Part Seventeen

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Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
                                        -Sincerely Shark (Shawna +
Mark)


"Nice shot, dude," I cheered, as another ball slipped passed me into the hockey net that I was supposed to be guarding. 

Evan beamed, holding his hockey stick up over his head, "Yes!" He jogged back, running back to high five Ryder, who was playing on his team. 

"You suck," Ty laughed, rolling his eyes. Scooping the ball from our net, he shuffled forwards to try and get a shot in on Cynthia who was goaltending at the other end, expression fierce. 

Getting Ryder to hang out with Shawna's siblings had been one of my better ideas in life. He was the same age as Cynthia, but still got along well with the older boys. You could tell he looked up to them. They always had him laughing, and were great at including him in their games, like making sure he got lots of chances to score while he played road hockey. 

Shawna was in the house hanging out with Allison. Shawna hadn't been at school since the accident, and they claimed they hadn't gotten enough 'girl time' in a while, since I was 'always lurking around'. Which made me sound like I was some unwanted creep in the corner, but whatever. So they were inside girly talking, and I was outside with the kids to give Thomas and Jessica a bit of a break. 

Even though nobody had been seriously hurt in the accident, I figured Shawna's parents had to be dealing with some emotional baggage from it, right? I mean, I hadn't driven Shawna anywhere yet because the thought of her being in a car again made me feel queasy. She wasn't the least bit worried about it, completely unfazed, but it bothered me. 

I wasn't exactly sure how her parents were doing, but I knew they deserved a break after having to be strong for everyone. I know that holding all those feelings in couldn't be good, so I had offered to look after the kids for the afternoon. They had looked really grateful, too, so I guess they really needed the time to themselves. 

"Mark. Focus, you doorknob," Ty complained, as Ryder shot another goal passed me while I had been lost in my thoughts. 

"Doorknob?" I raised an eyebrow. "You must get your insults from Shawna."

"He also gets his butt kicking skills from her, too," Ryder taunted, making all of Shawna's siblings giggle. 

I scowled. "You guys think that's funny?" 

"Yeah," they grinned, mischievously.

"Well that's a shame," I shook my head, dropping my goalie stick and taking a few menacing steps towards them. They automatically took steps back, all toothy grins. "Because now you're all going to get it. I suggest you run." 

And then I lunged. 

The air filled with screams, and they scattered, running off in different directions, laughing the whole time. I playfully grabbed at them while they dodged me. When I did catch them, I would scoop them up in my arms and turn them upside down, spin them around, or tackle them to the ground and tickle them mercilessly. 

We were all out of breath by the time we realized we had an audience. 

 Shawna and Allison were standing on the doorstep of the house watching us with amused expressions.

We all froze in our spots. 

                 Unfortunately for me, at that very moment, I had Evan upside down, holding him by one leg, and was smacking him with a hockey stick. We both paused me with the hockey stick in mid-swing. "It's not what it looks like."

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