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I snorted.
Me: You guys saw it too?
Frankie loved to tour with Bubba. She loved performing with him and being out there. She hated being away from the kids. Away from us.
Jake: Yep. I think Archie caught it first, but then she started only texting. Classic unhappy Baby Girl. I’d spank her, but I know why she still tries to hide.
Yeah. So did I. She wanted us all to be happy and she would tie herself in knots to do it. Bubba would have shit-canned the tour in a heartbeat, but she never wanted him to give up those dreams. Neither did the rest of us.
Me: I’ll message him. One more patient, then I’m wrapping up here and I’ll head home.
Jake: See you then.
Done, I switched to my message thread with Archie but there was already a show of him typing. So I waited. Not even thirty seconds later a flight booking popped up on the screen along with the seat assignment. First class.
I shook my head.
Archie: Happy early birthday. Go make our wife feel better.
I grinned. Sometimes, the fact they could anticipate was such a pain in the ass. Other times?
It rocked.
Me: Challenge accepted.
Then my next patient was there and I had to put all of my own concerns away so I could talk to a teenager about the darkness of his life, along with what he could and couldn’t handle.
I liked working with kids, even if it broke my heart as much as it repaired it.
The weekend passed by in a blur. Izzy had a playdate and she’d taken up dance. Jeremy normally handled the dance lessons, but Josh had asked to join a junior soccer league with some friends. Jake and Archie wanted to finish running some tests on their engine before I headed out of town, so I volunteered to take Izzy to her lessons and checked with the moms of her friends that they were okay with picking her up along with their daughter.
Once I had that squared away, Charlie and I headed to the Farmer’s Market with the shopping list from Jeremy. I was the only one outside of Frankie he trusted with this list. My phone buzzed periodically with updates from Jeremy and photos from Josh’s first soccer practice.
He would be sending them to the family group chat, so Frankie would get them too. That gave me a pause. She was going to be in tears. Right, we could fix some of this. It probably wouldn’t be that bad. But she’d had some moments when she was pregnant with Charlie and on tour.
“What do you say we find Mama a present today, little dude?”
“Mama!” Charlie chanted from his carseat. “Want Mama.”
“Me too,” I said. “But Mama is working, so we gotta find her something.”
“Stuff.” He said it with such utter confidence, I had to grin.
“Stuff it is,” I assured him.
“Want stuff.”
“For Mama,” I reminded him and he jutted out his lip.
“Me tew.”
I chuckled. Charlie shot me a toothy grin. He’d been cutting them off and on, but those two in the front were on full display.
It was a chilly day, the leaves were turning and the breeze was definitely blowing them around. The pumpkins were also fat and gorgeous in one of the display stalls. It was a little early to be carving one, but we’d get one for the kids the following weekend. Then get Mama on video call while we carved if necessary.
I’d brought the stroller with me cause as much as Charlie liked to run around on his own, there were way too many people here and he’d be tired in no time.
“Okay, little dude, time to shop.”
