The Landlord

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

When I picked up Garrett for the weekend, I forced myself to put that creep out of my head. There was more on my mind than August's dumb games.

Despite settling things with my sweet landlord, there was still a level of uneasiness. There was still the knowledge of what happened – that I kissed a man I wasn't allowed to be with. It made me feel extremely guilty; I picked to have a moment of vulnerability over my kids. So, my guilt fueled me to have a fun-filled weekend and show Garrett how much I loved him. And it started Saturday morning with a big breakfast.

Once our large chocolate-chip pancake breakfast was devoured, my son was in for a surprise. I told him to get his swim trunks on and wait by the door. He was immediately bouncing with excitement, already guessing it was going to be a beach day. He wasn't exactly wrong.

Wearing my yellow and purple striped bikini, I put my cover-up on and flip flops. "Ready?" I asked, opening the door with the bag of sunblock and towels.

"Heck yes I am mom!" he said, running out to the car. He jumped in the backseat and slammed the car door closed.

Stepping out and locking the house under the intense sun, I smiled slyly. He had to be sweating bullets already in that hot car. Walking down the driveway, I opened the car door. "I thought you hated saunas?"

"I do! So hurry up, get in, and start the air before I suffocate," he said, putting his hands dramatically up to his neck.

"Dummy, we aren't driving anywhere. Get out of the car."

"What? Why?" he whined, hopping out of the car with sagging shoulders.

"We're walking to the beach," I chuckled, heading towards the road.

"That's going to take forever! And you hate walking."

I turned around to him. "It's not a far walk. We aren't going to the beach we usually go to. Now, would you hurry up before we die under the sun from suffocation," I said, mocking him by clutching my throat too.

He looked at me, surprised, but he quickly reached my side. We headed down the gravel road towards the boat launch, then turned left down the grassy bank. The intense heat was already making us sweat – but it was worth it to see how puzzled Garrett was. It made me smile. That's right, I am the cool parent; I have surprises and fun around every corner. I even packed a squirt gun to ambush him with later.

With the sound of our pattering flip-flops and breeze, we passed Blake's dock, going further down. Soon, we reached a section of sand between the grass and water. It wasn't a huge area; not a beach by my definition. But it would pass under Garrett's definition and that's all that mattered.

When that was where I dropped our beach bag, Garrett was confused. "Why did we stop here?"

"This is where we are swimming."

"You're going to swim? Here?"

The amount of surprise and confusion was a little sad. Was I really that predictable and prissy? To be fair, at the beginning of summer, I flat out refused to go in this water. "I was thinking about it... I don't know, it does look a little gross for me," I said, looking around me in distaste like he expected. Then, I whipped my cover-up off and sprinted into the water. Fuck, cold, cold, cold! God, I hated how cold it was! But knowing Garrett was not expecting this, I dove down into the water once it was thigh-deep.

Surfacing, I noticed he was staring at me, stunned. Then, he charged into the water after me, all excited. Squealing from the cold, he dove under too, and reached me. "Mom, I can't believe you did that!"