The Weakness in Me (5 page)

“Wow, that was delicious,” Sammy said.
“Thank you.” She flashed him her brightest smile.

“Not so fast,” Jason tutted, disapprovingly.

“What? Do I have some on my face?” she joked, reaching for her napkin.

“You’d have to eat it to get some on you,” he narrowed his eyes into hers
and her mouth dropped open in what he thought was real shock to be called out.

“I ate,”
her eyes narrowed and Jason thought that she might call an end to their tentative truce. Just as the thought crossed his mind, she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted like she used to do when she was twelve and he wouldn’t let her play football with his friends. Chuckling softly, mostly in relief, he reached for her spoon and stirred her chowder.

“I know how much I put in here, do I need to get out the ladle and measure it into another bow
l to get the truth?” he accused, giving her his patented ‘I know you want to cave’ look. When she looked down at the bowl, indignantly, he knew it had worked.

“Fine,” she scowled.
“How many bites do I need to eat so you won’t report me to Mommy?” she asked, grabbing the spoon from his hand.

“We just want you to be healthy,” Jason said.
“Corigan deserves for you to take care of yourself.”

“That was a low blow, Jason,” she said
, her lips curling into a dangerous sneer as she shoveled a giant spoonful of chowder into her mouth. “How dare you invoke my daughter’s name against me,” she continued after swallowing the bite and scooping another large bite.

“Sammy, right now, I could
n’t care less what you think of my tactics,” he glowered. “You are a shadow of yourself, and you need to pull it together.” Jason finished, calmly, but his voice had a slight edge that was more indicative of his fear than any real anger. He took a deep breath before he cleared his bowl to the sink and checked Corigan’s progress on her own dinner of finger foods, waiting for her wrath at his words.

“How do you know how I am anymore?” she spat, with a look that would’ve vaporized him where he stood, had he not been prepared for it.

“Oh, put away the ‘you’re dead to me’ look. You know that’s never worked on me, Sammy,” Jason shot back, a smug smile spreading across his face. Instead of responding, Sammy chose, wisely, to take another over large bite of the chowder. Then she smiled, sweetly, at Jason, and he knew she had regrouped and was getting ready to go in for the kill.

“Before you start to berate me for calling you Sammy or something else equally stupid, I just want to say thank you for letting me feed you and help with Corigan tonight,” he said
, his face now sincere as he started to wipe down her kitchen island to clear it of bread crumbs and chowder drippings. He watched her smile falter and he knew he’d defused the bomb she was planning to detonate, because she narrowed her eyes again and finished off her chowder and bread in record time.

“All clear, daddy,” she said, holding up her bowl.
“May I be excused now?” she asked, rolling her eyes.

“Wow,” Jason said, playfully, “I love it when you call me daddy.” He growled.

“Don’t get used to it,” she grumbled as she moved her bowl to the sink to rinse it out. “I’m going to bathe Corigan and get her settled for the night, you can leave,” she said, pulling Corigan from her high chair and heading for the stair. Before she was about to start her descent, she turned back to face him, adding, “Tell Sara I said your babysitting shift is over. Oh, and get her to pay you time and a half for forcing me to eat,” she finished before turning on her heels and disappearing to the first floor of her house. He was relieved to see glimmers of
his
Sammy behind the wall of pain, and he hoped that she would let him help her get her life back on track.

“Sammy!” Jason yelled at the open window on the east end of the two story pink craftsman.

“What?!” she answered back, shoving half of her body out of the second floor window, her long braid hanging over her shoulder.

“Stop playing dolls with Sara and McKenna! Come to the park and play kickball with me!” He told her.

“Why?
You said girls suck at kickball yesterday when Davey asked you to ditch me!” she pouted.

“I was wrong!” he stamped his foot.
“
Davey
sucks at kickball and I need you on my team so we can beat his!”

“No,” she said, pushing back into her room.

Running his hands through his bowl-cut blonde hair, he growled in frustration. She could be so stubborn sometimes.

“Fine!
What do you want?” he asked the empty window. “Tell me and I’ll do it, Sammy! I’m sorry I doubted you.”

“Well, that’s a start,” she snorted, walking out her front door in a pair of short green gym shorts and a black tank top.
“I knew you’d grovel and beg, and I need you to do my chores for a week,” she shot him a devilish grin.

“All of them?” he groaned at the thought of cleaning up after four girls, in addition to the
four he helped clean up after at home.

“Yup,” she said, popping the p in emphasis.
“McKenna agrees that you made a severe miscalculation yesterday. You know you’ve always been able to count on me…you should never doubt me again.” She started the walk toward the park, swaying her hips in rhythm with her words. Instantly, he knew she was attempting to bring him to his knees. He would hate the idea very much, if it weren’t working.

‘When did she start to grow hips?
’ he asked himself as the sway continued to mesmerize him. Realizing that he’d fallen far behind her, he ran to catch up.

She stopped and turned on him when he yanked on her long, chocolate brown braid.
“I’m sorry,” he squeaked into her annoyed gaze.

“Not yet,” she smiled, “but you will be,” she finished, before taking off in a full sprint.
It was then he realized he was in love with her.

‘
Is it even possible to be in love at ten?’
he wondered as he chased after her as if he had no choice but to follow her anywhere she went. Oh yes, he was in love alright, but he also knew, he was in big trouble because she was already his life. He wondered if she would always be this stubborn and if he’d always give in to her

.

**

“But, come on, mom! Sara said you don’t have plans. We need a ride to the appointment.
Please
,” Samantha pleaded from her kitchen table, looking at the dark clouds hanging over the lake and hating that she couldn’t just drive her daughter to her appointment herself. Depending on other people was really starting to get old.

“Your sister does not know my detailed itinerary, because I do have plans with Jessica today.
I’m sorry, Sam,” her mother, Kelly, explained, curtly. “I know Jason is there with you and Corigan today, can’t
he
take you?”

Samantha let out a frustrated growl, because this was
exactly the reason she was asking her mother for help. She didn’t
want
to ask Jason. She didn’t want to feel more in debt to him than she already felt she was. She also didn’t want to sound like the whiny, spoiled child her mother would tell her she was if she explained why she didn’t want to ask Jason either, though.

She did have to admit t
he last week and a half had been alright, and she was surprised to find it was easy to fall back into their friendship. What she
really
didn’t want to admit it to herself, was that even though she denied it, she
had
missed her friend over the last five years. She knew what hurt the most when they split wasn’t the fact that she’d lost her fiancé, but that she’d lost her best friend.

“I guess I could ask him,” Samantha said, begrudgingly.

“That’s my girl,” she could hear the smile in her mom’s voice as she hung up and went in search of Jason. Her irritation at being forced to ask him for help again softened as she watched him patiently helping Corigan into her fleece jumper with orange monkeys, Samantha’s favorite, in her bedroom. Samantha’s eyes took in the pale pink princess themed room and the toys that needed to be cleaned up in the corner before clearing her throat to announce her presence.

“Oh, hey, Sammy, what’s up?” he asked
, looking up from the intense concentration he was putting into getting the fourteen month old dressed.

“Sara was supposed to pick Corigan and me up for her annual well check.
She got called into a meeting, and Mom and Jessica aren’t available either. I already had to reschedule the appointment three times because of the accident and everything,” she explained, leaning against the door frame, her arms crossed over her blue t-shirt as she continued to watch him struggle with the jumper.

“Um, was there supposed to be a question in there somewhere?” he asked, raising his eyebrow in amusement.
She knew he’d caught her watching his muscles jump under his own green crew neck as he wrestled Corigan’s arm into a sleeve. ‘
Where had those muscles come from?’
she wondered before clearing her throat at his inquiry.

“Yeah, um,
” she started, moving her eyes from his movements back to his face. “I really don’t want to have to ask you, but it seems like I’ve been backed into a corner by my family, and I’m left to question whether or not it wasn’t intentional, but are you available to take us to her appointment?” Samantha’s jaw clenched throughout the question, as if it physically pained her to ask him for a favor.

“Sure, I’m free all day,
Sammy. I’m here to help you, please don’t think twice about asking for a favor like this,” Jason smiled up at her and finally got Corigan’s other arm into the jumper. “HA!” he said in triumph. “I think this one is getting a little small, don’t you think?”

“I’d have to agree,” Samantha
admitted, accepting his words. “It’s just one of my favorites. I can’t bring myself to get rid of it,” she frowned. “But, anyway, the car seat is in my car, if you want to just drive it?” she offered.

“
That sounds like a plan, because I don’t know how your hip would do climbing in and out of my truck.” Jason smiled at Samantha as he stood and lifted Corigan into his arms. “Do you have the bag packed already?”

“Um, yeah, it’s over there,” Samantha pointed to the diaper bag resting at the base of the changing station
, behind Corigan’s tiny drum kit. “We still have a little bit before we have to leave, though. The appointment isn’t for another 90 minutes or so” she continued.

“But it’s coming down in sheets out there
now, so it’s better to allow us time for the weather, right?” he asked, signaling to the bedroom window before throwing the diaper bag over his opposite shoulder.

“You’re right!
It wasn’t raining when I came down here to find you,” she said before nodding to Jason being loaded down with her daughter and her supplies and asking, “Are you like a nanny pro already, Jason?” She was truly shocked at how quickly he’d adapted to helping with Corigan.

“I do this with my nephew all the time,” he reminded, looking wounded at her assumption that he wouldn’t be a good caretaker.

“Oh yeah, sorry,” Samantha said, contritely, remembering that he was a dutiful Uncle, as she followed him out the door and up the stairs to the garage.

**

Jason kept his eyes glued to the road as the rain started to pound harder on the freeway between Auburn and Kent. Corigan’s appointment had gone well, except for the shots, but she was already sleeping peacefully in the backseat of Sammy’s Toyota. He hoped the pain the baby had experienced was now a distant memory.

“It’s really coming down now, isn’t it?” Sammy said
, making small talk, watching the wipers move back and forth.

“Yeah, but, at least, it’s rain.
It’ll be snow soon enough,” he pointed out.

“Don’t remind me,” she growled, laying her head back against the headrest.
“I used to love it when it would rain like this. I felt like God was wiping the slate clean so that we could start fresh when it was over. Now, I’m not so sure,” she mused, her eyes closed. “I feel like no matter how hard it rains, the slate will still have that faint hint of the writing that was there before. Like this time, it was etched in.” Jason’s heart clenched at her words and tone, she sounded broken, lost.

“
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean,” Jason agreed, taking a chance to peek over at her to make sure she was okay. She looked so vulnerable with her eyes closed to the downpour that they were driving through together. “You can rest until we get home, you know. We aren’t that far away,” he said as they passed a sign showing less than five miles to go to the Kent city limits. Just as she seemed ready to relax, a loud pop sounded from below the car.

“Shit!” he yelled as he felt control of the car start to get away from him.
Slowly, Jason let his foot off the gas to keep from hydroplaning in the heavy rain and guided the car toward the side of the road. He’d just gotten the car safely to the shoulder of the freeway when he noticed Sammy’s white knuckles clutching the arm rest, her face had gone pale and her features were frozen in fear. Taking a deep breath to calm his own nerves first, he began to reach out for her.