Let's Be Crazy (Oh Captain, My Captain 4)

I knock on the door and pray that Sadie is all ready to leave. This way I can grab her and leave. I don’t want to be lingering around staring or drooling over Ashton.

“Hey.” His hazel eyes greet me at the door.

I give him a small smile.

“They’re in the middle of a movie. Come on in.”

I nod and step into the house.

“Hi, Mommy. We’re having a campout again.”

“That looks like fun.”

“You can sit here.” Ashton points to the couch, and I sit at the other end from him.

“You’re doing it wrong, Miss Lexie.” Reed stands up.

“What am I doing wrong?”

He tugs on my hand until I’m sitting next to Ashton. “We’re pretending that it’s the ice age like in the movie. Everyone needs a buddy, and you can be Dad’s.”

“Reed,” Ashton sighs.

“No, Dad. It’s the ice age, you don’t want Miss Lexie to be lost, do you?”

I look at Ashton, but he turns away. “Fine.”

“You two can share a blanket, like Sadie and me.” He covers us up and goes back to lie next to Sadie.

My hands are shaking, and I keep them under the blanket. I’m so close to Ashton that I can feel his body heat. It feels like an eternity until the movie ends, and Ashton can’t move fast enough to get away from me.

“All right, Sadie, it’s time to go.”

I quickly gather her stuff and hustle her out to the car. I don’t even make it all the way into the house this time before the tears come.

“Mommy, are you okay?”

I nod. “Let’s get some hot chocolate.” I try to sound cheerful, but it’s hard to do with tears rolling down my face. I quickly make the drink, and Sadie sits at the table. When I set the drink in front of her, she doesn’t touch it at all. “Sadie, do you not like it?”

“Mommy, why do you hate Mr. Ashton? Is it because he kissed you?”

“Wh…what?”

“Reed heard Miss Brooke talking and she said that you kissed Mr. Ashton but you hate him now.”

“I….I…” My mouth is open but no thoughts or words are leaving it. What do I say? What do I do? Why the hell isn’t there a book on this so I can have the answer?

“I’m going to bed, Mommy.”

Sadie slides off the chair and goes to her room. I still can’t catch my breath. The CIA has nothing on small children, that I do know.

Maybe I should call Tiff? No, wait, she isn’t talking to me. What about Brooke? No, that would just be an awkward conversation. I’ll deal with all this in morning after I have a bottle of wine.

~

My head hurts so badly. I’m rubbing my temples, hoping the pounding will stop soon. I wanted to talk to Sadie this morning, but I overslept and was rushing. I’ll talk to her after school.

Tiff walks into my office and slams the door. “We’ve got several events coming up, and we need to to get stuff in order.”