“Me too. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Jake
“What time does Noah get here?” Cole sat on the couch guzzling down a Coke.
“Mel’s supposed to bring him by around five.”
“Then why’d you cancel practice? You could have at least made them run through some plays.”
I grabbed my own Coke. “It’s Halloween. It should be a national holiday.”
Cole laughed. “Dude, you’ve always been obsessed with Halloween.”
“I know. I finally have an excuse to celebrate it again.”
“You’ve really grown to like the kid, huh?” He put his feet up on the ottoman.
“Yeah. Noah’s my little buddy.”
“But what happens if Emily decides she’s done with you? You’ll lose both of them. Doesn’t that worry you?”
“Decides she’s done with me?”
“I’m just telling you, man. You have to protect yourself.”
“What did that girl do to you? Not every girl is going to suddenly decide they want to experiment.” I couldn’t resist giving him a hard time. Cole had been dumped by his long term college girlfriend when she decided to date her roommate instead. He didn’t take it well.
“Shut the f**k up, Mathews. At least I’m not playing house.”
“Playing house?” I crushed my empty can.
“You have to realize that’s what’s going on. You like pretending to have a family, but you don’t. At the end of the day, the kid’s not yours and you don’t have any responsibility.”
“Bullshit. I’m not playing at anything. I spend every second I can with them. I help take care of Noah.”
“Yeah? You spend your weekends with them, but when you get home on Monday are you worried about daycare, or whether he’s sick?”
“What’s your point, Cole?” Cole was always a worrier, but he didn’t usually include me in his neuroticism.
“My point is that what you have can’t last forever. Either you’re going to actually become a family or you’re going to say goodbye. I don’t want to deal with you if you’re the one who gets hurt.”
“Hurt?”
“Yeah. You don’t have responsibility but you also have no rights. If she doesn’t want you seeing him, you don’t.”
I was getting mad, really mad. “Where the hell is all this coming from?”
“I’m just looking out for you. She’s a great girl, but don’t lose sight of reality.”
“If you’re done, you can go home.”
“No, thanks.”
“What? You want to watch me ‘play house?’”
“No, I have my reasons.” He walked into the kitchen and helped himself to a bag of chips.
“Mel?” I finally put two and two together. I knew I recognized her from somewhere more than passing her in the halls during high school. “She’s the girl you hooked up with after homecoming senior year, isn’t she?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Still the best I ever had.”
I laughed. “You’re seriously freaking me out. First you’re worried about my wellbeing and now you’re getting nostalgic about a high school hook-up.”
He shrugged. “I’m supporting you with this whole kid thing. You could at least help me out.”
Supporting me? Was that what he called it? “Fine. Stay.”
“I was going to anyway.” He sat back down on the couch.
***
“A pumpkin? She dressed him up as a pumpkin?” I couldn’t believe my eyes when Mel came to the door with Noah dressed in a puffy orange costume.
“What’s wrong? He looks adorable.” Mel walked right in like she owned the place. I was beginning to see that was just her personality.
“Emily told me she had the costume taken care of. I thought that meant a dinosaur or a monster or something.”
“Don’t listen to the big meanie, Noah. You look great.” Mel put Noah down. He immediately ran into the den to find the toys I always left out for him.
“Don’t worry, buddy, I’ll pick out your costume next year,” I called after him.
“Hey, Mel.” Cole got off the couch.
“Hey.”
There was some serious awkwardness between those two. Normally I’d have said something to help, but I had more important things to do.
“All right, Noah. Let’s get this show on the road.”
Mel decided to drive all of us, so I sat in the back with Noah. It was a different car seat than Emily had, so Mel must have had her own. I knew they were close friends, but that seemed above and beyond. Mel was a lot cooler than I’d given her credit for.
We showed up at my parents’ house, and Mom was already waiting. Some moms get really into Christmas, but my mom was the Halloween type. I think that’s what made me love the holiday so much.
“Now look at that adorable pumpkin!” She scooped Noah up and carried him inside. Noah grinned at her, immediately reaching for one of her dangling witch earrings.
The rest of us followed.
Mom suddenly noticed Mel. “Hi. You’re Melanie, right?”
“Yes. It’s nice to see you, Mrs. Mathews.”
“It’s Mary.” Mom smiled. “It’s nice to see you too. It’s too bad Emily had to work this evening, but it was so nice of you to bring Noah up.” Mom set Noah down in a booster seat with some orange Play-Doh. My mom had been adamant about buying one. She claimed she’d need the seat for Ben’s baby eventually.
I laughed. “We all know she’s really here as Emily’s spy to make sure I don’t give Noah too much candy.”
Mom pulled some pizzas from the oven. “Since you’re the one responsible for putting him to bed tonight, I’d hope you’d be careful about that anyway.”
“Sure. Sure.” I was hoping Emily would magically get out early to help. I knew I could put him down, but I didn’t deal well when he cried.
“Are those pumpkin shaped pizzas?” Mel walked over to Mom.
“Uh huh. We always make them for Halloween.”
“Em would love this. She’s so into making special foods for the holidays.”
Mom smiled. “Emily and I seem to have a lot in common.” I was glad they got along. Mom was willing to bend over backwards to help me out if it was for a girl she approved of.
Once the pizza cooled, we dug in, but not before Mom took off Noah’s costume. That would have been my first screw up of the night. He would have been a pumpkin covered in red sauce.