I woke up and my eyes immediately turned toward the window. The sun wasn’t out yet, but my bedroom was illuminated by the street lights that were casting an orange glow over everything, creating a peaceful setting. There were cars down below, saying hello to the new day. Or maybe they never said goodbye to yesterday. I looked at the clock beside my bed only to find that it was 3:45 in the morning. Way too early for Isaac Hanson to be waking up. But there I was, oddly wide awake.
I listened to the humming of the cars on the streets of New York. It truly is the city that never sleeps. Maybe that’s why Casey loves it so much. Because it’s so restless and alive at all times of the day. Even at four in the morning.
It had been nearly two full weeks since Casey and Chris showed up and Casey hadn’t gone out to enjoy the city once. It was so unlike her. Maybe having Chris had changed her a little bit, but I just couldn’t see her not wanting to go out and enjoy it. I couldn’t see her not wanting Chris to be able to experience something she loved so much. I tried to think of possibilities and the only thing I could come up with is that maybe she didn’t want to go by herself. Though I don’t know why she wouldn’t ask Zac or me to go with her.
I crawled out of bed, knowing that I would never get back to sleep. I was already awake and my mind was already running full speed. With dim lighting from the street lights outside, I found a pair of jeans and threw them on over my boxers before exiting my bedroom. With my arms held above my head in a much needed stretch, I quietly shuffled through the quiet apartment, not wanting to wake anyone. Just because I had to suffer from waking up too early doesn’t mean everyone else had to.
I heard faint giggling as soon as I stepped into the living room on my way to the kitchen. I raised my eyebrows in curiosity as I flipped on a lamp that was beside the couch. The light revealed Ezra and Christian sitting on the floor in the middle of the living room. They had something in their hands, and they tried to hide it as soon as soon as they realized that they had been busted. With as many times as Ezra had stayed over though, I knew exactly what they were hiding.
“Fork it over,” I told them, holding my hand out.
“We don’t have anything,” Ezra told me. You can always tell when Ezra is lying by his eyes. They always turn a shade or two closer to grey.
“Ezra,” I said, trying to place a hint of warning in my voice. Whether it ever works or not is completely beyond me.
“Yes?” He said, acting innocent though he knew that I knew what they were doing. We’d gone through it enough times.
“Give me the jar,” I told him sternly.
I heard a noise behind him and then he held out an empty jar. Smartass kid. “Put the chocolate back in it and then give it to me.”
“No,” he said defiantly. Now I was sure he was just showing off in front of Christian.
“Don’t make me go wake up Zac.” Christian giggled as Ezra moved to pick up the candy that he’d dropped from the jar behind his back and put it in the glass container. I knew bringing Zac into it would do the trick. Zac was more authoritative when it came to him. He did just about anything Zac asked him to do, but I was more of a softie and I let him get away with more. And he knew this very well.
He held the jar out to me with the remaining chocolate, and I was surprised to find that there wasn’t very much left when the jar was nearly full the day before. I took it from him, still amazed at how much was gone.
“How much did you guys have?” I questioned.
“Not much!” Ezra answered quickly.
“Christian, how much did you guys have?” I asked him. He merely looked up at me bashfully.
“That’s what I thought,” I said.
Ezra nudged Chris and gave him a disappointed when he thought I wasn’t watching. “You should have said what I said,” he said quietly.
“The candy wrappers on the floor behind you kind of gave you away,” I said with a smirk. The look on their faces was a perfect. They‘d been caught red handed. “Pick them up and put them in the trash,” I called as I walked to the kitchen with the nearly empty candy jar in my hands. I put it out of their reach, on top of the fridge, and pulled out the can of coffee from the cupboards.
I listened to their quiet banter as I prepared a pot of my morning caffeine. It was so different having Chris around. We had Ezra around, sure, but it was so different when there were two boys. And one of them we couldn’t just send home. He was home.
Having Casey around felt so different, and yet so familiar. It wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable. It was almost like she’d just gone on a little vacation and came back. We were excited, but it wasn’t the kind of excitement that made you want to yell it for the whole world to hear. She was back, and that’s all it was.
The boys walked behind me, carrying in their little hands, a bunch of foil from the chocolate they’d gotten into.
“How long have you two been awake?” I quizzed. I finished setting up the coffee pot and made my way toward the kitchen table.
“An hour,” Ezra answered quickly. Ezra’s one hour was two to everyone else. The kid seriously had no sense of time.
“You guys should probably go back to sleep for a couple hours.” I straightened a few things up on the table before taking a seat.
Ezra turned away from the trash can quickly and looked at me pleadingly. “We’re not tired, are we Chris?”
Christian shook his head no and looked at me with the same eyes.
“Please, don’t make us,” Ezra begged. “I love you,” he added with a grin as I opened my mouth to protest. That did it.
“Okay, but be quiet because everyone else is sleeping.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Ezra repeated excitedly as he threw his arms around my neck. I looked over his head to see Chris smiling.
“Don’t you two get me in trouble for letting you stay up,” I warned as Ezra unraveled himself from my neck.
“We won’t,” Chris replied quietly.
“We won’t what?” We all turned to see Casey standing in the doorway, looking more awake than I was.
“What are you doing up?” I asked, avoiding her question.
“What are you doing up?” She countered.
“Couldn’t sleep,” I answered.
“Me neither. And why are you two up?” She asked the two boys who were still standing in the kitchen.
“Couldn’t sleep,” Ezra answered swiftly with the most innocent smile I’d ever seen.
Casey smiled suspiciously at them before turning her attention toward the fridge. She pulled a glass down out of the cabinet and filled it with orange juice. From the corner of my eyes, I could see Ezra and Chris whispering and I wondered what they were up to.
“Mommy, can we have some candy?” Chris asked.
I smirked and shook my head disbelievingly.
“Not this early,” she said as she sat down at the table. “In fact you should probably go back to bed for a few hours.”
Chris poked his bottom lip out as far as he could as he climbed into Casey’s lap. His arms found their way around her neck. He was sitting kind of awkwardly with her pregnant belly between them, but it was cute. “But you’re awake,” he reasoned.
She looked at his face and frowned. Wiping at his face, she asked, “why do you have chocolate on your mouth?”
“It’s not chocolate!” He said quickly, wiping at his own mouth with the back of his hand. Casey grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand away.
“Then what is it?”
“It’s probably from the candy from last night,” Ezra interjected.
I looked pointedly at him. “I know for a fact your parents don’t want you to lie,” I told him.
“What do you know?” Casey asked me.
“They were in the candy this morning.”
“Ike!” Ezra exclaimed.
“Shh! Zac’s still sleeping,” I warned.
“You two need to go to bed,” Casey affirmed, unwrapping Christian’s arms from around her neck.
“But…” Chris started.
“No buts. Get up.”
He did what she said, standing up and then stood there. She stood up and walked out of the kitchen, both boys reluctantly following her. She came back wearing a tired grin.
“Boys are so much trouble,” she mentioned as she sat down at the table and took a drink of the orange juice she’d poured minutes earlier.
“Especially when there’s two,” I laughed and she nodded in agreement.
We sat there for a few minutes, not saying anything. The boys were back in bed, or at least being quiet, and Zac was still sleeping. Outside of the apartment, the world was still alive, but inside it was very much still sleeping.
“So,” she finally started, holding her glass with both hands. “How’s the family?”
I smiled, thinking about how corny it would have sounded had I not known she was serious.
“Pretty good,” I told her. “Jessica had a baby.”
She nodded. “That’s what I heard when I was down there. They said she moved to…”
“Texas,” I answered. “She tried to get in touch with you for the wedding…”
“I know. Mike wanted us to have an unlisted number.” I saw the look in her eyes go from light to dark at the memory. There was a part of me that wanted to know what was flashing through her mind at that exact moment, but another part told me that I didn’t. I decided to stick with the latter.
“You should go out today. Take advantage of the nice weather and the city,” I suggested, thinking back on my ponderings not even an hour earlier.
She looked at me thoughtfully before shaking her head. “Maybe another day,” she declined.
“Are you sure? We probably won’t have very many more days like this before it gets really hot.”
“I know. I just don’t feel like it today.” I took note of the sadness in her voice, but didn’t press the issue. Years of experience told me that I couldn’t make her do anything that she didn’t want to do.
“Is there anything you do want to do today?” I asked. I couldn’t see her sitting cooped up all day in the apartment.
She shrugged and took another drink of her orange juice. I could tell she was trying to avoid the subject. I knew there was a reason, I just didn’t know what it was.
“Actually, you know what?” She said with a look of determination on her face. “Do you want to go to Central Park with us or something?”
I was completely baffled by her change of heart, but I agreed with just a nod of my head.
“Okay,” she nodded and took another drink of her orange juice. Her face took on that distant look that had been so common since she’d gotten here with Chris.
I decided not to push it as I got up to pour myself a cup of freshly brewed coffee. She’d reveal what was on her mind when she was ready.