“Yes, so I see.Well, if you change your mind, let me know.I could certainly use you around here when things are going to shit.”He wanted to be away from her now and couldn’t think of a single reason to leave.Just turning on his heel and leaving, she called him back for a second, she said, and he went back reluctantly.“Next month I’ll be job shadowing you, don’t forget.It’s the highlight of my year getting to follow you around for the day.You do such a good job that I want to do it daily just to be in your presence.”
Moving away from her, he decided that he needed to talk to Shawn.What he really needed to do was to hold her.He felt dirty talking to Mrs.Challenger and wanted his wife around so that he could tell her what happened and see if it was just him.It felt like she was coming onto him, and he didn’t know what to do.
“Tell her to back the fuck off, you belong to me.”He said what if he’d been wrong about what she’d said.“If she’s made you feel uncomfortable, then you’re not wrong.She was coming onto you.She’s in a position of authority over you and is making lewd comments.I don’t like that she’s thinking that you don’t want to go on the cruise in October.That sort of pisses me off.”
“I’m just going to avoid her from now on.I wish you were here with me.I could use some of your magical hugs.”He’d been calling them that since they started seeing one another.“Remember the first time we were together?You and I were having lunch at your dining room table when you told me to move in with you.”
“I remember.It was to piss off Finn.”Yes, there was that.Her son had caused trouble for the three of them for months before he was killed one evening.He’d hired men to beat him up, and they’d done such a good job at it that he died from his injuries a few days later.“There are times when I miss him.But we have Finny here.Did I tell you that he’s remembered more treasures around the place?We’ll dig them up this weekend when you’re off.”
“All right.I’d love that.”He tried to put the lewd comments out of his mind and concentrate on his wife.She was the world to him, as were their children.“Are we taking the kids with us this time?They sort of got out of hand the last time we took them treasure hunting.”
He laughed at the memory.What they’d done was found a muddy spring and had jumped in it until they were dirty with mud all over them.It took them three baths before they were clean, and the clothing had to be thrown away, it was so caked with the stuff.Even their shoes couldn’t have been saved, they were so bad.He had loved every second of it, and so had Shawn.The kids thought they might be in trouble, but in reality, he wanted to join them.
He felt a good deal better when he got off the phone with his wife.They were going out to dinner tonight to celebrate one of his daughters getting on the cheer team, and he was thrilled that she’d been able to do it.They’d have a little more running around to do, taking her to practice and games, but they’d love it because she was doing something that she loved.They had five kids, and he couldn’t love them anymore.
Treasure hunting was something that they did as a family, and he loved the antics that the kids got in.With three girls and two boys, he thought he’d be having more dolls around than anything else, but they were just like their mom, into everything around and learning a great deal from it.He was so proud of his family that he wanted to take out billboards to proclaim that he had the best there was.But it would just make his brothers jealous, and that wasn’t good.There wouldn’t be a billboard left around town that had anything but the best kids on it.
After getting off the phone with Shawn, he did feel a little better.He decided that he was going to avoid Mrs.Challenger for the rest of the day and see if it had been him or her when she’d made him feel dirty.He’d never felt like that before, and it really had made him feel like he needed a shower.He wondered how women felt when the same thing happened to them.
Going down to lunch, he was glad to see his brother Jack.He was picking up the donations that the hospital had given for the next Power Dinner.It was a dinner where all the heads of departments got together and had some fun.He’d never gone and wasn’t planning on going this year either.But he did get to hear about it from his family.Jack and Dakota would cater the meal yearly, and he’d get the first-hand scoop about everyone who went.
“Are you planning on going this year?”He said that he wasn’t, one of his kids had a recital that night.“You don’t even know when it is, do you?”The two of them laughed.
“It’s sometime next month.But I’m not going.They usually try to make me come to it, but I have better things to do than be at an open bar kind of thing when there are those around that can’t hold their liquor and keep their mouth shut, too.”He asked if he was talking about last year.“Yes.Last year, the department head of nursing made a fool of herself by telling people about her nursing staff.Some of those stories were private, and I’m betting if they knew that she told the stories, she’d be in trouble with them all.”
“The bar is cash only this year, and I would imagine the reason why is that so many of them gotnasty drunk.They had to call cars in to take them home when they got out of hand.I don’t even want to go, and I’m part of the food.”He said that he was sorry for that.“Not as much as we are.David had to be a bouncer a couple of times, and I know that he didn’t care for being the heavy in those circumstances.”He said he knew that he’d not enjoy it.“You should come and stay sober and watch them.Even your department head is something of a lush.”
“No thanks.I have better things to do.”They talked about the food that was going to be at the Power Dinner, and Ethan was impressed.It sounded to him like the hospital was going all out on the food because the bar wasn’t going to be open.No one in his family drank; it took a great deal for them to get even a buzz off alcohol, so they didn’t bother with it at all.Same with over-the-counter drugs.
“I’ve been thinking about our vacation a great deal lately.”He said that he has the days counted down on his phone.“I believe Shawn does as well.She said it’s her one chance to be herself, and she’s not giving it up for anything.I didn’t know she was holding back on things around the place.She said it was her magic.She can use it when we’re all together, and no one cares about it.”
“I can see that.She can be free to do what needs to be done.Do you suppose she uses it a great deal around the house with the kids?Do they have any magic?”He told him how Trevor could see Finny.“That’s good, right?Are there any other ghosts he can see?”
Finny lived in the house before Shawn moved in, and he was a hundred-year-old ghost.He could do some magic on his own, but it would wear him out, and he’d have to rest—which meant that you couldn’t see him.
“Not that we’ve encountered.But I don’t know that there are that many ghosts around the house anymore.They pretty much cleared out when Finny moved into the house.There are some at the graveyard that’s in the back, but they don’t bother us, and we don’t interact with them.”They talked about other magic that Shawn had and when she used it.It was nice having someone in the house who could do some extensive magic, but she never hurt anyone with it.He didn’t even know if she could.“What’s Taylor doing since she’s not working for the foundation anymore?I heard that she was working on some projects for the kids this summer.”
“She has a brilliant mind about things that the kids can do in the yard.I love it when she gets all crafty.She said that it’s not crafting so much as it’s an outlet for her mind and to get rid of some of the clutter that is around the house all the time.”Jack laughed.“We’d not have any clutter if she didn’t pick it up when she’s out.But by the time summer is over, the kids have done some fun projects and have learned something.Are your kids going to join ours again this year?”
“I plan on it.Shawn said it gives her two whole hours once a month to just chill.I get to hang crafts all over my office for people to marvel at.”Jack said that he has a refrigerator full of projects already that Taylor had made as trial pieces.“I bet that’s fun too.The kids have fun, and that’s all that matters to me.I bet that Taylor enjoys it more than the kids do.She sure looks like it at the end of one of her crafting days.”
“She said that had she had it in her mind about having kids when she’d been younger, she might well have been a teacher.I don’t see her enjoying that too much.They’d require her to teach something once in a while about the curriculum, and she just wants to have fun.Not to mention she’d have them outside every day.She does her best work in the yard where she has no restrictions.”Ethan said he’d known that about her.“She’s a free spirit, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
They talked about their wives while Ethan finished his meal.He didn’t usually eat in the cafeteria when he was hungry because he’d get questions asked of him about how surgeries were going.The only thing he could do was refer them to the board that was on the wall that said where certain patients were at during some point in their surgery.And unless they had the number that went with their family member, he couldn’t help them at all.Most people around town knew that he was head of surgery, and that’s why they asked him about their loved ones.
After Jack left, he went back to his office and worked on the paperwork that was forever piling up.No matter how much he got done before lunch, there would be a stack of them on his desk when he got back.Today was no different.As he was sorting through files, he kept thinking about this morningand Mrs.Challenger.So far today, he’d been able to avoid her, but he wasn’t going to be able to do that daily.They would meet at some point in the halls, and he didn’t know what to say to her.
~*~
Jack had all the giveaways in the storage locker so that they’d not be out where people could get to them.Some of the things that businesses were donating to the dinner were valuable, and he didn’t want to have to replace them if someone got into them.He closed and locked the door after putting the donation from the hospital—five sets of scrubs of any kind, plus five days off with pay for the person who won it.He thought that the scrubs sets alone would be worth the ticket, but he didn’t know.He didn’t have to buy them and wouldn’t know the first thing about how much they cost.
“What did the Banquet Room donate?Last year, their gift was sort of lame.I don’t think that many people put on it that they wanted it.Do you remember what it had been?”He told Taylor that it had been four place settings of dinnerware of their choice.“Yes, that’s sort of lame.Did they do any better this year?”
“I don’t know that I’d call it better, but it was something larger.This year they’re giving away ten place settings and a dinner for two at the Banquet Room.I’m not sure how that will work for them.Do they usually have dinners for people coming in off the street?”Taylor told him that once a month, they do have that.“Then that might be good too.I don’t know.I don’t think I’ve ever eaten there.”
“You haven’t.Not with me anyway.”She kissed him on the mouth, and he asked her what that was for.“For being you.I love you very much.”
“You’re off again, I take it?”She said that she wanted to hit the craft store as they were having a sale on glitter.“I know how you love glitter.”
