Page 42 of Wolves' Midlife Reunion
They walked into the gym to find Vanessa standing amidst a giant pile of boxes and bags. She was dressed in a hot pink halter top and black leggings, and her dark hair was pulled back into two short pigtails.
“Ah, there you are!” she exclaimed when they walked in. “I was just starting to get worried.”
“Did I have the time wrong?” Dex glanced at his watch. They were five minutes early as far as he knew.
“No, it’s not that.” Vanessa’s brow wrinkled as she bit her lip. “It’s that no one else has shown up! I hoped we’d have a nice little group of people here, so we could get it all done quickly, but I guess everyone either forgot or decided they had something better to do.”
“That’s not very nice,” Sage asserted.
Vanessa gave her a smile. “You’re right, but we have to make the best of it!”
“What can we do?” Dex asked.
“Anything you want. I’ve got to run to the store and pick up a few more things. I completely forgot to get tea lights. Another mom was supposed to pick up a bunch of pumpkins for the photo booth, but since she’s not here, I’ve got to get those, as well.” Vanessa was always bright and perky, but the stress of this party was beginning to crack her façade.
“I don’t know much about decorating, but we’ll do our best,” Dex promised.
“I can make it really pretty!” Sage exclaimed.
“Sounds to me like it’s in good hands, then!” Vanessa chirped. To Dex, she said, “And really, I’m not picky. I just want to make sure the kids have a good party.”
“You’ve got it.”
Vanessa dashed off, leaving the two of them alone.
Dex looked around. The gym was a massive space for two people to decorate, especially when one of them was a child. It’d been all done up for the reunion, but that had been taken down, and it was back to just being a gym. He went to the pile of items that Vanessa had already brought and began looking through them to take inventory. “Let’s see. We’ve got crepe paper, baskets, balloons?—”
“I want to do the balloons!” Sage hopped up and down and clapped her hands.
“Do you know how to blow them up?” Dex pulled out a bag, opened it, and handed her one.
Sage looked at it for a second. She put her lips up to the end and blew, but could only get it into a flattened sphere.
“You’ve got to stretch it out a little.” Dex went back and forth with Sage a few times, showing her how to stretch the balloon, how to get it big enough without popping it, and then how to tie it off.
“I did it!” She held the balloon out so he could admire the knot she managed to make.
“You sure did. Now, we have to decide where to put them. We can’t just tape them to the bleachers. That won’t be very exciting. I’ve got to see if there’s a ladder around here somewhere.” He’d found several rolls of tape that Vanessa had left for them, but he was starting to realize just how much the lack of directions was going to slow them down.
“Wait, Daddy.” Sage held the orange balloon she’d just blown up at arm’s length. It slowly lifted from her hands, rising toward the ceiling even though it was filled with regular air instead ofhelium. It glided gently up until it was high on the wall, just under the row of windows.
His stomach curled in on itself at the idea of her using magic there. Dex had to remind himself that even though at times this was a busy place, they were the only ones there. He’d also promised Sage that he’d do his best to guide her, and getting angry or anxious wasn’t going to work. “You did a good job. Now, how are we going to make it stay there?”
“Oh, I know!” Sage dropped her hands, letting the orange balloon drift back down. She caught it before it hit the floor and put a piece of tape on the end. Then she sent it skywards again. It took her a bit of concentration to push it hard enough into place for the tape to stick, but she managed.
“You’re pretty clever,” Dex told her, genuinely meaning it. Sage was using her magic, but she was also using her mind. She was a brilliant girl. Who was he to stop her growth?
The doubt in him also wanted to know who he was to think he had any right to teach her. He’d lost control. He’d nearly killed someone. Plenty of people had told him to stop berating himself over that incident, but that was easy for them to say.
Of course, if he wasn’t the one to guide her, then who would? It couldn’t be Tina. He’d already drawn a hard line against that, both with Tina and with Sage. There was no going back.
Sage’s giggling pulled him out of his dark and muddled thoughts.
“This is fun!” She’d just sent a black balloon skyward. Clusters of balloons in twos and threes were now gathered all along the top of the wall.
“I think you’ve got a knack for decorating. Should we put some streamers up there with them?” Dex showed her the roll of crepe paper.
“How do we do that?” Her eyes were alight with excitement.
