Adam Blake - 23. Chapter 23

By this time we were back at Bill’s place. “Come on and get a glass of orange juice while Billy gets showered and changed.

“You guys stay in the kitchen. You stink and are all sweaty from running.”

“Jen, you always knew we ran in the morning you should join us. We have great conversation while we run.”

“Are you saying I’m fat?”

“No, Hon, you are perfect it could be a family thing with you, Scotty, Billy, and I. You know a family that runs together stays together.”

I chuckled as I listen to their banter. You could see the love in their face and in their words. Billy came down with Scotty following him. He was ready to crawl up on my lap, “Scotty, I’m all sweaty from running. You’ll get smelly if you get my sweat on you.”

It didn’t stop him. He climbed on my lap, drank some of my orange juice, and laid back against my chest. “I think he has adopted you.”

I just smiled as he looked up at me. “Uncle Adam, Billy said you were going to see your cabin, can I go?”

“Sure but you need to ask your mom and dad, then if they say yes, you need to get a shower now that you smell like me.”

“Mom, Dad can I go?”

Jenifer looked at me, I shrugged my shoulders, she looked at Bill, he had a wicked smile on his face, “It’s ok. Go and get a shower and get dressed. Billy help him ok?”

“I’m going to run home and get showered and then I’ll come back to get you both. Have fun kids”

Bill knew what I meant.

When I got home, Mom and Dad were eating breakfast. “I’m going to take a shower and then I’ll grab a bite. I hope it is ok but Bill’s kids want to go along and I said ok.” My mom’s eyes lit up, I know what she was thinking, grandchildren.

It didn’t take me long to take a shower, shave and get dressed. When I went to the kitchen, Mom had a cup of coffee for me and an egg white omelet with whole-grain toast.

“You look nice to be going trampling through the woods.”

“These are my normal weekend clothes. Nothing fancy.” It didn’t seem fancy to me, just my normal clothes.

When I drove up to Bill’s place, the kids came out and climb in the back seat with my mom. Bill and Jennifer came and said hello to my mom and dad while admonishing their kids to behave.

“Dad, how far is it to the cabin?”

“It’s about a 7-8 hour drive.”

“That means we’ll have to stay overnight someplace.”

“There’s a motel about an hour drive away we can use. Your mom and I stayed there when we went to check the place out.”

“Billy, call your folks and let them know we won’t be back until tomorrow.”

Little did I know my mom had called Jennifer and she had packed a clean set of clothes for the boys in their knapsack. I thought it was snacks or something. I listen to Billy as he called his mom.

“Mom, Uncle Adam said we won’t be back till tomorrow. I’ll check. Uncle Adam, mom said that would be too long and wants you to take us back home now.”

I pulled over to turn around when Mom started to laugh. “What’s so funny?”

“I called Jen when you were taking a shower and getting dressed. I told her we’d be back tomorrow. She packed an extra set of clothes for the boys.”

“Billy, we run 40 miles tomorrow.” My dad looked at me, I just smiled.

The drive wasn’t bad, traffic was light once we left the city. “How did you find this place?”

“A buddy of mine called and asked if I would be interested in buying his cabin. I guess Steve mentioned I was looking. I think Steve put him up to sell it and me to buy it. This way between his cabin and mine we have all desirable vacation spots covered.”

“Do you have any idea what this place looks like?”

“No, Steve said I’d like it.”

“Probably Steve would like it. I hope it’s a little bigger than his beach cabin, it only has two bedrooms.”

“Adam, let’s stop for lunch. We can have dinner when we get closer to the cabin.”

“Billy look for a diner or restaurant instead of playing games.”

“I’m not playing games. I’m showing Grandma the pictures I took at Disney.”

The term he used referring to my mom didn’t slip past me. I looked in the mirror and the smile on Mom’s face said it all.

Billy did find a sign for a restaurant just a few miles off the highway. I pulled into the parking lot, Billy took Scotty and they ran for the restaurant. Mom whispered bathroom and I knew why they were in such a hurry.

Being seated “by a young girl, she dropped off 3 menus. I told her we needed two more, she smiled and went to get them when the boys entered. I waved to them and they headed in my direction. I watched as the young lady brought over two more menus, Billy's eyes took in the fact that she was pretty and close, if not, to his age. She also took in the fact that Billy was a good-looking teen.

I winked at him when I caught him looking at me, he smiled and wiggled his eyebrows. She came back with water for all of us, took our orders, Billy asked what was good, smart boy. It didn’t take long for our order but it did give us enough time to discuss the layout of the cabin. Dad didn’t seem like he wanted to say too much and I wondered if the cabin wasn’t really what he wanted. Mom just smiled so I knew something was up, generally if dad didn’t like something mom went along with it.

Our lunch was good, the salads Billy and I ordered were fresh even though the tuna came from a can. Scotty had a burger with fries and some of my salad. Mom and dad had sandwiches with a cup of soup. Dad paid the bill, I left the tip. Billy watched me and as I got up to go, he added a few more dollars to the tip. I put my arm around his shoulder and squeezed it as we walked out.”