Page 7 of Next Door Midlife Alpha
“Aw, man,” Elijah whined. “I wanted to play on the beach today.”
“Sweetheart, we’re not here on vacation. Welivehere. You’ll get to play on the beach all the time, and we will. First, we need to get our house set up. We can’t just live out of cardboard boxes for the rest of our lives.”
Elijah rolled his shoulder. “I could.”
“You think that now,” Stacey laughed, “but you’ll enjoy it much more once everything is organizedand put away. You kids can’t get most of what’s left on the truck, anyway. A lot of it is furniture.”
The four of them headed out the front door to the moving truck, waiting right where Stacey had parked it. She felt a bit of pride as she looked up at the hulking box truck. Sure, they rented these things to anyone with a license, but it still felt like an achievement to know that she’d managed to drive it all the way out there herself. Granted, her mother had been gripping the dashboard or the upholstery a bit too much, but they’d made it in one piece. Now, the challenge was to get it empty again. She unlocked and lifted the back gate.
Vivian was the first to climb up inside. “Mom, can we have a bonfire?”
“Oh.” Stacey smiled. She’d imagined long hours of building sandcastles, swimming, and reading in a lounge chair, but the bonfire idea hadn’t occurred to her. “That sounds nice. What do you think, Elijah?”
He had one knee up in the back of the truck. Elijah turned and looked at his mother with wide eyes. “Nu uh!”
“Why not? It sounds like fun to me. We could roast marshmallows and hot dogs.” Stacey smiled, knowing that they’d only been there a day or so, and already, it seemed that opportunities to bond were all aroundthem. This was exactly why she’d come out there to Truro, why she’d bought a beach house and left her job, and why she’d turned her life completely on its head. That’s what she needed, and she was finding it.
But Elijah wasn’t so convinced, at least not about the bonfire. “No way. Then the wolves will come.”
Stacey blinked. “Wolves?”
Vivian, who had found a box of her stuffed animals and was now dragging it toward the back of the truck, nodded. “When we were out playing on the sand last night, we saw some other people having a bonfire.”
“I see.” So that was where they got the idea. That was good to know, but it didn’t exactly solve the mystery at hand.
“And there were wolves with them,” Vivian finished.
“Wolves.” Stacey reached into the truck and grabbed an end table. “I don’t think there are any wolves around here, guys. They were probably just dogs.”
“No!” Elijah insisted. “These were wolves! Real wolves with pointy ears and long tails. I saw them with my own eyes.”
Carol handed him a box that’d been marked ‘Bathroom Stuff.’ “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a wolf. I should’ve been out there with you.”
“They were really big, Grandma,” Elijah said as he struggled to adjust the box in his hands. It was lightweight but awkward for his six-year-old arms. “Except for the baby one that was with them.”
“And you said they were right out there with people?” Carol snagged a small box.
“Yep,” Vivian confirmed. “Right out there with them like they were dogs.”
“Which is why they probablyweredogs,” Stacey concluded as she led the way back into the house. “Wolves don’t just go frolicking around on the beach with people.”
Elijah stuck out his lower lip. “But these ones did!”
“Tell me more about them,” Carol said as she elbowed her way in through the front door.
“Don’t encourage them,” Stacey warned. “They’re excitable from having moved into a new place, and they’re bound to get their imaginations going.”
“A little imagination never hurt anyone,” Carol replied. “Besides, I’m genuinely curious. If these were big dogs, then we should know about them. Orif they were something else, well, then we need to know about that, too.”
“What do I do with this?” Elijah asked, referencing the box in his hands.
“Let’s get that down the hallway into the guest bathroom, and we can talk in there,” Carol suggested. “Viv, can you get that one all right on your own?”
Vivian was already carrying the box up the stairs. “Uh huh. Mom, can I go ahead and unpack this one?”
Stacey was tempted to say no. They’d have time to unpack once they got the truck unloaded. On the other hand, she didn’t want to discourage any activity that meant they’d be another step closer to having their house finished. “That’s fine, honey.” She set down the end table she’d been carrying. It definitely wouldn’t be staying there next to the stairs, but she hadn’t yet decided on the right layout for the living room. Resigned to the fact that some chaos was bound to come along with their new life, she headed back outside.
Climbing into the truck, she put her hands on her hips and looked around. She’d hired movers to help with the big stuff, so she didn’t have to get any couches or large mattresses moved around on herown, but she was starting to think maybe she’d overestimated her own strength and skills. Carol would have to help her with Vivian’s dresser, which was long and guaranteed to be awkward. Maybe the chest of drawers that went in Elijah’s room wouldn’t be so bad. She pulled out one drawer just enough to get a grip on the frame and tugged. Sweat had broken out all over her body by the time she got it to the edge of the truck.
