"Hey Hype," Ike asks coming into the bedroom; smiling at me as I brush out my somewhat curly hair as I get ready for today. "Can I ask you something?"
"We are not having another kid," I say turning around sharply.
"Wasn't going to ask that, but thank you for the idea," he smirks.
"That was not an idea," I smile, looking back towards the mirror.
"Anyways, I was wondering if we could go out tonight, just the two of us. No Sketch, no Davey, just me and you." He says, wearing a seductive smile.
"And I'm guessing the harbor and wherever we get dinner." I add as he nods.
"Why aren't you selling with Star today?"
"No one can find Jasper and Ella and it's been a few days so…" I trail off, clipping a tiny bow in my hair.
"So we can start early!"
"This scares me but okay."
"Are we actually going to find Jasper and Ella?"
"Probably stuck in a tree, on a train, wait, then why haven't we slept in?" I groan slamming the brush on the dresser by accident. I start picking at my short, stubby nails –from my notorious biting my nails habit- as he begins to talk.
"Because it's already two in the afternoon and you did sleep in, until ten." He smiles cheekily, "Star would have killed you." Right, because she hates the fact that she has to come over every morning to pick me up and I'm usually still asleep. "Anyways, we haven't had lunch yet do you want to go somewhere or eat here."
"We can eat here, don't really have anything good; need to go grocery shopping. Save some money." I say, walking past him into the kitchen.
"Oh, I want to mention something to you." He calls out.
"Shoot," I say, then pause. "Not-not me, just speak. I won't interrupt."
"Okay, well, happy anniversary!"
"Oh my gosh, happy Anniversary to me too," I smile.
"It's not really our anniversary; it's just really cute when you get excited." He laughs, poking me in the side.
"Jerk," I mutter mostly to myself as I pull everything out of the kitchen cabinet as I give Ike a cheeky smile before he goes to the nursery to retrieve the kids.
…
"I'm so glad we did this," I smile, taking him hand in hand after taking the children to the landlady's - we worked out a schedule for babysitting. Star always likes to watch the twins, which is good, because I think something happened that made Lucy drift away from Star, which is actually pretty sad if you think about it. We reach the dock out of breath and he sits me in his canoe. He steps in to and sits as he rows us to our place under the pier, for all we know, we are the only ones who know how to reach it. This date has been somewhat horrid in a funny way as when we had cake for dessert Ike tried to feed me by putting small morsels on a plastic spoon and aiming it to my mouth. We got kicked out because of that but we don't care. And neither do they, as they let us back in as soon as they cleaned up the mess. Guiltily, we go back and finish the cake, tipping a little extra than normal. We ride in the boat for a long time as we find ourselves in his tiny rowboat seeing the beautiful Statue of Liberty in front of a gorgeous pink sunset. Sitting in awe as we watch the sun set over the horizon, Ike slowly takes my hand as I lightly blush, the bright pink matching that sunset.
"Quick Ike!" I yell, "follow that sunset!"
"Why?"
"because I just always wanted to scream that."
"Really?"
"Really."
"For sure?"
"For sure, now let's get back to the pier; I want to do something special."
"On one condition, I don't end up pregnant with a sixth child."
"That is so not happening," he jokes.
"Good, factory's closed. It's been closed since Cole was born."
"Then how did u have Bella and Luke?"
"Ask yourself Mister I'm going to have another child my wife never knew about until she threw up." I laugh as he grabs a handful of water and throwing it at me.
"Give it up," he laughs as I hit him in the face with water and seaweed.
"Then take us back to the pier," I laugh, throwing one last handful at him as it looks like he went to the bathroom in his pants. He shrugs it off as we both know the truth, but tonight we both know what's next. "What time is it anyways?"
"Almost eleven," he replies as we wordlessly ride back as the wave's rock us back and forth a little.
"Are you serious?" I gasp, hearing a church belle proves Ike right. Three and a half hours, to walk from the Lodging house and a boat. It's worth it though, we didn't have to pay for a ferry, making the night a little more personal. Star is going to kill me now, at least she's with kids that don't do anything but eat, sleep, cry and perform other bodily functions. We sit on the coast, feet in the water seconds later as we draw a giant heart and put our names in it. Looking distorted, we laugh as a soft wave takes it away. When I least expect it, Ike throws a handful of ocean water in my face.
"Ike, no." I plead, "I don't want to go home wet."
"We're both still wet from earlier," he smiles, tossing more at me, as its splashes against my face as I laugh then sputter.
"Okay, then." I say mischievously, "we'll play that way."
"I can't believe you just said that," he smirks at me, tossing more water at me.
"Ike I'm freezing," I say one hour later, drenched to the bone. I'm not really freezing and he knows that. It's almost September I think, not really keeping track of days and yet I sell for a newspaper, and I have to ask at least fifty times a day what day is it.
"Same, what do you want to do?" he replies, pulling me in for a hug.
"Ooh, we could run into each other like people do when they're in love and haven't seen each other in a long time," I say excitedly.
"What?"
"It happens a lot in the moving pictures," I reason.
"Great let's try it. So how do we do it?"
"Well, we run to a certain point," I say, dragging my feet to make a circle in the sand, a few feet away from the water. "So, right here, and so I just basically leap into your arms and smother me in kisses or vice versa."
"Works for me, so how far away do we have to run?"
"I don't really know let's say a few yards from this circle?"
"Great." He says as we run a few yards and smiles at me. "Ready?"
"Go!" I yell.