David waited until the airport announcements in the background stopped.

  “Here he is, David.”

  “Quinn, it’s Papa. What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know to go!” Quinn yelled, then a burst of crying came over the phone.

  Vi and Sarah shrugged as David shook his head.

  “I thought you wanted to go back and live with Daddy, see the twins, and see Nonni.”

  “He said I couldn’t see Nonni because Nonni is busy with her grandchildren.”

  “Well, son, I told you she retired. She’s not working for Daddy or Papa anymore, so you can’t see her every day. She’ll still get to visit you. There’ll be someone like Nonni with you when Daddy isn’t there.”

  “I don’t want anyone. I want Nonni or you!”

  David shook his head. He worried that Quinn wasn’t just acting out but actually was frustrated with everything. He had always worried how Quinn felt about all the developments in living arrangements, weekend visitation, and spending time with his cousins. Now, Quinn’s whole life changed in the past few months, and even more in the last few days probably was too much. It wasn’t Quinn’s fault. David was gutted about Quinn at the airport.

  “Don’t you want to spend time with your cousins?”

  “Daddy told me that they are going away for the summer.”

  David cussed under his breath. He forgot Evie had planned to send her eight-year-old boys to camp for the almost the whole month of June in Minnesota.

  “Quinn, you wanted Daddy to fly out from California to get you and go back to LA.”

  “I don’t want to go back!” Quinn screamed so loud that David put the phone arm’s length. “I don’t want to!” Then Quinn cried. “I don’t want to be with anyone but Nonni and you. I want to be with you, Papa, please. I want to be with you.”

  A woman’s voice spoke to Jason. “Sir, you’re going to have to move your son. He is blocking the line here.”

  “Ma’am, can’t you see I’m having a situation here!” Jason raised his voice.

  “I don’t want to call security, sir. Kindly move your son,” the strange voice said.

  Quinn screamed louder.

  “Okay, is this far enough for you, ma’am?” Jason yelled. “Can’t you see my son is having a problem here?”

  “Sir, you’re going to have move so you’re not impeding the traffic.”

  “Jason, what’s going on?”

  “One of the airline employees asked us to move. I had to pick up our son, who didn’t like getting picked up. He hasn’t calmed down at all.”

  “Eventually, he’ll calm down, Jason. You can’t give in to him! You can’t give him ice cream in the middle of the night because he wants it.” David regretted the dig as soon as he said it. Jason complained that David never forgave him for giving into their son’s whims when they were alone.

  “That was once, and you never let me forget it.”

  “You have to put brakes on sometimes and say no.”

  “I don’t like crying, screaming kids! Even mine!”

  “I know you don’t, but if you give into Quinn now, he’s going to remember this and if he doesn’t get his way next time, it’s going to be the same thing. Can’t the two of you go somewhere so you can give him a time out?”

  “We’ll miss the early flight to LA. I’ve already scheduled some meetings in the early morning!”

  “You were supposed to fly out later; how did you already have morning meetings?”

  “I made them on the drive to the airport with Quinn.”

  David groaned in frustration. “Well, cancel them. Your son is more important than some morning meetings. I can’t believe you! What if your flights were delayed?”

  “I can’t risk cancelling. One of these meetings I’ve been trying to get for months! Months! I canceled it way back when because of one of our mandated therapy sessions.”

  “Jason, you can’t pick up Quinn and just take meetings the next day,” he said with a raised voice. “He doesn’t have school, and he doesn’t have Nonni there. And you can’t leave him by himself.” David heard muffled crying in the background. “What’s going on with Quinn?”

  “He’s balled up against this post, crying still.” Jason’s voice rose. “You know what? Screw this. I give up. You win. Come get Quinn. I can’t handle him like this. I obviously don’t have the skill set for parenting or disciplining. I never have. And if this any indication of what’s going to happen when he’s in California without you around, or Nonni, I won’t be able to do it. Every nanny I try to hire he’ll probably hate. And maybe, like we agreed, LA isn’t the town he should be raised in. I’ll give you that.”

  “Jason, this is not the way to do it. You’ve got to give Quinn a time-out. You need to listen to me.”

  “Didn’t you fucking hear me, David? Come get Quinn! You won! You’re the frigging father of the year! He listens you to more!”

  “This isn’t about winning or losing. You’ve got to parent him.”

  “Goddamn it, David. I can’t handle him. Do you want me to say that? Do you want me to beg you, like the time I begged you to stay?”

  David bit his lips. Quinn’s crying in the background guilted David, and David hung his head low, powerless he couldn’t get Jason to listen to him, and worried about Quinn.

  This is a big, big mistake. Jason should just take the later flight and calm Quinn down.

  “David! David! Answer me goddammit!”

  Sarah and Vi rubbed his back. Sarah whispered softly. “Let’s get him. I’ll drive.”

  David nodded.

  “It’s Sarah, Jason. We’ll drive David to the airport to get Quinn. We hope. Just hold tight!”

  “Thank God!” Jason yelled. “I can make the earlier flight then!” Jason’s voice drifted. “Quinn, Papa’s coming to get you. Just take deep breaths!”

  Chapter 7

  A loud thwack woke David up. His eyes fluttered open. It was daylight. The clock registered nine A.M. Quinn slept in his Star Wars jammies and was positioned diagonally so he took up half of David’s queen-sized bed, pushing David almost to the edge.

  Last night’s events still weighed on David’s mind. Less than twenty-fours ago, he had resolved to himself that he would only see Quinn bits and pieces at a time, by shuttling to and from California.

  Now, here he was, with his son’s bare feet pushed against his thighs, sucking his thumb. David gently tried to remove the thumb from Quinn’s mouth, but he moved his head and went back to thumb-sucking.

  At least he smelled of baby shampoo and baby powder. Quinn had insisted on a bath when he got home, and even though David was worn out from arguing with Jason at the airport, and then responding to Jason’s rage texts on the drive home, he gave in to Quinn’s request to have a bath instead of a shower when they got home.

  The hot bath seemed to calm his frustrated son, so Quinn didn’t fight him on putting on disposable diapers before he slept. There was no argument last night that he was going to be five and could sleep without Pull-Ups.

  Sarah and Vi had stayed until Quinn had bathed, and was ready for bed, and David had started the ritual of reading him a story until Quinn fell asleep. Quinn wanted The Little House read to him again. For the hundredth time.

  Quinn was out like a light soon as David started reading.

  But the heavy rain and thunderstorms moved in around midnight, and soon after the storm started, Quinn ran to David’s room, jumped on his bed, and didn’t leave, falling back to sleep only after the streaky lightning and the horizontal rain dissipated. A Florida thunderstorm was no joke to a little kid used to California sunshine.

  Despite having only a few hours of sleep, David knew he had to investigate the noise that woke him up, and let his sleeping, frustrated, stressed child continue to doze away.

  David slowly eased out of bed, careful not to wake Quinn, who was no longer thumb-sucking but was lightly snoring. He tiptoed downstairs. It took several minutes of quiet for David to understand what the problem was.

  The refrigerator’s condenser making noise tipped him off. Usually there were cycles of the air conditioning compressor that would go off and on in a weird symphony with the refrigerator, but he didn’t hear the A/C as soon as he arrived downstairs. Clicking on and off the switch for the A/C confirmed David’s suspicions.

  Shit!

  He slowly walked back upstairs and grabbed his cell. Luckily for David, Sarah picked up on the fourth ring.

  “Hey, what’s up?”

  “I think our air conditioning unit is broken. I heard a loud noise this morning and that’s when it stopped working.”

  “What? I had just had them check it for you. Let me call the same company. I’ll text you their number too.”

  “Thanks,” David whispered, who now milled around the kitchen. He grabbed Special K and almond milk and started the coffee pot. He owed Sarah so much. And right now, she was definitely getting the bestest best friend award for the early housewarming present of a coffee pot. Not to mention the other things she had done to get David and Quinn ready to move back home.

  His cell phone pinged. Sarah texted the air conditioning company contact information. When his cell buzzed with her caller ID, he answered without hesitation. “Hey, when they coming out?”

  “Well…I have good news and I have bad news.”

  David leaned against the counter watching the coffee pot drip java. “What’s the bad news?”

  “The bad news is that last night’s thunderstorm knocked out a third of electricity downtown, and there are numerous calls about other people’s A/C problems. There was a lot of lightning in the area last night.” Sarah continued. “If the company gets to you, it’ll be tonight, or early tomorrow since it’s the start of Memorial Day Weekend.”

  “Okay, what’s the good news?”

  “I know someone who can check out the large noise and he’ll be over in a few minutes.”

  “Okay, that sounds awesome.” David finger combed his hair to flatten out his bed head. “How’d you guys do?”

  “Our power went off last night, but it just came on. We have air at least, so if it’s too hot for you guys over there, you can always hang out here.”

  “The movers are coming out today too.”

  “Shit, I forgot about that.” Sarah yawned. “Oh, man, I guess I’m tired still from lack of sleep. How’s Quinn?”

  “He crawled into my bed last night. Lightning scared him. He’s never been through a Florida torrential storm.”

  “We all grew up on it, so I guess we’re used to it. Are you still mad at him?”

  “Yeah, I’m grounding him when he wakes up.”

  “How do you ground a four-year-old? He doesn’t have a car to take away.”

  “He doesn’t get his iPad, except for reading. He doesn’t get access to some toys. I’ll think of more things.”

  “You know he was just frustrated, right? Don’t be too hard on him.”

  “I know. And I put him in diapers last night because I was worried he’s been under too much stress lately but still he can’t act that way.” A knock on the door stopped David’s conversation. “Someone’s here.”

  “Okay. Make sure it’s the person I sent over before I hang up.”

  David walked over to the peephole. It was unmistakable who it was. His heart raced. “Did you send Kaden over?”

  “Yeah, he can check out the A/C. He used to work on his father’s church volunteer maintenance team, remember?”

  “Well, he’s here.” David whispered, “Couldn’t you have sent someone else?”

  “No one else lives close to you and would do it on a moment’s notice. I was lucky, he just finished his run this morning when I got a hold of him. Okay? Bye! Let me know if he can fix it or not.”

  David exhaled. He wasn’t mentally ready to greet his past again. For a moment he thought about not opening the door, but common sense, and the fact they needed air conditioning forced him to swallow his pride, so he opened the door. “Hey.”

  “Hey, Sarah called and said something happened with your A/C.”

  “Yeah, I heard a loud noise this morning. And it’s not running.”

  Kaden stood with sweat on his temples, perspiration coming through the top of his tank top. On one triceps, he had a large gauze paid covering something. David wasn’t sure if it was covering a wound, or something else. On the other arm, he had a Star Wars Rebel Alliance tattoo. Behind Kaden was his parked Prius, and a golden retriever sticking its head from the open passenger side window. Vi and Sarah’s assessment of Kaden’s hotness replayed in the back of David’s mind, and he shrugged it off.

  No, don’t even go there.

  “That’s Ginger. Don’t worry, she’s been to obedience school in Georgia. She’ll stay in the car. I got the windows open. And I’ll run the air if we have to stay longer. I came over from my run as soon as Sarah called. We need to make sure the A/C is off and the power is off. Do you mind?”

  Suddenly self-conscious that he was only wearing boxer shorts, David waved him entry and showed him the thermostat.

  “Where’s the electrical panel?”

  David motioned Kaden to follow him past the hall bath. The panel was right before the back door. As Kaden took stock of the area, David quietly retreated to his bedroom to put on the T-shirt and shorts that were on the floor by his bed. David tiptoed quietly back down the stairs.

  Once Kaden was sure that the power switch was off, he exited out the back door to the air conditioning unit.

  “Why don’t you have Ginger come stay on the porch?”

  “Yeah? Okay.” Kaden smiled.

  David faced away. He remembered that smile and he almost involuntarily smiled back.

  “I’m going to get my tools from the car,” Kaden shouted from downstairs. “That’s why I drove here. Your dad didn’t keep any of his tools, did he?”

  “I think I still have some of his tools, but they’re in Sarah’s storage shed near Conway.”

  “No problem.” Kaden cut through the middle of the house, then through the front door. “I think I have most of what I need.”

  David stepped out of Kaden’s way, and moved into the kitchen and poured two cups of coffee. He found Kaden cross-legged by the A/C unit outside the house with Ginger resting in the shade on the porch.

  “Coffee?”

  “Sure,” Kaden answered. “I’ll need help taking the cover off.”

  “Okay.” David sipped his coffee as Kaden patiently removed the screws off the cover, placing the ones he removed in a small container in his toolbox he brought out from the Prius. When the cover was removed with David’s help, it was pretty apparent what the problem was.”

  “Looks like the fan blade fell down.” Kaden shook his head. “Whoever serviced this didn’t tighten everything right. This blade looks slightly bent but with the pliers I think I can fix it. At least enough for it to work. You probably want to have them replace the blades if it makes too much noise.”

  The front door opened, and David turned.

  “Papa! Papa!”

  “I’m over here. Come around the corner!”

  Quinn ran barefoot, still in his jammies, to where David and Kaden were working. Quinn’s anxious face relaxed.

  “The fan blade fell,” David said. “Hopefully we can get it fixed and have the air conditioning back on.”

  Quinn just stared at him, like he was talking a foreign language. Then he eyed Kaden.

  “Can we go to the pool today?”

  David faced his son, who walked even closer to where they stood to check out what was going on. “No, you’re grounded.”

  “What? What’s grounded?”

  “I’m taking away things. For your behavior at the airport last night!”

  “That’s not fair!” Quinn yelled. “It’s not fair!”

  “Life’s not fair!” David raised his voice. “And no more yelling and shouting!”

  Quinn scrunched his face and held in his anger.

  David waited to see if his son was going to have another outburst or if he could control his frustration.

  David kneeled close to his son, so they were eye to eye. “I know you were upset yesterday,” David whispered. “I know why you were upset, but you cannot act this way. Do you understand? You can’t have outbursts! You can’t just lose control!”

  “So you’re mad at me? I thought you wanted me to stay.”

  Quinn appeared to cry again. Instinctively, David reached out to hug him. “I’m glad you wanted to stay here. But you and I are going to have to work out some things.”

  “Okay.”

  “Like how to behave.”

  “Am I being grounded still?”

  “Yes. You won’t get to play games on your iPad, and I’m holding back some of your toys because of your behavior last night!”

  “For how long?”

  “Until I say so,” David quietly whispered, trying not to raise his voice.

  Quinn crossed his arms and didn’t say anything. He continued to stare now at Kaden.

  “He’s got a Star Wars tattoo!”

  “Quinn, this is Mr. Kaden.”

  Kaden glanced up at David who nodded slightly to say it was okay to acknowledge Quinn. “You like Star Wars?”

  “Yes, can’t you see I’m wearing Star Wars pajamas?”

  David smiled. He liked how Kaden just ran with the conversation. It seemed to help Quinn.

  “I see that.” Kaden focused on what he was doing but continued to talk. “Who’s your favorite character?”

  “I like Darth Vader. But I also like Han Solo. He’s funny.”

  Kaden continued to work, and Quinn watched him for a moment.

  “Papa, I’m hungry.”

  “We have cereal. I can’t make any pancakes or waffles yet. I need my pots and pans and cookware, which hopefully will come soon.” As soon as David said those words, the undeniable noise of air brakes could be heard. David leaned to check where the sound was coming from. “Well, that was coincidental.” He laughed. “I guess the moving company is here.”

  “Come on in the house, Quinn. No need to bother Mr. Kaden.”

  “No, I want to stay and watch.”

  David gritted his teeth. It was too early to have this tug of war with his son.

 

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