Theo giggled when Julian couldn’t figure out how to release the safety clasp.
“Are you laughing at me, mister?”
“Yes!”Theo let loose with his trademarked belly laugh.Anyone who heard that and didn’t laugh along with him wasn’t truly alive.
Julian proved he was truly alive by cracking up with Theo as he continued to try to figure out the clasp.“I went to law school, for crying out loud.Why can’t I undo this thing?”
“It’s a secret,” Theo told him.
“Tell me how.”
Theo shook his head as he continued to laugh.
“Isla, come help.Theo’s being mean to me.”
“I’m coming.”With Mila in her arms, she walked around to the other side of the car and reached in with one hand to release the clasp.
“What?Come on.How’d you do that?”
“Should we tell him?”she asked Theo as Julian lifted him out of the seat.
“No!It’s a secret!”
They crossed the street and entered Ojai Pizza Company.
“My dad used to bring us here for dinner on Saturday nights.We loved it.I haven’t thought about that in years.”
“I’m trying to picture your dad wrangling nine kids by himself.”
“He was better at it than my mother was.We drove her insane.He just rolled with it.”Julian helped her to settle Theo in a booster seat while Isla kept Mila on her lap.“It’s possible he was medicated.”
Isla laughed.“I’d be surprised if he wasn’t.What’s the age difference?”
“Thirteen years between me and Roman.”
“What are the others’ names again?”
“Carson, Griffin, Jordan, Kaidan, Ethan, Jackson, Gillian and Roman.”
“All your names end with n.”
“Our parents’ names do, too.Corbin and Katherine both have an n sound.So they made it a thing.”
“I like it.I still can’t believe there’re nine of you.That’s wild.I’ve never known a family that big.”
“Growing up, I knew of one family with twelve kids and another with eleven.I negotiated a divorce for a mother of eight last year.”
“That’s a lot of kids.I can barely handle two.How in the world does anyone wrangle eight or nine?”
“Well, in our case, we weren’t all little at the same time.And for another, they had a lot of help from a long string of nannies, who are probably still in therapy after dealing with us.The older kids helped with the younger ones.We made it work.”
“It sounds like a fun way to grow up.”
“It was.For a time.What looks good to you?”
“Mama, chicken!”
“How about pizza?”Isla asked her son.
