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“Sounds good. Bye Andrew.”
“Goodbye, Summer.”
He disconnects the call. I pull into the driveway of my home and let out a deep breath. At least it’s still standing. So, it couldn’t have gone too bad. Grabbing my purse and laptop bag off the passenger seat, I head into the house.
“Guys I’m home.”
I spot Gabriel in the kitchen pacing. His hands are in his hair yanking at the strands so hard I fear he will pull them out. As I walk up on him his yanking turns into him hitting the side of his head.
“Gabriel,” I call his name as I approach him. Yet, he seems miles away.
“I’m sorry, Mother. I didn’t mean to.” He says.
My heart sinks to my feet.
“Gabe,” I use the nickname for him that I usually only use for my son. His seafoam green eyes turn to me and there is fear and sadness mixed in. “What’s going on?”
“I lost him.”
Panic has my heart racing so fast I feel lightheaded. I place my hand on the back of the nearest kitchen chair to keep myself upright.
“Tell me everything that happened.”
He starts pacing again, his hands clutched in tight fists at his side. “Everything was going fine. We played outside for a while. Then he asked to play hide and seek and I…”
He stops talking when I start laughing. Relief floods me like fresh rainwater falling after a drought.
“What’s funny?”
“He’s not lost, Gabriel. He’s hiding.”
He shakes his head. “No. I’ve told him to come out. I told him that he won. I lost him.”
Turning away from Gabriel, I walk toward the stairs. “Gabe, Hulk said you won. No take backs. You are officially the winner.”
His laughter can be heard upstairs somewhere. Gabriel’s eyes widen.
“Your son is one hell of a hide and seek player. He used to play with my nephew. Whenever he couldn’t be found my nephew would tell him he gave up and as soon as Gabe would come out of hiding, my nephew would tag him and say he found him. It drove Gabe crazy. Now, he will only come out if you swear there are no take backs.”
“I thought I lost him,” he says in disbelief as if he still doesn’t quite believe me.
I pat him on the shoulder. “Welcome to the parenting club. You can’t officially call yourself a parent if you haven’t had a mini heart attack thinking you lost your child. I had my first one in Walmart when he was two. It took me three minutes to find him. The longest three minutes of my life.”
The sound of Gabe’s feet running down the stairs has us turning toward him. He stops right in front of Gabriel with a huge grin on his face.
“I won, Hulk.”
“You sure did, Kid. You out hid the incredible Hulk,” I say, glancing up to Gabriel. He looks ten times better than what he did when I first walked in. Not totally relaxed, but not as stiff.
“Well done, Gabe.” Gabriel dips his chin to his chest.
“Again?” Gabe asks hopefully.
“What do you say, Hulk? Want to get your ass handed to you in hide and seek?”
Gabriel stares down at the both of us. I’m pretty sure he’s telling himself all the things he has to do today. There’s probably some tips he needs to follow and a person he has to kill. But, instead of telling us no and that he had something to do, he turns his back and starts counting.
“One, one thousand…”
