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Authors: Marilynn Griffith

Mom's the Word (10 page)

BOOK: Mom's the Word
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To-Do
  • Get Fallon set up on voice recognition software
  • Go out to dinner with Neal
  • Go to church this Sunday? Maybe…
  • Call Dad. Probably not…

—Dyanne

Chapter Nine

I
n the weeks since the blowup over the minivan, Dyanne and Neal had made a shaky peace with their neighbors. They seldom saw them, although Neal often reported Rob's departure for work when he came in from his run. Dyanne had been using the treadmill lately. The Florida heat was still a bit much for her most days.

Her marriage, however, was running cold. Tonight she and Neal were going out to dinner alone for the first time since Fallon had arrived. A much-needed outing put in peril by her husband, shielding his eyes from the sun and heading next door where Rob Simon and his brood struggled with bags and boxes of what looked like a month's worth of food, even for a family their size.

Neal strode away from her with ease. “Looks like you've got your hands full there, Rob. Need some help?”

Dyanne watched in horror as her husband crossed into the next yard to help their neighbor with the endless bags of groceries he and his children were carrying. The neighbors weren't going to spoil things. Not this time.

“Um, honey? We're going to be late.”

Neal shrugged and headed into Karol and Rob's house with two bags in each hand. The children clung to him like vines, with the youngest, the girl, chattering on as though Dyanne's husband was her long-lost big brother. Just as Dyanne was about to huff her way inside and drag her husband to the car, the oldest boy, whose name didn't come to mind, walked over and took her hand.

“You can still make it. The Interstate is fast here. Come on in. He'll be right out, I'm sure. You look lovely. Green really looks great on you. Brings out your eyes some. Don't you think?”

Her legs faltered forward. “Why, yes. I…uh…do think that. Not that my eyes are green or anything, but—”

“In the right light…” She and the boy said together as they approached the front door and Neal bounded out of it.

“Just a few more,” Neal said squeezing past them. “I'll be right to the car, babe.”

“Sure,” Dyanne mumbled. She was too taken with the boy beside her. The boy was tallish with the type of shoulders Neal had once had—narrow and spare. She'd thought the boy younger before, but without his younger siblings running around him, he seemed much more mature. They paused again as the children ran out after Neal.

“How old are you again?” Dyanne asked.

“Ten. I'll be eleven next month, but it's no big deal. Not now anyway.”

That stopped Dyanne in her tracks. Birthdays were always a big deal. For her anyway. “It'll be great, I'm sure of it. Have you invited your friends, planned your party?”

He shook his head and helped her up on the porch. “Usually it's just us and the kids next door. Don't look like that. We liked it that way. With so many of them, we all ended up having a birthday to share with someone in their house. It was fun. We all made cards for one other, a huge cake, the park, books…”

That got Dyanne's attention. “You like books?”

His eyes lit up. “Of course. Don't you? Books are like…everything. Anything you need to know, anywhere you want to go. I like games, too, of course, but there's nothing like a book.”

She couldn't have said it better herself. They'd barely made it to number five of their all-time favorite novels when Neal ran up behind her.

“There you are! Ready to go?”

A few minutes before, she'd been more than ready to go, but now she wasn't so sure. This boy had read things at ten that she hadn't read until college, all while managing to fit in the usual fantasy, sci-fi and reading the entire Bible through every year. At his age, she'd still been reading
Sweet Valley High
and
Seventeen
magazine. And such a gentleman, too? The kid was amazing.

“Just a second, sweetheart, Ryan and I—it is Ryan, isn't it? Yes, well, he's just been telling me the most amazing things. Just amazing…”

Rob wove through them with a stack of frozen pizzas. He tossed one in the oven, then another. Dyanne leaned down to tell the boy she'd talk to him later when she saw Rob jerking back and forth in front of the oven.

The younger boy, Judah, jumped up and down in front of Neal. “The oven got him! Tazer Pizza! Mayday Mayday. You gotta call Mom!”

Rob swallowed hard and sat down in the nearest chair. “Don't call Karol. And don't call her Mom, either. We've made it this far, haven't we? Three days. We can do this. Totally.”

Ryan, still standing near Dyanne, shook his head and whispered in her direction, “We totally cannot do this.”

Neal and Dyanne looked at each other, confused and trying to figure out what “this” was. In one long breath, Ryan explained.

“Mom is having a midlife crisis or something. Well, not really. We've been out of control and screaming ‘Mom!' all the time and then Dad calls her that, too, which I always thought was weird, even though Miss Hope did it—”

“Ryan…” Rob had his face in his hands.

“Right. Anyway, Mother's Day was horrible. We got in a fight in the yard and messed up our clothes, the washer broke down, which Dad was too busy fixing to get to the oven—by the way, can we still call you Dad?”

When Rob didn't answer but narrowed his eyes, the boy continued. “So, Dad promised Mom that she doesn't have to be a mom for twenty-one days. We gave her a big coupon book and everything. We can't call her Mom, either. It's like some crazy project, you know? Mom's the word!” He held a finger up to his mouth.

Dyanne held a hand up to her own mouth. What a loving, wonderful thing to do. She hoped Rob didn't kill himself in the process, but it was a beautiful gesture. Maybe if her father had done the same after her mother lost those babies…maybe things would have been different. For all of them. She forced the thought from her mind.

“We'll help.”

Shocked at the sound of her own voice, Dyanne pressed her lips together. She turned to Neal, expecting a glowering look, but instead there was pride in his eyes.

“Yes,” Neal said. “We'll help. I just changed my schedule so that I'm free every afternoon. Rob, you can do errands—”

“Take a nap…” Dyanne said playfully, though wondering if Neal had lost it. Every afternoon wasn't the kind of help she had in mind. Neal had altered his schedule so that the two of them could spend more time together and so he could help Dyanne with Fallon's book. With just a few weeks before the deadline and the book tour, now was the worst time to sign up for daily babysitting duty. She'd been thinking more along the lines of Sunday afternoon playtime.

The relief on Rob's face made Dyanne feel guilty for not wanting to do more.

“Are you serious?” he said. “I've been praying and praying. I had it all planned, home office set up and everything, but we've got a new contract to install software in all the schools. They're going to need me on-site every afternoon. I just found out and I had no idea what I was going to do. I didn't want to back out on Karol. I don't think she thinks I can do this, but I can. I want to.”

Ryan rolled his eyes in the way that only an oldest child can. Dyanne wanted to laugh but she didn't dare with Rob and Neal looking so serious. No wonder the boy thought his birthday would be forgotten this year. In the midst of all of this, Rob would be doing well to brush his teeth and get dressed every day.

As Rob and Neal shook hands, Karol walked into the kitchen in a workout outfit that had seen better days. Her expression matched her clothes. Surprised. “Dyanne? Neal? Good to see you. If I'd known you were coming—”

“They helped with the groceries, honey.”

Karol's eyes widened at the heap of paper and plastic bags. She kissed each of her children and then Rob. “Sweetheart, did you buy all this? Today?”

Rob beamed. “I did. I took it right from the master list.”

With a sigh, Ryan headed for the door. “I tried to tell him that was the wrong list, Mom—I mean, woman who gave birth to me.”

Karol made a face at Ryan, but hugged Rob. “That's what I buy for the month, but you don't have to get it all at once. It's broken down into weekly shopping on another page. But you know what? It might be easier this way. Thank you, honey. Thank you so much.”

Rob waved thanks to Dyanne and Neal, who headed to their car, where they sat alone and silent before heading to dinner. Without saying it, they both knew what the other was thinking—though their lives had been full of travel and success, there was emptiness, too. The Simons had something that they lacked and it wasn't just children.

 

On Monday, Rob made good on their offer. School was out and all three Simon children arrived bright-eyed and bushy-tailed—or bushy-haired in Mia's case—despite Rob's suggestion of a nap. Dyanne would have joined Fallon, Neal and the children in the yard, but as she'd explained to her husband and her friend—yes, Fallon was officially Dyanne's friend—earlier, she simply couldn't be disturbed.

Evidently no one had given Ryan the memo.

“Hi. What are you working on?” He entered the office slowly, staring up at the wall-size poster with book covers for the new line. Covers Dyanne needed to analyze and prepare input for her phone meeting the next morning. That would have to wait until she'd transcribed Fallon's audio files from the new voice recognition software Neal had bought her. They'd expected a longer learning curve, but when Dyanne told Fallon that the children would be coming over, she'd locked herself in the room and made it happen. So far that had been Dyanne's best use for the kids next door. Except for Ryan, of course. He was different. Still, she had no time to talk even to a fabulous kid like him.

“I'm working on Fallon's book. It's due around the time your mom's whole experiment is up. Right before your birthday.”

Ryan smiled. “Maybe we can celebrate everything all at once.”

Dyanne still had secret hopes to do something special for Ryan, all by himself, but she went along. “Maybe. I've got to get to work, though, or there won't be anything to celebrate. Sorry I'm not a good playmate. How'd you end up in here anyway? Aren't they playing outside?” From the sound of Mia's muted squeals, they were definitely up to something.

Ryan leaned on the edge of the desk and stared out the window. “I'm ten. Been there. Done that. Besides, you're the only one left. Mia's got Neal wrapped around her finger….”

Tell me about it.

“Judah and Fallon are like brother and sister—well, maybe boy and great-aunt.”

Dyanne couldn't argue there. “So you're left with me?”

“Pretty much. You like books and you smell good. That's a plus. And I've always wondered what it'd be like to have an older sister.”

In the years when her mother had lost so many little boy babies, Dyanne had wondered what it would have been like to
be
a big sister. She just wasn't so sure that now was the time to find out. “Look, Ryan, you seem like a mature kid so I'm just going to shoot straight with you. I didn't want to do this, look after you and your brothers and sisters.”

“But you said it first—”

She tried to overlook the frustration on the boy's face. “I know. I wanted to help out on Sunday afternoon or something, but every day? No way. I'm drowning here. I've got this book to transcribe, covers to critique, book tour stops to confirm…. My back is against the wall and I just…can't…get it all done!”

The emotion in her voice surprised her. This should have been easy work. She'd tackled projects five times the size in less time before. But this wasn't before, it was now. And she wasn't holed up in some hotel with room service, she was home with Neal and dirty dishes and ringing phones and Fallon cooking and neighbors arriving…. Tears sprang up from some unknown well and poured down Dyanne's face.

“Now you're probably wishing you were outside, huh? I don't think I'd make a very good big sister. I don't think I'd make a very good mother, either.”

Ryan laughed. “Oh, you'd make a very good mother. You've already got the drama down pat.” He straddled the stool next to Dyanne and handed her a laminated note card before attacking Fallon's already transcribed pages with a red pen.

“Don't! I have to mark those with proofreading symbols. Ugh…”

Ryan went on, slashing phrases without mercy. “Got it. Mom used to be an English professor. She still teaches some summers. She wrote a book once. I helped Miss Hope edit it.”

That stopped Dyanne cold. “
Your
mother wrote a book?”

“Yes,
my
mother. She's not the slug you think she is. Not hardly. You just caught her at a bad time. All of us really. Now read the card. Three times aloud. I should be done with these by then. We'll start the covers next. The one in the middle is awesome but the others suck. Big time. Too busy.”

Dyanne's eyes widened. She'd thought the same thing herself. How a ten-year-old could know just what to say she wasn't sure, but it seemed best to follow his advice. She held the card up in front of her and began to read:

BOOK: Mom's the Word
3.21Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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