She settled Lindsey on the blanket with her homework binder and picked up the extra paint scraper. She joined the boys in the middle of the house, between the both of them.
"What are you doing?" PJ asked.
She put her weight into the scraper, took a few satisfying strips of old paint off. "The faster we get done, the faster we get home so we can eat dinner."
"You're helping us?" PJ's voice held a note of barely-concealed hope.
Casey only grunted, not looking at her.
A little hurt, she kept scraping. Did all parents feel like they were floundering in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight and no life preserver?
Then, she got an idea.
"I betcha I can do two boards all the way across before you can do one," she told PJ. She tapped two horizontal boards that were at eye-level for her. There was one board at eye-level to PJ. It would be a perfect competition.
"What do I get if I win?" the boy asked skeptically.
"Hmm. Extra brownie after dinner?"
PJ's eyes lit up. "We're having brownies?"
She'd discovered early on that they were his favorite dessert. She sent a peripheral glance to the other boy. "You want in, Casey?"
Casey shrugged.
But when she called out, "Go!" and PJ started scraping with a vengeance, Casey was suddenly working his scraper faster than he had all day.
"Hey!" she exclaimed when she reached the halfway point and met PJ. He blocked her progress with his body while he kept scraping.
She couldn't help but laugh as he stuck out his tongue. "Still gonna beat you," she said as he finally moved past and she could reach the wall again.
"No way," Casey said.
A-ha. He was engaging.
"C'mon, c'mon," PJ murmured.
And Casey started smack talking. "You're never gonna make it, Jilly!"
"Almost... there..." grunted PJ.
So was she.
And then, "I won!" PJ crowed.
She had three inches of paint left on her top board. She moved to give the boy a fist bump. "Good job. You, too, Casey." The older boy had almost made it to the end of his board, just above PJ's.
Casey looked away, but she thought she saw a glimmer of pride in his eye.
And then she realized they were missing someone. "Where's Lindsey?"
Jilly'sbelly laugh gave Noah chills.
He wasn't even outside. He was sitting on his couch with his laptop, trying to draft an email to Aiden.
There was a wall between him and Jilly. Siding, insulation, two-by-fours.
But he’d left the window cracked because of the beautiful weather outside.
