Chapter four
I walk up to Susan's house, Lexi holding my hand tightly, a little shy on her first night here. I knock on the door and chuck answers.
"Hey man"
"Hey chuck, you remember Lexi"
"Well hi pretty lady" He bends down to her level.
"Hi" She hides behind me a little as we walk inside. She's not usually like this, but I need to give her some time to warm up. Once she meets Abbys son, she'll probably open up a little with another kid around.
I walk inside and the home is inviting, candles lit and the smell of a home cooked meal permeating throughout the house.
"Hi guys!" Susan hasn't seen Lexi in over a year.
"Lex, you know Susan!" Susan bends over to hug her as Abby walks in behind me.
"Hey" I turn around to greet her. This is the first time I have seen her outside of work. Her hair is down, and she is wearing a pair of tight jeans and boots. She looks beautiful. I've gotten to know her a little bit more in the last couple of days. We haven't talked too personally though; she seems a little bit closed off. I don't blame her, she is going through a really tough time and her son must be having a tough time as well.
"You must be Jake" He shakes his head. He's adorable; he looks just like his pretty mom. "I heard you went to the circus last night" Jake gives me a big smile.
"Jake this is my friend John, he works at the hospital with me" She bends down to talk to him and smiles, her hair falling in her face. "Tell him about the circus"
"The elephants stood on each others backs and then they all stood on a ball in the middle of the ring!" He makes big gestures with his hands.
"Wow, how cool! Hey Jake, this is my daughter Lexi" I pull her over in front of me.
"I went to the circus last night" This kid is hilarious and outgoing. The two kids run off to the television as Abby hurries into the kitchen to help Susan set the table.
An hour later, the kids have finished their dinner and are back in front of the television, the four adults still talking around the table. This is just what I needed in my first week here. Chuck is great and Abby is great. I've got two more friends in this new city and I'm starting to feel at home here; and by the looks of it, Lexi is too.
"So, when's the wedding" I ask Susan and she looks over at chuck.
"Well, we don't know, if we were going by the examples that you two have set for us, we probably won't get married at all"
Abby and I both laugh at ourselves. I'm glad she's got a sense of humor about this. This is probably the first time I have seen her laugh. I think I'm quite attracted to her. This is definitely someone that I would want to date if she wasn't separated and still contemplating going back to her husband. Abby gets up from the table to clear it and I get up to help her so Susan can relax. I walk behind her and set the plates down on the sink and as she turns around and bumps right into me, her hands pushing off my chest. I grab her elbows to steady her as she laughs a little. I stand over her and look down smiling as she smiles back.
"Mommy" Jake runs into the kitchen breaking our moment, or at least what I thought might be a moment.
"Yes baby" You can tell how much she adores her son.
"Can Lexi come over to our house to go swimming?" She turns her son my way.
"Sure, why don't you ask her daddy when she can come"
"When can Lexi come over?"
"How about tomorrow afternoon" I look past Jake at Abby to see if that's ok. She shakes her head yes and smiles as Jake runs back into the den yelling, "Lexi, they said tomorrow!"
I give Abby a look that suggests her son is a great kid.
"He's a womanizer, takes after his dad" she says sarcastically with a smile.
I knock lightly on Abby's door as I inspect the outside of her house. It's a nice piece of property, her husband must be doing very well in the money department, because doctors now a' days don't make what they used to. She answers the door in a pair of jean shorts and flip-flops, her long blond hair piled on top of her head. She gives me a warm smile as Jake runs past her and out the door to greet Lexi.
"Lexi, did you bring your bathing suit?"
He is so excited that she's here. Lexi shakes her head at him and lifts her shirt to show him that she is already wearing one.
"Hey" I smile at Abby and walk inside after the kids.
"Hey, Jakes been talking about Lexi ever since we left Susan's last night. I think he has a crush"
"Well Lexi had her bathing suit on at eight o'clock this morning." We smile at each other. It's great that Lexi has a friend here. It's great that I have a friend here.
I follow Abby as we walk through the house and out the double doors to the pool. We take a seat at the table outside as she hands me a coke and a glass of ice. Jake takes a running start and jumps right into the pool, making a silly pose on his way in. Lexi slowly walks in using the steps like a little lady. I watch Abby pour her diet coke into her glass of ice while she keeps one eye on the kids; she shakes her head and sits upright looking out at her son.
"Jakey, you know the rule. You can not go into the deep end unless I'm in the pool with you."
"Well when are you coming in then?"
"I'm not coming in this time so you just have to stay in the shallow part"
We sit both facing the pool to watch the kids, they are having a blast together. We make small talk about the hospital and about the kids and then there is a silence. She gets up and walks over to the deep end of the pool signaling me to follow. She slips her thongs off and sits on the edge, dipping her legs into the pool, the whole time never taking her eyes off the children. I sit next to her and do the same. She starts to say something and then hesitates, but then it comes out.
"So, what's the situation with your ex-wife? You don't have to share custody of Lexi?"
Okay, so now I know why she moved us to this end of the pool, this is not a "kids" conversation and they can't hear us over here.
"Its kind of complicated" She rolls her eyes at me, like she isn't going through her own complications. "My ex-wife, Ali, she wasn't really meant to be a mother, but Lexi was the best accident of my life. Ali never bonded with her the way a mother bonds to their child, ya know." She shakes her head as she listens to me. "We got married because I got her pregnant. That was obviously for the wrong reasons." I take a deep breath. "She thought that raising a child was a chore, she didn't want that kind of responsibility. She didn't really want to be a family; she wanted to be single and not tied down to anything. I raised Lexi basically by myself."
"That must have been hard." She lets the water run through her fingers as she looks up at me with a sympathetic expression.
"It was. I don't know . . . the hardest part wasn't raising a child on my own really. There was just this missing piece with Ali. She had this beautiful daughter and a husband that would have done anything to make things perfect, but she didn't see it, she didn't want it. . . Eventually I stopped trying to change that and I gave up and moved out here" I pause for a second and then remember her original question. "So I guess she'll fly out there maybe once a month to see her mother."
I take my eyes off the kids and look at her; I can tell that she is listening closely, thinking about what she is going to say next. I spare her having to respond and ask her about herself.
"So how long have you been separated?" I ask gently, not really knowing if I should go there.
"Trent moved out only six days ago." I actually knew that already, but she probably doesn't know that Susan told me.
"How is Jake taking it?"
"I don't think he really gets what's going on. He thinks that his dad is working on a case and is living in a hotel because he needs to concentrate on his work. I explained to him that he was going to be spending time with his parents separately and he asked me if I was mad at his daddy."
"Ouch, what'd you say?"
"Of course I didn't tell him that his dad is an unappreciative, manipulative, self centered asshole" She smirks at her candidness. "I just said that we are going to live in two separate houses for a while." She pulls her sunglasses off of her head and lets her hair down from its clip, shaking her head to let her hair fall down her back. "How do you tell your six year old son that his parents might be getting divorced?"
I'm not sure if she is really asking me or if that is just a rhetorical question. I'm saved by Jake though, who is squirting us with a water gun from the other side of the pool.
"Jake!!! Stop with the gun, we're soaked" She shouts at him as he jumps back into the pool. I get up and grab a towel, handing it to her as I sit back down.
"Thank you" she wipes her arms and hands it back to me so I can wipe myself off, then she grabs her wet hair to pull it out of her face. I look at her as she closes her eyes, pulling her blond locks into a clip. How can anyone not want this woman? She is beautiful and sweet and smart and sexy. Her husband must be a real ass.
"Daddy, I'm done swimming" Lexi walks over to me with her towel, handing it over so I can wrap her up warmly in it. Abby does the same with Jake pulling him into her lap and attacking him with kisses. She is a great mom, the kind of mother that Lexi needs, the kind that I wish she had.
"You guys want peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?" She offers with a voice full of sunshine. She is really good at appearing unfazed by her current situation. I just hope those smiles she flashes aren't fake, because they're beautiful and they seem so genuine.
"Ya!!" They shout simultaneously.
I watch Abby walk into the house, the phone ringing as she steps inside to answer it. She is at the kitchen phone which is only about ten feet away from the table outside where I am sitting with the kids. I hear half a conversation as Jake and Lexi sip their juice and laugh together.
"Hello . . . I'm fine . . .Trent, I told you I didn't want to talk about that yet . . . I can't tonight . . . I don't know, um, maybe some time this week. . . ya"
She sticks her head out the door.
"Jakey, daddy's on the phone"
His face lights up as he jumps from his chair and runs into the house; Abby sitting down next to me at the table and handing Lexi a sandwich. It seems like her husband calling has just brought her down a little.
"Everything okay?" I ask her concerned but I hope she doesn't think that I'm prying. She shakes her head yes and gives me a roll of her eyes that tells me that she wasn't so happy to hear from him right now.
"So Lexi, what do you think of Chicago so far?" She brushes it off; she's a pro at this.
"It's good. I like the swimming pool. We didn't get to go swimming that much in Denver."
"Well you can come swimming here anytime you want"
Lexi smiles at her with wide eyes as she takes a big bite of her sandwich. I move to gather up our things as Jake comes running out of the kitchen in a hurry.
"Mommy! Mom! Can I sleep at daddy's hotel tomorrow night?!"
She looks off at the pool for a second and then back at Jake. I can tell that she doesn't want him to go.
"Sure baby, tell daddy to pick up some clothes for you on his way home from work tomorrow."
"Will you come too mommy, it will be like were on vacation!"
"No, Jakey I'm going to work tomorrow night."
"But you never come with me and daddy" He whines a little and Abby cuts him off.
"Daddy's waiting on the phone baby, go tell him"
Jake runs back in the house and I suddenly remember seeing the hospital schedule for tomorrow, Abby's name was absent from the night shift. I bet she is going to try to switch her shift so she doesn't have to be alone. I would love to invite her over for diner, but I don't think it's the appropriate time.
Jake walks back out of the kitchen and yells for Lexi to follow him as they grab their sandwiches and run over to the swing set, leaving me and Abby to relax at the table. It seems like she's staring off into space a little and I suddenly feel guilty for looking at her the way that I am. She really is adorable and I can't help that I'm attracted to her and that I think she is great, but she isn't an option for me at all, if she could work things out with her husband, that would be best for her family. It seems like she has really been hurt by him a lot though. She can hide it all she wants, but I can see it in her eyes. I'm surprised that she has opened up a little bit to me, but glad about it, I can already tell that we could have a great friendship.
"Thank you for having us, I was kind of worried that it would be hard for Lexi to make friends seeing as school doesn't start for another ten weeks."
"Well, I'm sending Jake to a summer camp at the youth center. Would you be interested in sending Lexi?"
That actually sounds like a great idea. Lexi can spend more time with Jake and maybe I can spend a little more time with his mom.
"Ya, I think she would love that"