Chapter Six: Lost In The Crowd

Manny stirred and awoke as she heard her daughter's crying on the baby monitor. She rolled over and looked at the clock. They had only been sleeping for an hour, but the kids would be home soon. Manny got up and walked into Isabella's room, picking her up out of the crib and switching off the baby monitor.

"How's my little angel?" she cooed at the baby. Isabella smiled at her and Manny walked back into her bedroom. She placed her daughter down right next to Jimmy. They looked so cute together. Bella was waving her hands around and accidentally smacked Jimmy in the face, waking him.

"Why'd you hit me?" Jimmy asked without opening his eyes.

"I didn't," Manny replied. This time he did open his eyes and his face broke out into a huge grin.

"Hey baby. Daddy's awake now, you can stop hitting me," he laughed and sat up before picking Bella up. Manny and Jimmy went downstairs to the kitchen, where Manny took Bella to feed her and Jimmy started making snacks for Lily, Lucas, and Jon.

"No more school!" the three kids yelled as they ran into the house a few minutes later. They took a seat at the kitchen table and Jimmy gave them their snacks.

"I can't wait to be in fourth grade," Jonathan said proudly.

"I'm glad that it's summer," Lucas said.

"Next year is my last year in elementary school!" Lily added.

"Mom, where are we going for our vacation this summer?" Lucas asked.

"I don't know if we can go anywhere…" Manny replied.

"Why not?" all three kids whined.

"Your sister is only a few weeks old. She's not really old enough to take long trips," she explained to them.

"Can't we take a trip without her?" Lucas whined more.

"And who would watch her?" Jimmy asked him.

"Chris could!" Lily interjected.

"Absolutely not. End of conversation. We'll talk about this later," Jimmy said, ending the subject.

"Oh, by the way, I'm having Paige and Emma over tomorrow," Manny told her husband.

"Yay!" the twins and Jon yelled.

"Try not to have too much fun," Jimmy joked.

"Are Avery and Maia coming too?" Lily asked. Avery and Maia were her best friends.

"I'm sure they will," Manny told her.

"Can they sleepover?" she asked her mom.

"I'll talk it over with Paige," she answered. "Why don't you guys tell us about your last day of school?" Manny suggested. She had just finished feeding Bella and was burping her. All three kids started at once.

"One at a time," Jimmy told them. "Jonathan can go first." After Jon told about his day, Lily did, and then Lucas. Manny and Jimmy sat back, soaking in all of their kids' energy. They loved every minute of it.


"Come in!" Manny yelled. The front door opened and Paige, Avery, and Maia walked in. Emma was already there, sitting in the living room with Manny. The girls instantly ran upstairs to Lily's room. "Lily wants to know if they can sleepover tonight," Manny told Paige.

"Yeah, I already heard. She called them last night. I brought over clothes for them if that's okay," Paige said.

"That's fine. They love spending time together."

"I was thinking that when I pick them up tomorrow, Lily can come home with us and sleepover my house," she told Manny.

"Sounds good to me. But anyways, we've been waiting for you. Emma has some news to tell you," Manny said.

"Thanks a lot Manny," Emma complained. "I just told you that I wasn't ready to tell anyone else!" Paige sat down on the couch next to Emma.

"You can tell me anything Em!" she said. "We're all best friends here, right?"

"Well, yeah, but…"

"No buts, just tell me," Paige said, eager for the news.

"I'm pregnant," she said. Paige squealed and rubbed Emma's stomach.

"This is so exciting!" Paige yelled. Emma rolled her eyes. "Why are you not excited?"

"Because I wasn't planning this. As I told Manny yesterday, I wanted to wait two more years!"

"If you didn't plan it, then how would it happen?" Paige asked, obviously confused. "I thought you were on birth control pills."

"Yeah, I was. But after spying on my husband a little, I caught him messing with them! He replaced them with a fricken placebo so I'd get pregnant! I should have known, seeing as he's been bugging me for a baby ever since we got married!" Emma started to yell.

"Why didn't you tell me this?" Manny asked, with a shocked look on her face.

"It never came up," Emma said, shrugging her off. She stood up to go get a drink, and Manny and Paige noticed a huge bruise on her thigh.

"What happened to your leg?" Paige asked.

"What are you talking about?" Emma asked her, pretending to be clueless.

"Right here," Manny said, lifting up her skirt a bit. Emma slapped her hand and she immediately let go of the skirt. Manny gave her a look. "How did you get that bruise Emma? Is there something you're not telling us?" she asked.

"No! Of course not!" Emma yelled.

"Then why won't you just tell us?" Paige asked her.

"Because, it's really embarrassing," she said.

"Did JT…" Emma didn't let Manny finish her question.

"No, JT did not hurt me! He'd never do that! Wow, if you really must know, I was playing with the dog in the backyard and ran right into one of the strings that hold up our volleyball net. I didn't want to tell you because I knew you'd make fun of me for being so klutzy! Now if you'll excuse me, I need a drink of water." Emma stormed off into the kitchen. When she was gone, Manny and Paige exchanged weird looks.

"Do you believe her?" Manny whispered.

"I don't know, I guess so. Why would she lie to us?" Paige asked.

"Well, I was just thinking that maybe JT could have done it. She told me that he was laid off and started drinking. I just want to make sure she's okay," Manny explained. They heard Emma walking back into the room, so they stopped talking.

"What should we do guys?" she asked as she opened her water bottle.

"We could go to the mall like we used to, eat out at The Dot, rent a movie, or take the kids to the park," Manny suggested.

"We can take the kids to the park, do some shopping, go out to eat, rent a movie, and come back here to watch it," Paige said, putting all of her suggestions together.

"Sure, why not?" Emma said.


Nearly eight hours later, Emma, Manny, Paige, and the kids busted into Manny's house. Jimmy had fallen asleep on the couch while watching television. Manny woke him up by kissing him.

"I was waiting for you to come back, but I guess there's still a party going on," he said, smiling. "I'm beat, so I'm gonna go to bed. Have fun you guys," he said to the three women. "I love you," he told Manny and kissed her.

"I love you too," she said back to him. Then Jimmy kissed Lily, Lucas, and Jonathan on their cheeks, told them that he loved them, and took Bella from Manny. He brought her upstairs, put her in her crib, and then went to bed.

Lucas and Jon ran up to Luc's room to watch "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns," the two movies that they rented. Lily, Avery, and Maia went up to Lily's room to watch "Shrek" and "Shrek 2." Manny, Paige, and Emma settled onto the couch with popcorn and their movie, which was "Raising Helen."

After their movie was over, Manny went upstairs to check on the kids. The girls were all asleep with their second movie playing in the background. Manny turned the TV off and pulled their blankets over them. Then they went to Luc's room and found the boys acting out fight scenes while watching the second movie. Manny laughed and closed the door so they wouldn't wake up the girls. Her last stop was Bella's room. She was sound asleep in her crib. Manny leaned over the side and kissed her on the cheek. When she went back downstairs, Emma and Paige were asleep on the couch, one at either end. She turned the lights off and went upstairs. She was too tired to put her pajamas on, so she stripped off her clothes and bra, and jumped under the covers in her underwear. She rolled over into Jimmy and fell asleep instantly.