“I wanted to give it to Mommy and Daddy. I was just going to give them the envelope while we’re at the cabin when we all exchange presents, but then Mommy showed me the two jerseys.”
“Two?” Uncle Waylon’s eyes are so wide I think they might pop out of his head. “Is she having twins?”
I shake my head. “No, I don’t think so. One pink and one blue, and she was going to wrap one up for Grandma and Grandpa.”
He nods. “Gotcha.” He folds up the jersey and places it on the wrapping paper. “You have some tape?”
“You’re not going to tell her?” My eyes go wide.
He laughs. “Hell no. I love that you have balls, kid.”
“Have what?”
“Forget I said that. Mind eraser.” He slides his hand over my forehead. He and Uncle Owen do that when they don’t want me to repeat what they said. “She’s gonna love it, Bodhi.”
I go into my drawer and grab the tape I have for the poster I made for school.
Uncle Waylon wraps up the jersey and stuffs it under my clothes in my suitcase. “Now remember, when you get there, you can’t let her unpack your stuff. You have to be one step ahead of her like a spy, okay?”
I nod. “Yeah. Thanks, Uncle Waylon.”
He opens his arms, and I hug him. He squeezes me tightly.
“You’re the coolest kid I know,” he whispers.
“You really think so?” I go down to my knees and zip up my suitcase.
“Yeah. For sure. Owen and I say so all the time.”
I can’t believe he thinks I’m cool. I look up at him. “Thanks for helping.”
He ruffles my hair, which they all do. I hate it, but since he just helped me, I won’t say anything. “Anytime. Remember, you can trust me.”
We get to the bedroom door and stop. “Wait, you won’t tell Grandma and Grandpa, right? I think Mommy wants to surprise them.”
“Nah, I won’t. But I might razz your mom about the fact that I knew before her.” He shrugs. “I won’t tell a soul, promise. Now let’s get you downstairs so she doesn’t suspect anything.”
Uncle Waylon takes my suitcase and walks me down the stairs. Mommy is at the bottom of the front door stairs, waiting.
“There you are! Ready?” She smiles at me.
I love her so much, and as excited as I am that she’s pregnant—because she’s really happy about it—I’m not sure I want to share her.
fourteen
Conor
“Fuck, drive faster,”I say to Henry. “Did you take driving lessons from Mabel?”
Henry slows on the accelerator. “Sorry if I don’t want to die today.”
The roads are crap, and I’m happy the girls made it to the cabin before nightfall.
“Leave Mabel out of it. I might have to ask her what was in those cookies. They’re addicting, I swear.” Tweetie leans his head back as if he’s dreaming about them.
We ended up catching a flight from New York. The part for the team plane didn’t come in until late in the day, so we still beat them, which we all celebrated the minute our plane landed in Chicago. Something, maybe a little Christmas magic, was on our side because they had a large SUV for us to rent. We flew through a drive-thru where Tweetie ate half the menu, then we started driving up to the cabin.
We’re fifteen minutes out now and every minute feels like an hour.
