Page 56 of Be With Me
Chapter 28
Dinosaurs. There were dinosaurs everywhere. Mooney looked around and couldn’t even identify them all. Who knew there were so many different ones?
The boys were turning three the following week and Debbie had planned their party for the Saturday before. All their friends from the playgroup at the community center and the unit were running around.
Mooney was rigging a piñata in the shape of a dinosaur— of course— for them to smack. He wasn’t sure giving them more sugar was a good idea but Debbie was in charge and if she said it was okay, who was he to argue? Five-fifty cord from the garage and voila, dino was hanging. He frowned at the piñata, trying to purge the memory of Erikson out of his mind.
“Mooney, why are you glaring at that dinosaur?” a surprisingly familiar voice asked from behind him. Actually, it was a voice that shouldn’t be here. He turned and Spook stood not even five feet from him. A quick shuffle and they slapped each other on the backs.
“What are you doing here?” Mooney ignored Spook’s question. “I didn’t think any of the heptad were coming in.” He searched his memory, trying to remember the emails that had bounced. Nope, he was right, none of them had been able to fit the trip to Hood into their schedules.
“What? I’m not welcome? Not the boys’ favorite uncle?” Spook teased. Before Mooney could answer, a line of three-year-olds came running up to them.
“Uncle Spook!” the twins screamed.
“Cam! Cal! You’re getting too big. Maybe I’m in the wrong yard,” Spook teased the boys as he knelt down.
“We’s n—” Cal started to argue before Cam broke in.
“not. Mama said yata—” Cam told them.
“then cake!” Cal finished.
“You heard them, Spook. Shift your tush out of the way.” Mooney hip checked Spook as he stood. “Cam, you first. Grab the stick.” And so it began. He was a bit impressed with how Cam held the stick, almost like he was going to hit it out of the park. Mooney didn’t blindfold the kids nor did he spin them. Handing a hard implement into the hands of children and letting them hit a hanging object was enough of a challenge.
After they’d all whacked the dinosaur without even a dent, Mooney watched Spook step up to the piñata under the pretense of fixing the rope and drive his Ka-Bar into the side. He stepped back and the next in line, a little girl from playgroup, barely hit the tail and it popped open. Watching the swarm of kids chasing the explosion of candy made Mooney smile.
Mooney shooed them away after he couldn’t see anything left on the ground. “Go play until Mama calls.”
“Want to tell me about it?” Spook asked quietly.
“How’d you know?” Mooney didn’t think he’d said anything to the group but it had been a long week.
“We all know how to read between the lines. What’s got you tied up?” He demanded forcefully this time. “Don’t make me call the rest.”
Mooney still wanted to avoid this conversation. “Where’s your lovely fiancée? You did suck it up and ask her already, right?” Spook narrowed his eyes and frowned at Mooney who pretended to not see the look.
“Jeanine is over helping Debbie. I’m letting this slide right now, but you will talk to me before I leave.” He started to walk away then turned back. “I did ask her, and we’ve set the date for November. Jeanine wants the boys to be the ring bearers. She thinks they’ll look adorable in little tuxedos.”
Picturing that in his mind and thinking about what trouble his boys could get in had Mooney chuckling.
“Better make sure you’ve got cake for them.”
§ § §
Debbie couldn’t believe it was time to move again. This time to Maryland. The boys were going to love snow. She wasn’t too sure about that herself. They were going to drive over to Florida for Spook and Jeanine’s wedding en route to Meade. She looked around the kitchen and couldn’t figure out what she’d come in here for.
“Debs? You okay?” Luny asked coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Trying to remember what I came in here for,” she answered.
“I think you came in here to get away from the reality of moving again for the nth time,” he suggested. No judgement in his voice.
Debbie shrugged. How he knew her so well she wasn’t sure. Other families got to stay in one place for more than two years. Why couldn’t they?
“I know we’ve moved a lot but I promise, I’ll see about slowing it down. There’s rumors that the unit’s going to do a deployment in the next year. You’re going to be okay with that?” He started kissing along her neck.
She thought about it for several minutes. The boys would turn four in the spring and they’d go to pre-kindergarten in the fall. How had her babies gotten so big? What would she do with all the spare time? Debbie wasn’t sure that she wanted to go back to nursing in a practice or a hospital.
