Broken Lives (5 page)

James walks over to his closet and Alec picks
him up so he can see his shirts. I stand back and watch as Alec
lets my son select his clothing for school. Rae watches. 

“
Daddy, James should wear a
Batman shirt.” 

“
James, do you have a Batman
shirt?” 

“
Um… it’s right here.” James
picks up the Batman shirt and looks at it.

“
You should wear that shirt,
James,” Rae says, excitedly. 

“
Ok, I like
Batman.” 

Alec puts James down and removes the shirt
from the hanger. He slips it over James’ head and smiles. “James,
you are definitely cool.” 

I walk further into the room and smile. “That
is very cool, but I think you may need some pants with that to be
really cool.” 

James look down at his bare legs and Rae
screams, “He’s naked, he’s naked!” before she runs out the bedroom,
laughing. 

We all laugh. I lift up James’ Batman shirt
and look at his Spider-Man underwear and say to Alec, “You go and
get her dressed and I’ll finish up in here.” 

“
We’ll meet you in the
living room when you’re done,” Alec says. 

“
Ok, and please let her know
he isn’t naked.” I laugh. 

Once James is dressed and he is brushing his
teeth, I go and make some oatmeal and toast for breakfast. We all
eat together as a family and it feels right. I tell Raelynn that
I’ll pick her up after school, just like I did yesterday. I also
tell Alec; it’ll give him some time to do some running around today
or to get some much-needed sleep.

Alec insists on dropping the kids off at
school since I am picking them both up. I make it into work a
little early and for the first time, I beat Sara and Brea. Brea
comes in first, wiping off her shirt with a napkin. “I thought
breastfed babies didn’t spit up,” she says.

“
They do, but not as much as
formula fed, if that makes you feel any better.” 

“
You mean, this could be
worse?” 

I walk over to her and see a small wet spot
on her black sweater. “Yeah, that’s nothing.” 

“
You’re here early. Wait?
Why are you here early?” She stops and looks at me. Her long red
hair is pulled up into a high ponytail. 

“
No reason, I had some extra
time this morning.” 

“
James didn’t have school
today?” 

“
No, he had school. Alec
dropped him off for me.” 

“
He did?” She beams. “Isn’t
he a great guy?” 

Sara walks in last and also looks surprised,
“Am I late?” She is wearing a black pencil skirt with a white
blouse. Her blond pixie haircut perfectly suits her small petite
face.

“
No, I’m early, and don’t
ask.” 

“
Dr. ‘McDreamy’ took James
to school this morning, so she had a little extra time,” Brea
says. 

“
If I were you, I would have
stayed in bed with him a little longer this morning. He’s one
good-looking man.” Sara laughs. 

“
He worked last night and
shut up or I’ll go home sick.” 

“
Ok, ok, sorry. I was just
teasing.” Sara looks over at Brea and asks, “What did you call him?
Dr. McDreamy?” 

“
The name suits him.” Brea
smiles.

We all laugh and enjoy a cup of coffee
together before the phones start ringing. Angel stops in around
lunch time with her wedding photo album. She hands all of us a
large envelope; I am shocked to see several 8x10 pictures of James
in his suit and tie. Angel also has pictures of Alec and me and
James, and of me and Alec. Some are poses and some are just taken
randomly of us dancing and eating dinner.

“
Angel, thank you. These are
beautiful.” 

“
Doesn’t James look handsome
in them?”
Angel asks. 

“
Yes, he does; he looks so
grown up.”

“
How is
he?” 

I look at Angel and smile. “He’s good; he is
getting so big.” 

“
I feel bad I didn’t get
these to you sooner. Mason and I couldn’t decide what pictures we
wanted to order from the wedding, so we ordered them
all.” 

Brea speaks up and asks,
“You guys bought
all
of the pictures from your wedding?” 

“
It wasn’t my idea, but if
you remember, we missed most of the reception.” 

“
That’s right, something
about Mason wanting to get the honeymoon started,” Sara says as she
walks closer to Angel. 

“
That’s right, I was lucky
that he stayed long enough to cut the cake.” Angel laughs and
sniffs, “Who’s wearing Victoria’s Secret, Hello
Darling?” 

“
I am, but I put it on early
this morning. I’m surprised you can still smell it.” I say,
smelling my arm to see if I can smell anything. 

“
It smells good. I love that
stuff.” Angel grabs her purse and photo album and walks to the
door. 

“
Wait.” I hand Angel and the
others invitations. “James has a birthday on Saturday, and he wants
to invite everyone to his party. If you don’t want to come, I
understand.”

Angel smiles and says, “And miss my buddy’s
birthday? Count this as my R.S.V.P.” 

“
Ours, too. Arturo and I
will also be there.” 

“
I’ll be there, too,” Sara
says, opening the party invitation. “I always wanted to be
surrounded by ninjas,” she jokes, holding up the ninja
invitation. 

Alec

I text Emma to tell her I am already up, and
I’ll get the kids from school. I swing by my house first because I
want to get some more clothes for Raelynn and me. I slowly walk
into the house not sure what to expect. I call Molly’s name, hoping
that she is not here. The large TV in the family room is gone; I am
not surprised. I walk throughout the house and look for other
things that are missing. The TV in my bedroom is also missing. I
take some pictures in case my attorney needs them. I already know
that it was Molly. When she is back in the house, things start
coming up missing.

I pack some more clothes and some extra toys
for Raelynn. I also pack up anything of value that is left in the
house. Everything else, Molly can have.

On my way to get the kids from school, I call
Mason’s sister, Madison. She is one of the best Realtors in the
area. I make an appointment to meet with her to put the house up
for sale. I’ll be one step closer to being able to move on.

I get a text from Emma,
asking if I can keep James for about an hour. She said she needs to
stop by Cheryl and Danny’s before coming home. I stop by and get
James first and then Raelynn from school. A memory returns: Emma
once told me I can make dinner for her anytime I want. The kids and
I go to the store and I get everything I need to make chicken
Marsala, including, of course, Marsala wine.
This dish sounds fancy, but it takes only 10 minutes of
preparation and 20 minutes of cooking time. I use Emeril Lagasse’s
recipe, which I found on foodnetwork.com. He rates the recipe level
as Easy.
We walk through the bakery and
Raelynn sees princess cupcakes she wants for dessert. James looks
around for something with ninjas on them and is disappointed when
he doesn’t see them. 

I decide since we are
already at the store, we should get groceries for the week. I have
no idea what Emma shops for, so this will be fun. I push the kids
in the double-seated food cart and walk up and down each aisle. I
know what Rae and I eat, but I have to ask James what he and Emma
eat. I get the impression from James that he and Emma
mostly eat sweetened cardboard, aka junk food,
although he calls it good food, not junk food.
This surprises me. Emma seems like the kind of person who
enjoys eating pizza but is careful to eat salad with it. I simply
cannot imagine Emma with Cheetos dust in the corners of her mouth.
I put some of what James wants in the cart.

“
James, are you sure momma
feeds you this for breakfast?” I ask, holding up the donuts, Pop
Tarts, and the Toaster Strudel. 

“
Momma and I like
those.” 

We get to the register and I soon realize
just how many snacks we have. 

“
Rae, did you put extra
items in the cart?” 

“
No, daddy,” she says, but
doesn’t look at me. She is looking at James.

“
James, did you put extra
items in the cart?” 

“
No, daddy,” he says,
looking at Raelynn. 

We all bust out laughing as I continue to
unload the cart at the register.

“
That’ll be $265.87, sir,”
the cashier says, smiling.

I cough and clear my throat before getting
the credit card out of my wallet. 

“
First time shopping, sir?”
she asks. 

I look up, smile, and say, “First time
shopping with these two together.” I swipe my credit card and enter
my pin number. 

“
Oh, I understand now. Thank
you and enjoy your snacks.” She smiles while looking at the kids in
the cart.

I also look at them and they are laughing.
I’ll have to remember to not bring them shopping together without
Emma. 

We beat Emma home and I make the kids help
carry the groceries into the house, since they picked most of it
out.

“
Which one of you guys is
going to explain to Emma about all the snacks we
bought?” 

“
I will, daddy, I’ll tell
her you didn’t know what to buy so you bought snacks.” Rae
giggles. 

“
And I’ll tell momma that
you like snacks.” James also laughs.

“
And I’ll tell her that you
said this is what she feeds you all day, and that Rae snuck
groceries in the cart when I wasn’t looking,” I say, tickling both
kids at the same time. 

Emma walks in, smiles, and asks, “What’s
going on in here?” 

The kids and I look up and they both take off
running. “Hi, Emma; bye, Emma,” Rae says, running past
Emma. 

“
Hi, momma; bye, momma,”
James says, also running past her. 

“
Hi and bye to both of you,
too. What was that about?” She walks over to me to kiss
me. 

I kiss her back before answering. “We went to
the grocery store.” I nod in the direction of the counter where all
the snacks are. 

She laughs and walks over to the too-full
counter. “You bought all this stuff?” 

“
Well, I paid for it, but I
didn’t put it in the cart.” 

“
Alec, there must be $300
worth of snacks here.” 

“
Close, it’s $265.87 to be
exact,” I say, holding up the receipt.

“
Well, I can tell you what
James picked out.” 

“
I didn’t realize that you
have such a sweet tooth,” I say, looking at Emma. 

“
What are you talking about?
I like some things, but I am very strict with sweets being in my
house.” 

“
You mean that you and James
don’t eat Pop Tarts, donuts, and Toaster Strudels for
breakfast?” 

She stops what she is doing and asks, “Is
that what James told you?” She doesn’t wait for me to answer. “Oh,
the little booger.” She calls sweetly, “James, could you come here,
please?” I almost feel sorry for him. 

“
Yes,
momma.” 

“
Honey, what did you eat
this morning for breakfast?” She asks, kneeling down to look him in
the eye.

“
Um, we had oatmeal and a
banana.” 

“
And yesterday, what did we
have yesterday?” 

“
Uh-oh.” 

“
Why would you tell Alec I
feed you junk food for breakfast?” 

“
I didn’t. I said you and I
like those.”

I think back on what James said and he is
correct. “I stand corrected; he did say that, Emma.” 

“
James Maxwell, you are in
so much trouble.” 

“
James, why don’t you go to
your room with Raelynn? Your mom and I will put the junk food, I
mean the groceries, away.” 

James leaves without saying anything and I
hear Rae and him giggle from the bedroom. 

Emma and I stand at the
counter and she starts picking out the goodies that James likes and
I start picking out the goodies that Raelynn likes.
Some things are favorites of both Raelynn and
James.
Once we are done, we both
laugh.

“
Well, it looks like you
have been had by both kids.” 

I look at the piles of junk food; the junk
food is almost divided up equally. 

“
It looks like I’m a
sucker.” 

“
Please tell me you did buy
something healthy we can eat?”

“
I did, I bought fish,
chicken, and some fresh fruits and vegetables.” 

“
Good, but from now on I’ll
shop with you.” 

“
Fine by
me.” 

We put the rest of the food away and she
makes a junk drawer in the kitchen for all of the junk food. She
also has to add a junk shelf in the pantry. Once we get dressed, we
all drive to taekwondo together.

As soon as we get home from taekwondo, I
start the chicken for dinner. While I cook dinner, Emma sets at the
dinner table and helps the kids with their homework. I smile and
realize that I like being here. I haven’t cooked for someone other
than Rae and me in a long time.