Four days had passed since my little chat with Casey and she had yet to talk to Zac. She kept herself busy with Chris and she took to cleaning the entire apartment. It was clean when she got there, but after she’d gotten through with it, it was spotless. On more than one occasion, I’d even caught her getting ready to wash the walls and had to stop her. It was as if, as Zac had said before, we had to keep an eye on her every minute of every day.
Taylor and Natalie brought over Ezra’s old crib and Casey insisted on putting it together herself. Even Chris and Ezra weren’t allowed in there to help her. So, while she had locked herself in the room, determined to put the bed together herself, the rest of us brought in, from Taylor’s car, the other baby stuff that they’d thought to bring over. We were pulling stuff out of the bags, lining it all up on the coffee table when we heard a loud thump from the other room.
“I’m okay!” She called laughing after all of us had immediately jumped up to go see what was going on.
While the rest of us sat back down, assured that she was okay, Zac left to go check on her progress, leaving the rest of us to empty the rest of the bags.
“Has she mentioned any names yet?” Taylor asked as Ezra perched himself in his lap.
“Yea,” I nodded, gathering up all the bags around me and stuffing them into another bag, “a few.”
“What are they?” Natalie pressed for answers.
“You’ll have to wait and see,” I said with a smile. I enjoyed knowing something about her that no one else did. It was a rare thing, but once in a while it came around, and I took full advantage of it.
“Come on Ike. Zac won’t tell us either,” Taylor pleaded.
“Zac knows?” I asked. There went my knowing something about her that no one else did. I guess Zac would always win out in the end.
“He said he did,” Natalie answered. “He said there were three.”
“I know what they are,” Ezra gloated.
“What are they?” Taylor asked, looking down at his son with an amused smile.
“Bambi, Pocahontas, and Cinderella,” he answered, holding up a finger for each.
“No they’re not!” Chris piped in from beside me.
“Then what are they?” I asked Chris, poking him in the side.
“Bob, Fred, and Steven,” he giggled.
I laughed. “Aren’t those the names she had picked out for your turtle?”
“Yea.” He looked down at the one-eyed teddy bear he’d been carrying around lately. When it was lying around the apartment it looked old and worn out. It looked like it needed to be replaced. But in his hands, it looked at home. Even with a few bare spots and a missing eye, it looked more alive when he was holding it than it did when he wasn’t.
“She’s ready,” Zac said as he returned to the living room, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Ready for what?” I asked as everyone around me jumped up. I was obviously the only one confused.
Zac let me know the absurdity of my question with his eyes as he answered bluntly, “for the baby stuff.”
“Duh,” I mumbled to myself as I stood up with everyone else and started grabbing things from the table.
“Did you guys bring crib sheets?” Zac asked, looking at everything on the table. “I don’t remember seeing any.”
“They’re here somewhere,” Natalie claimed, shuffling through stuff.
“Bumper pad,” Taylor said tossing it to Zac.
“Tay, did you grab the crib sheets from the closet?” Natalie asked, now looking directly at her husband who was now looking rather confused.
“Um…weren’t you going to grab them?”
“I was going to,” she said, exasperated, “but you said you’d get them.”
“Ohhh.” He scanned his eyes over the rest of the baby stuff in front of us.
Natalie muttered something under her breath causing the rest of us, minus Taylor, to laugh.
“It’s okay,” Zac said, patting Taylor on the back. “We’ll just go buy some.”
“Buy what?” Casey asked, appearing in the doorway.
Zac spun around to face her. “Crib sheets.”
“You’re not buying anything.” Her voice told us she was serious and that she didn’t want to argue.
“You have to have them, Casey,” he reminded her.
“They can bring them next time they come over,” I offered, trying to avoid an argument as I picked a few things up off of the table. I gave them to Zac along with a look telling him to just drop it.
“I’ll have Tay bring them over,” Natalie agreed.
“See? All settled,” I said directly to Zac. He huffed and turned to take the things I’d handed him to the room.
“What’s gotten into him?” Taylor asked me directly. I just shrugged and took off behind him with a handful of baby items.
I honestly didn’t know what was wrong with him. He was more confusing then women. He kept saying he wanted Casey around. He didn’t want her to leave. But then one of them would say something to rub the other the wrong way, and suddenly there was tension and he became moody. Zac was moodier than Casey and Casey was pregnant. I was not amused.
We all worked together that afternoon, including the boys, to put the room together. We only had one extra bedroom, so we had to put the crib in the room with Casey and Chris, but it was a fairly large room, so it was comfortable. Zac was mostly quiet the whole time, which made me wonder what they’d talked about while the rest of us were in the living room. As it was becoming my normal routine, I didn’t question it.
The afternoon drew closer to the evening and we finally got the room done. Taylor and Natalie stayed for dinner. It was nice having my brothers and Casey and Natalie around. All of us eating dinner together. It didn’t happen often. Not since we’d all moved out on our own. Zac and I ate dinner together very rarely until Casey came back into the picture. We usually just grabbed something from the fridge, or popped something into the microwave. Having a crowded dinner table reminded me of being at home with mom and dad at the ends of the table and all of us kids bickering and laughing around the sides. I missed it sometimes.
The last time we’d been home was for Christmas. Jessica hadn’t even been there, so it didn’t feel complete, but it still felt good. She had spent Thanksgiving with her family, so she’d opted to spend Christmas with her in-laws. This setting, with Taylor, Zac, and myself and Natalie, Casey, Chris, and Ezra, almost felt like it did at Christmas. Not everyone was around, but it still felt good.
I watched Taylor steal a French fry from Ezra’s plate and throw it in his mouth. As soon as Ezra started to reprimand him, he acted as though he had know idea what he was talking about. Ezra gave up and turned back to talk to Chris and Taylor did it again, causing the same response from Ezra. Chris joined the argument between Ezra and his dad by confirming that it was, in fact, Taylor stealing his fries. Taylor continued denying it with a smirk on his face.
Natalie and Casey sat in conversation about Casey’s new baby. Natalie wanted names, and Casey just smiled and started talking about something else. I wondered why she told Zac and I the names, but no one else. It was just another one of her mysteries.
Zac sat in with Chris and Ezra animatedly talking about the latest cartoon scandals. He listened intently as the boys explained the newest, most popular cartoons to him. Once in a while he’d throw in a comment or an impersonation. And he got a laugh every time Ezra would quickly spin around to yell at Taylor for stealing a French fry. Once, while Ezra was trying to convince his dad that knew it was him stealing his fries, Zac stole one. And when Ezra turned around to reprimand Zac, Taylor stole another one. Finally, Ezra just gave up and continued talking to Chris and Zac about cartoons while his dad continued stealing his fries one by one and putting them on his own plate.
I looked down at my own plate of food and when I looked back up Taylor was watching me. “What?” I asked him.
“You okay?” He questioned.
I nodded and twirled one of my own fries in my pile of ketchup. “I’m just tired.”
“That’s a Casey excuse,” he commented with a slight frown.
“What?” Casey said, turning to look at Taylor first and then me.
“Nothing,” I told her, but I could tell from the look on her face that she didn’t believe me.
She narrowed her eyes and looked to Taylor who provided the same answer I had. Neither Taylor nor I attempted to answer her question with any more depth, so she turned her attention to Chris who was about five seconds away from tipping his plate into his lap. She asked him if he was finished and when he nodded, in one quick movement, she grabbed his plate and hers and stood up. She found me watching her when she looked up and smiled before taking the two plates to the sink. After rinsing them off and putting them in the dishwasher, she excused herself to the bathroom. I felt the palm of her hand brush against the top of my head for a moment as she walked behind me on her way out of the kitchen.
“What was that?” Taylor asked me as soon as he was sure Casey was in the bathroom.
“What was what?” I asked, just as confused as he was. I looked around and everyone was watching me and Zac looked just as interested as Taylor. “I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to. I was reading the non-verbal communication.”
“What’s that?” Chris asked.
“It’s when you talk with your eyes,” Ezra explained.
There was a slight pause before Chris said something. “I don’t know how to talk with my eyes.”
“You’ll learn it some day,” Zac assured him.
“Will you teach me?” Chris pressed.
“Later,” Zac nodded with a smirk.
The rest of dinner was fairly smooth. Taylor didn’t press me about my current mood, which I could only sum up as being tired. And it wasn’t a lie. I was exhausted. I was sure that if I could only sleep for twenty-four hours, I could wake up feeling better than ever.
Casey and Natalie resumed their conversation about the new baby. Chris helped Ezra steal his fries back from Taylor while Taylor looked on, pretending to be offended. Zac just smiled evilly as Taylor begged him for help against his five-year-old son and his four-year-old friend.
It felt good. It felt right. But I knew, eventually, it would come to an end and we’d all be back to the way we’d become accustomed to living.