“I forgot.” He peeked out from beneath his hand. “Please don’t kill me, but—”
“Oh no.”
“I have a squadron picnic at the end of the month. And I want to take Jade. But there’s a pond I’m not comfortable with her around, and I won’t be able to give her my full attention—”
I smacked my forehead. “Oh, Derrick.”
“I mean,” he melted into his chair until he was more lying than sitting, “you can say no, of course. It’s your prerogative to kick a man while he’s down…”
“Do you know you’re horrible?” I crossed my arms. “Fine. Fine. Just…only because Amy broke up with you. Not because it’s an actual date.” I glared. “I should make you buy me a new book for this, you know.”
His pouty lip immediately morphed into a guilty smile. “You’re the best, Jessie.”
I just took another long sip of my hard lemonade. Yep. This summer just got more and more interesting by the minute.
25
What I Wanted
Jessie
July flew by, during which we were in the car more than we were at the house, and when we were home, we were busy practicing Jade’s song. She struggled with enunciation and rhythm, and more than once, she wanted to quit, but I was seeing too much progress to let her. Essentially, we were busy all the time. We practiced so much that pretty soon, the show tune we’d picked was stuck in my head nonstop.
But I was okay with that. Between Jade’s lessons and therapy sessions, the contest was hot underway. Now that Amy was gone, something inside Derrick seemed to have been set free. He laughed more, teased more, and played a lot more pranks. And though I spent most of my time retorting and scolding and fending him off, it was impossible not to enjoy myself. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone so many places just for fun.
We visited the children’s science museum, the presidential library, and the submarine, just to name a few. Every day was something new. Jade was rather smug once she realized what we were doing, and she used that to her advantage, making us beg and plead for her approval, and more than once, she finagled new crayons or lemonade or souvenir stickers out of us, using our zeal to win as motivation.
As the weeks passed, however, it became apparent that the golden ticket that would determine the winner would be awarded to whoever figured out what Jade meant by “chocolate”.
Not long after our frozen yogurt venture at the mall, Jade had begun asking for “chocolate”. But whenever we got her dark chocolate chips (in my attempt to make her dessert somewhat healthy) or even the Hershey’s bar Derrick bought her, her answer was always the same.
“No. The right chocolate.” She would pout, crossing her little arms with as much disgust as a six-year-old could possibly muster.
In vain we tried. We visited the North Little Rock mall, the downtown mall, the outlet mall candy store, the gas station near her house. And every time we offered her a new source of chocolatey goodness, she would huff and shake her head. Derrick and I would exchange a look, and whoever had suggested the most recent attempt would sigh while the other breathed a sigh of relief. This went on until Tuesday morning of the third week of July when Derrick came dancing in from the casita.
“Should I be worried?” I stepped back as he slid into the booth with his toasted waffles. Still dancing in place as he cut them, he gave me a wicked grin.
“I think I can safely say that I will be winning this contest. So if you had plans for that day out, forget it.”
I put down the juice pitcher I was holding. “No way.”
He shoved a bit of waffle in his mouth and wriggled his eyebrows at me. “Hey, I forgot the whipped cream. Can you get it out for me?”
“Not until you tell me where you found out.”
He shrugged, still chewing. “Fine then. Guess I don’t need the sugar. I’ll be getting it after all when we get chocolate today anyway.” He nudged Jade, who was staring at her cereal. At first, she’d been all excited every time we told her we were going for chocolate. But too many dashed hopes had given her a chip on the shoulder. Sometimes I could have sworn that kid was seventeen rather than going on seven.
After breakfast was cleaned up, we piled into the truck for speech therapy, during which he spent most of the time making fun of me while I ignored him and read my Beauty and the Beast book.
“You’re reading that again?”
I kept my eyes on the page. “I don’t remember that being any of your business.”
“I just don’t see what the draw is, reading the same thing on repeat.”
“If you must know, I’m planning a unit study on fairy tales for next year. I’m pulling out some of my favorite parts so the kids and I can have book talks.”
“That’s not a kid’s book.”
