Lovesick -- A Rocky Lynch Story

Chapter 32

"Why aren't we going to school today?" Avie asked as she chewed on a slice of apple. This wasn't the first time she had asked that. First it was when Rocky and I tried to sleep in, since he wasn't going to work and we were keeping the kids home. That didn't work. It was like Avie's internal clock kicked in and she was in on our bed, waking us up. When she was getting dressed, she brought it up once again. Her natural curiosity and knack for observation would end up being the death of us.

It wasn't that we were keeping it a secret. They would find out eventually. It was just that we knew after we opened the floodgates we would drown in endless questions. We weren't sure exactly how receptive either of them would be to the idea of changing schools, but we were about to find out.

I glanced over to Rocky with a worried look and he nodded. "Well," he started, "you know how your cousins Brooke and Alice go to a different school?" We looked at Carter and Avie to gauge their reactions. They nodded and continued to eat their breakfasts. "How would you feel about going to school with them?" he asked.

Carter furrowed his eyebrows and Avie dropped her forkful of eggs onto her plate. "What about my friends?" Avie said with her bottom lip quivering.

"And my friends!" Carter said rather abruptly.

I decided to step in and take control of the situation. "Babies, you can still see your friends," I said gently. "You can have as many playdates and sleepovers as your little hearts desire."

"We just think that it's time for a change," Rocky tried to help.

"So we're going to school there today?" Carter asked. He looked extremely confused.

"Actually, we are going to go visit the school and talk to the teachers," I corrected them. "We have a few hours before we have to go, but we thought you two could spend a little bit of time with us today."

"So, we're skipping school," Avie said as she jumped out of her chair.

"Not skipping!" I called after her with a nervous laugh. In his chair across the table, Rocky was trying to hide the fact that he was snickering. He loved our daughter's blunt attitude.

After breakfast, Rocky and I cleared the table a little slower than usual, just to be in each other's company longer. We talked about the magic book, and about how there were only a few more days left. We couldn't believe that it had been an entire month already, but everything felt so different. It was the best kind of different we could ever ask for. The task for the day was to look back at pictures and videos of our wedding. "I'd kind of like to share this with the kids," I admitted to my husband as I put the last dish into the dishwasher.

He nodded with a thoughtful smile. "That could be fun," he agreed. "Do you want to round them up and I'll go get the album and videos?"

"You know where the wedding things are?" I asked in a teasingly skeptical voice.

He laughed sarcastically. "Ha-ha, Juliette," he said. "Yes, I do know where the wedding things are."

I rolled my eyes with a smile as he walk away. I picked Mason out of his highchair and gave him a bunch of kisses, listening to him giggle and babble in response. In the living room, Avie was sitting on couch trying to find something to watch on TV. "Baby, watch Mason for a second while I go get your brother," I told her as I placed the baby on the floor. She nodded eagerly and tossed the remote onto the table. She slid onto the floor and started playing with him. Upstairs, I found Carter reading a comic book in his bed. "Your dad and I want to show you and your brother and sister something..." I said. He looked up from his comic book at the sound of my voice. "Wanna come downstairs?"