Line of Sight - 2. Chapter 2

"Murray, do you really need to go out now?"

I stumbled into the kitchen and flipped the light on as the yapping escalated at the sound of my voice. These early morning wakeups were already getting old and it hadn't even been a full week since we'd got the mutt. The only thing that made it tolerable was that Jake absolutely loved the puppy and was finally starting to be the happy go lucky kid that he used to be.

"Hold your horses dog." I could hear the wind beating the snow against the house as I stumbled over to the crate, still blinking the sleep from my eyes. The closer I got, the louder the damn dog yapped. Within seconds I had freed Murray from his imprisonment and in his excited dash through the kitchen, he managed to piddle a line from his crate to the door. I sighed and let him into the backyard, shivering at the gust of cold wind and snow, before grabbing the cleaning spray and a handful of paper towels to clean up after him. I really hoped he grew out of peeing whenever he got excited.

"Daddy? Is it time to get up?"

I looked up from my task to see Jake standing in the kitchen doorway rubbing his eyes. I hadn't even glanced at the clock, but a quick glance showed that it was just after five. I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, but there was no reason for Jake to be awakened so early.

"Not yet, Murray just needed to go out. Go back to bed and I'll wake you up when it's time to get ready for school."

I watched him turn and shuffle off before finishing up what I was doing. Murray was already pawing at the door so I let him in and flipped the coffeepot on. If I was going to continue to be getting up before the coffee brewed, I might just have to look into getting one of those individual cup coffee makers. I'd looked at them before, but had decided I didn't really need it. Many more mornings like this one just might make me change my mind. At least I wouldn't have to worry about it for a few days, Jamie would be the one to get woke up even before the butt crack of dawn by a yapping puppy.

I couldn't help but smile as I thought of my ex-wife. Unlike so many whose marriages ended in divorce, Jamie and I had managed to go from husband and wife to friends. It hadn't been easy, especially at first, but we'd always be a part of each other’s lives because of Jake and being on friendly terms made things so much easier. I knew it had been hard for her to not have Jake with her, but when she'd been offered a promotion that would have her travelling constantly, we'd decided that while we would still share joint custody, I would become the primary caregiver and she would have him whenever she was in town.

It just happened that after three weeks of being gone, she was returning later this morning and Jake would be staying the weekend with her and her husband Paul.

Jake had been torn up about leaving Murray behind, but at the same time had been looking forward to time with his mom. Jamie, bless her heart, had solved the problem by agreeing to take not only Jake, but Murray too. Jake had been ecstatic that he wouldn't be parted from his new friend.

The aroma of coffee hung in the air and I poured a cup and started sipping. I was useless before I had my first cup of the day, which just made me think that much more about getting one of those single cup brewers. I carried my coffee with me to the bathroom and started the shower, hoping that afterwards my back would no longer ache.

I had a lot of stuff to get done if I was going to be at Jake's school for my afternoon parent-teacher conference so the early wake up might not be such a bad thing. I was a little concerned about the call I'd received that Jake's teacher needed to speak with me. Mr. Cutler hadn't gone into detail about why he wanted to talk to me but I wished he had so that I wouldn't have driven myself nuts worrying about it. Whatever it was, I'd find out shortly after noon. He'd asked if I could come in between his morning and afternoon kindergarten classes and I could only agree.

I set my cup on the vanity and stepped into the steaming spray and let the hot water soothe away my aches and my worries.

At least for the time being.