miserably. Between
her lack of strength and his strong will, this was not going to work.
“No,
only if YOU give me a bath.” He tightened his grip and peeked his blonde head
around to gauge his mother’s anger level. How far could he go? Ah…she was
smiling. He’d won.
“Me?
You don’t want me doing it. I’m not nice. I scrub layers of skin off little
muddy boys.” She finally shimmied her hips around so she was facing him, glad
that at age 6 a women’s breasts were no more than a soft place to lay ones
head, because that’s just where his ended up.
“No
you don’t.” He was still buried in her chest, laughing as he rubbed his face
back and forth totally covering her in the grainy mud.
“You
keep doing that to me and I will. Okay, squirt. Come on.
“Are
you sure, Ci…I can do this.”
“Nah,
it’s fine. I’ll take one, you take the other. We’ll get done in time for
dinner.”
She
carried Aaron into the kid’s bathroom while Jane tended to Angel in her own.
“Alright, strip. I’ll get the water ready.”
“Don’t
make the water too hot. Mom checks it with her wrist.”
Ciara turned from the faucet and smiled at
the half naked boy. “Yeah, kiddo, I know. I give baths everyday as part of my
job. Not too hot, not too cold.”
“Who
do you give baths to? You’re not a mom.”
“No,
but I’m working in a hospital learning to be a nurse. Part of my job is to
bathe patients, most of ‘em are bigger than you! Now get over here.” She took
hold of his hand as he stepped into the tub. “Go ahead and play a minute. Let
me get these clothes into the laundry.”
She
came back only moments later to a soaking wet bathroom. “Aaron! How in the
world? I was gone not even a minute!”
Aaron
wordlessly kept playing, lifting some sort of dive bombing jet in the air and
splashing it into the tub, spraying water all over the floor and Ciara. “Oops. I got you.”
“Yeah,
you did. I think I like bathing 80 year old men better than you!” She giggled
as she grabbed the sponge off the ledge and tickled him with it. “Alright, Mr.
Carter. Dive bomber has to rest. I need you to squeeze your soap onto this.”
“You
can’t do it?”
“Actually,
no. My hands are being weird…I’ll hold the sponge.” Aaron looked up at Ciara with loads of questions dancing in his head, but
asked nothing. Just like with Nick, she was his Cici…nothing
else mattered when she was around.
As
she rubbed the suds over his body, which was pretty clean already from his
play, he started talking and telling stories non-stop. Nick. Friends. Nick.
School. Nick. Nick. Nick. He idolized his big brother and would not listen to
any other theory than the one he’d decided about Nick’s future. He was going to
be a star and he was going to marry Ciara. Seeing as
how she agreed with half of it, she went with all of it. It was easier.
“Okay,
chatterbox. I think we’re done. We could have built a sandcastle with what was
in your hair!”
“That’s
cuz I stuck my head in the sand earlier.”
“You
stuck your…never mind, Aaron. I don’t wanna know. Okay, get out.”
The
young boy stepped out of the tub and into Ciara’s
awaiting arms, snuggling into the dry towel she wrapped around him. “You should
be a mommy. You’re good at it.”
“You
think, huh? Maybe someday, buddy.” She squeezed his skinny body one more time
and pulled back. “Okay, let’s do the shake…dry off.”
He
shook and shimmied his body against the towel, getting somewhat dry anyway.
“Alrighty, I need you to sit on the toilet here. I can’t lift my hands up to
dry your hair.”
“Oh.
Okay.” The boy did as told, without anymore questions. Somehow he knew not to
ask. Somehow he didn’t want to know either.
~~~~~~******~~~~~~******
“Let
me help you, Ci.”
“Oh,
I’ve got it Brian, thanks.” Ciara took the final tray
of dishes into the house. The cookout had gone well despite the muddy buddies’
interruption in the preparation. Now it was time to swim, and Ciara couldn’t be more grateful. A little weightlessness on
her limbs sounded perfect.
She
joined the gang back outside, laughing as Nick jumped up and practically landed
on his little brother’s head, dunking him under the water. She stripped off her
still-muddy t-shirt, feeling like she had an extra set of eyes on her. As she
slipped off her shorts and readjusted the leg band of her bathing suit, she
turned her gaze to Brian. Yep. He’d been staring. Turd. She had a boyfriend
again. And he was nowhere as kind as Brian either, dammit.
Figures.
Ciara acted unfazed and walked over to the
steps leading into the water. Instead of her typical dive into the deep end,
she slowly made her way down the steps, letting the water relieve her body of
the stress and strain it felt almost every day now. Just as she was feeling the
full effect of the water on her body, she was suddenly yanked by her feet and
was completely submerged.
Trying
to fight free from the hand on her ankles, she thrashed in the water and finally
opened her eyes. Nick. With horns. She swore she saw horns. Pushing her newly
freed feet on the bottom of the pool, she surfaced for air and dove back in to
get the little creep. But he was gone. She swam toward the closest side and
spotted her target. Feet dangling off the edge. Like a shark on a prowl, she
swam over to them, tried to reach up, figuring her arms wouldn’t go that high
like they hadn’t for days, but surprised herself to find her fingers on toes.
She quickly grabbed, pulled and swam. Fast.
As
she reached the opposite side of the pool, she casually tilted her head up to
the surface, slowly opening her eyes to see….Nick. Shit. Who had she pulled…?
“Who’d
you THINK you yanked into the water?” His voice was soft and his breath on her
neck was intoxicating. As were his arms as they slowly snaked around her from
behind. Brian. Oh dear God.
“Uh,
heheh…I thought it was Nick. I’m so sorry…” She
turned to face him, pulling away from his close stance. “I, uh…I thought it was
Nick.”
Never
before had she been more thankful for Nick’s cackle than she was now. It broke
the trance and put everything back in balance. This was Brian. Nick’s best
friend, at least in the group. And she had Dwayne now. Nope. No. No way.
Lindsey with Kevin was enough, thank you very much.
“I,
uh…you know, I really should be going. Nick, uh…could you help me with
something inside, please?”
Nick
heard nothing. He was too busy laughing his ass off, falling off the chaise he
had fallen ON in his initial state of hilarity. Turning to Brian to hopefully
lighten the tension between them, she smiled. “I don’t think he heard me.”
“Let
me smack him out of it.” Brian slid out of the water and grabbed a large cup
left over from the cookout. As she got out of the pool on the stairs, he looked
to Ciara with a devilish grin and mouthed, “Watch.”
She silently pulled a towel around her body and sat across the way from the
boys putting her finger to her lips as she saw Aaron about to warn his brother.
Aaron
giggled and ran over to sit with Ciara to watch,
realizing Brian was going to get the last laugh. Brian reached the cup down
into the water, filling it with the cold fluid. He slowly, quietly made his way
to Laughing Boy and without warning dumped the entire contents on his blonde
head.
“What
the?????? BRIAN!!!!!!! I’m gonna KILL……” Brian ran behind Ciara
and Aaron and knelt down to their seated level.
“You
wouldn’t want to go through them now would you?”
“And
Nick, I really do need to go, but I need your help, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh.”
He stopped his prowl and leaned over to help her up. “Okay, let’s go inside,
then. But YOU…” he continued, pointing to Brian now sitting beside his pesky
little brother, “…I’ll finish with you when I get back!”
“I’m
scared. Real scared.”
Turning
his attention to Ciara he opened the patio door for
her and let her in first. “You okay?”
“Thanks.”
They both hugged themselves as the cool air from inside the house hit their wet
skin. “The water felt good…’til someone dunked me!”
“Sorry.”
“Nah,
that was fun. Actually, I’m kinda weak feeling today. Can’t use my hands and
arms like I normally do.”
“Oh.
Do you know what that’s from?”
“No
idea and I’m tired of it. I’ll see the doctor in a few weeks and live with it
until then.”
“Seems
like a long time to put up with it.”
“Yeah,
probably. Hey, I need some clothes. Your brother smeared mud and gook all over
mine. You’re the closest to my size I think…do you have some sweats and a shirt
I can borrow to get home?”
“Oh
yeah, sure. Come on up to my room and we’ll find you something.”
***
