ElijahI called the house small because, compared to the other places around, it was the size of a shack, but it had three bedrooms and a study, so it wasn’t all that small.
Showing Sadie around it, I watched her fall in love with the house and location and breathed a sigh of relief.
“When you said the bay, I pictured it as a tiny house on the beach in the middle of nowhere,” she told me, walking up to the large windows that overlooked the water. “It’s beautiful.”
In front of the house was a yard that led onto a small patch of beach and a jetty into the sea. Leaning over her shoulder, I pointed to an enclosed pavilion to the side. “There are chairs and a table in there we can take onto the jetty if you want, or you can just sit on the jetty itself.”
“Can I swim in the sea?” she asked excitedly.
“I wouldn’t, and the only reason I say that is because there’s been a lot of shark sightings this year for some reason, so until they can figure out what’s drawing them in, it’s probably best to keep you and the baby safe, right? But there’s a pool to the right, just behind that panel there. We put it up for privacy because we used to get a lot of people and land developers driving up until we put the fences up further back.”
Smiling widely up at me, she clapped her hands. “I can’t wait to go in. How warm is the water in the pool? Is it a jacuzzi?”
Frowning, I remembered something I’d read online. “Pregnant women aren’t allowed in hot baths, it’s not good for the baby. I’ll double-check the temperatures and then take the temp of the water in the pool—”
“Don’t you dare,” she snapped, the smile gone now. “It’s a swimming pool, not a bath.”
I nodded at her to confirm I understood, but I was still going to do it. I’d learned very early that it was the best way to deal with what she was going through inside her body, so now I just nodded and smiled whenever it happened.
“The kitchen’s through here,” I led her over to the dividing wall between the living room and kitchen. We upgraded it shortly after we bought it, so it was modern and had everything you could imagine in it. “There’s also a half bathroom down here and three full ones upstairs.”
Seeing the framed photos on the wall, she walked over to look at them. I knew the images off by heart and remembered everything we were doing when they were taken.
“Is this Cooper?” she asked gently, pointing at a photo of us at graduation.
“Yeah, they almost didn’t let him graduate because he wasn’t wearing pants—” I paused “—at all under the robe.”
Looking more closely, she burst out laughing. “I thought he had on shorts or something.”
“Eventually, so did they, but he wasn’t. There’d been a vote to see where we wanted the ceremony to happen—inside or outside. Well, we all wanted the sun because we’re Floridians, so that’s where they set it up. Anyway, Coop was dared the night before after two bottles of tequila to go with nothing but this big old stallion thong on under his gown. The guidance counselor initially refused to let him get in the line-up, but he told her he had on shorts under it and offered to show her.”
Looking over her shoulder at me, she asked, horrified, “He didn’t, did he?”
Crossing over to stand behind her, I grinned at how happy Coop looked in the photo. “She said it was okay and to go ahead. So I’m standing there, waiting for my turn to leave my chair and get in the line for the stage, when his name’s called. He was still drunk, so he carefully walked up the stairs like he was being tested on it, crosses the stage—” I started laughing hard at the memory.
“He— Jesus Christ. Just as he gets to the principal who’s standing with his hand out, waiting to shake Coop’s, this huge gust of wind separates the front of the robe, and out pops this cock stallion with those weird googly eyes that shake around.” I was laughing so hard by this point, I knew I was going to struggle to get the next words out.
“So, we’re all sitting there, staring at this horse covered penis, its- its eyes rattling around, and the principal is looking at it like it was going to explode. Cooper turns to the audience, swings it back and forth, and g-goes—” I wheezed, tears streaming down my face “—Neigh, fuckers, neigh!”
When I looked at Sadie, she was holding onto the back of the nearest chair, her face bright red because she was laughing so hard. “What did his parents do?”