“Where are you going?” Emma follows me from my bedroom to the living room as I retrace my steps.
Our ride to the airport will be here any second, and I still can’t find my stupid phone.
“Emma, honey, we’ve talked about this several times. Nora and I are going on a little trip, remember?”
“But I wanna go.”
“For the hundredth time,” Jack shouts, “you can’t go.”
“Jack, don’t yell at your sister, please,” my mom scolds gently. “Have you guys seen your dad’s phone?”
Jack and Emma shake their heads.
“Wing-wing.” Henry squeals from the living room floor, pushes himself to his chubby knees, and stands up. My little guy wobbles but manages to right himself and holds my phone out. “Wing!”
“That’s right, the phone rings.” I slip my cell into my pocket, pick up Henry, and tickle his belly. “You little stinker. Did you have my phone this whole time?”
His infectious giggle fills the air.
“Knock knock!” Nora opens the front door, wheeling a giant pink suitcase behind her.
Emma rushes to her. “Can I go wif you? Pwease?”
“I’m sorry, sweetie, not this time.” Nora squats down to Emma’s level. “Oh, no, Emma, don’t cry.”
Too late.
“I don’t want my daddy to weave.” Emma goes from dry eyes to a snotty mess of tears in three seconds flat.
“Emma.” She throws herself at me and doesn’t let go. “Don’t weave me, Daddy.”
Talk about breaking my heart. God, this is so much harder than I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled at the idea of an entire weekend to myself—no poopy diapers, screaming kids, or fights to break up—but I have a feeling it’s those things I’ll miss the most. Well, maybe not the poop.
Nora rubs Emma’s back. “We’ll be back before you know it. One night, that’s it.”
&n
bsp; “One?” Emma lifts her head from my neck and wipes her face with her arm. “I fought you said two nights.”
Nora looks at me curiously.
“Mom figured since she made the drive up here, she might as well stay the whole weekend. I was going to surprise you with it once we got in the car. But if it doesn’t work out for our flight and what you’ve got planned, we can always come back early.”
“No.” Nora shakes her head and looks excited. “This is great. It’ll give me the opportunity to show you around a little bit more. But maybe I should’ve packed a few more outfits.”
I want to tell her she won’t need more clothes because I plan on keeping her naked most of the time, but that’s not appropriate for little ears.
“Don’t you have clothes at your house in LA?”
“Well, yeah, I guess. I’m never there, so I don’t really know what’s hanging in the closet.”
Emma continues to wail, and Mom takes her out of my arms.
“Dry those tears, pumpkin. We’re gonna have so much fun this weekend.”
“We are?” Emma sniffs.
“You bet. Nana and Papa have lots of fun stuff planned.”