Mikey
“Mikey, do I get to help make dinner?” Ryker asks as he climbs up on the snack bar.
“Of course you do. I need my helper with me at all times, little man. We’re going to make calzones. Do you know what that is?” He shakes his head. “Okay, well, let me explain. It’s kind of like a pizza folded in half.” He looks at me, confused. “Grab the stool and come on over here and I’ll show you.” His face lights up with excitement when he comes over with the stool. I have balls of pizza dough sitting on the counter ready to go. I cheated and bought the bags of dough so it would be one less thing for me to deal with today. I’m starting to get the hang of having a kid with me during the day, but if I can take shortcuts, I do for sure.
“What do we do?” he asks.
“First we have to wash our hands.” I pick him up and sit him on the counter to wash his hands. When we’re done, I help him back to the stool. “Now we’re ready.” I grab a ball of dough. “We open this up and roll it out so it’s one flat circle.” I put some flour on the rolling pin and begin rolling the dough out, and then I hand him the pin and have him do it. He looks so cute, I grab my phone and snap a picture of him getting flour all over the place. “Okay, good job, buddy. The next thing we have to do is put a bunch of cheese on this.” I grab the bags of cheese from the refrigerator. Ryker puts a ton of cheese on the first one, and when I ask him if we should put anything else he says no. We move onto the next one, starting the process again. By the time we get to the third one he’s bored and has had enough. I thank him for his help and ask him to go straight to the bathroom to wash his hands while I finish putting dinner together. I finally get dinner into the oven with perfect timing, because Shelly is going to be home any minute and I need to get Ryker cleaned up and changed for our company to come over.
“Mikey, I’m home,” Shelly shouts as she comes rushing in the door. Monday nights are always a little rushed for us because we have Monday night dinner. Lucky for us everyone is coming here tonight. Well, everyone except Shane and Katie. I heard from Logan earlier that Katie went into labor.
“I’m in the bedroom, baby,” I call out.
She comes rushing in with her son in her arms. He must have greeted her when she opened the door. “What are you doing?”
“I just finished changing.” He holds his hands out to Ryker. “Come on, little man. Let’s let Mommy get changed and then we can fill her in on all the good news we got today.” Ryker and I walk out of the room so Shelly can change into the clothes I laid out for her. That’s become our routine. I lay out a pair of comfy clothes for her so she can be quick about changing before we have to leave.
“Now, fill me in. What’s all this good news?” Shelly takes a seat at the snack bar while I move around the kitchen making dinner.
I hand her a glass of white wine. “Well, for starters, Katie went into labor today, so when you get out of classes tomorrow, we can swing by the hospital to visit them.”
“That’s awesome. I can’t wait to meet the baby.” She sips her wine.
“Now, I have some other good news for you. The lawyer called today and informed me that since you’re in class on Friday when you’re scheduled to be in court, he’s going to represent you so that you don’t have to miss school. He says it may happen that you need to appear in the future, but for this time he’s going to go for you and see what he can accomplish. If your ex shows up and the judge insists on giving him visitation, he’s going to insist it be supervised, but he doesn’t think the judge is going to go for it because he still has to go to court for another charge against him.”
She sighs. “I really hope they don’t allow this to go through.”
“Jerry didn’t tell me the charges against him, but it didn’t sound too good. I’m really hoping it’s enough, and that’s why he said you didn’t need to be there.” She nods. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”
There’s a knock at the door. Shelly runs over to get it with Ryker, who’s already waiting for her to open it. When she does, Sky, Logan, Jonah, and Sadie come in with their kids. “Ryker, your haircut looks so cute,” Sky says to him, but he’s so excited that Stephan is here that he’s hardly paying attention.
“Ryker, manners,” I remind him. “Sky said your hair looks cute.”
“Thank you,” he says with his raspy voice. “Can we go play now?”
“Yes, you may.” The boys start to run off until Shelly tells him he has to include Laney too. The boys whine for a moment but then allow her into the room where they all start to play nicely.
The six of us gather around the kitchen to catch up. The kids are all doing well and getting big. I update everyone on our situation with Eli, and Sky informs us that Katie has had the baby and that both Katie and Taylor are doing well. We’re sharing our excitement when the remainder of the crew finally arrives.
Logan says, “How’s it going being home with a kid?”
“Dude, seriously, I don’t mind it at all. He’s a great kid, he’ll play in his room, watch a movie, and when I need a break, the two of us sit down with his preschool workbooks and do a few page together. He’s so bright.”
“That’s awesome. You got lucky, man. You didn’t have to go through the whole potty training thing. It’s a freaking nightmare.” Logan shakes his head.
“I’m not looking forward to that at all,” Stone says, watching Miranda bounce Charlotte in her arms.
“Listen to us. What happened to talk of clubs and sports?” Jonah jokes.
“We became parents, man. When is the last time you watched a game?” Logan smacks him on the chest with the back of his hand.
He shrugs. “I have no idea.” We all burst into laughter.
“What’s funnier is that you freaking love it.” I give him crap.
“No, what’s really funny is you said freaking,” Stone jokes.
The timer on the oven beeps, breaking up our banter. “Hey, I’m not letting Stephan yell at me anymore,” I joke before I go to the oven. I made calzones for dinner to keep things simple. I pull them from the oven while Shelly hands out drinks. I line them up on the snack bar and cut them into slices. “Okay, everyone, the calzones are done. There’s three cheese, Italian, ham and cheese, Philly cheese steak, and buffalo chicken. Please help yourselves.” I actually made two cheese and two ham and cheese, but I couldn’t fit them in the oven so I stick those two in to cook while everyone starts picking at what’s out.
“We can move to the living room if you guys want.” I grab a plate and take a slice. Everyone says we’re fine where we are, so we sat the bigger kids at the snack bar and got them each a slice. Ryker’s having fun bragging to them how he helped make dinner. Laney says she’s not allowed to cook yet. “Well, you’re not as big as me yet. I’m going to be six this year.” He points to himself with his thumb, smearing sauce on him. I shake my head and chuckle.
It’s awesome to sit back and hear everyone talking about normal everyday life; kids, work, and preschool are tops on the topic list. Shelly is so excited for Ryker to start school in September, she’s beaming, telling everyone how hard she’s worked to make sure he’s ready.
“How is he holding up?” Sky asks. She’s such a sweet woman, always worried about others.
I put my arm around Shelly and give her a gentle squeeze. This is not an easy topic for her and I want her to know I’m here for her. “He’s doing well. Wouldn’t you say, baby?”
“Yeah, considering the situation. He gets a little nervous when we go out, and if he sees him, he absolutely freezes up, but when we’re here he does great. He had a few nightmares but I’m proud to say he got past them quickly.”
“Poor thing. He’s so little to be going through stuff like this,” Miranda says to Shelly as she bounces a cranky Charlotte.
There’s a knock at the door. “I got it, Mikey.” I follow her just to be safe. She opens it to find the doorman standing there with a box in his hand.
“I have a package for Ryker.” He sounds skeptical, but hands me the package.
“Thank you.” She takes it and closes the door.
She brings the box to the kitchen and opens it. There’s a brand new version of the bear he has in his room. “He knows where we are,” she says, her voice barely a whisper.
“He probably got the address from the court papers, baby. Jerry has to list the address, I’m sure.” I rub her back, trying to comfort her.
She lets out a deep, slow breath. “I never thought of that. I liked thinking he didn’t know where we were. That’s how I’ve lived for the last three years.”
“What are you going to do?” Sky asks, concern etched on her face.
She grabs the box with the bear and tosses it in the trash so Ryker doesn’t see it. “That’s what I’m going to do.” She takes her seat again. “I’ve spent far too much time telling myself that what he did to my son was inexcusable. To hurt a child in the manner he did and to that extent.” She shakes her head. “There’s no coming back from that. I won’t allow him to try and buy his way into my son’s life. He can say he’s sorry all day long, tell me he’s changed, and that he won’t do it again, but it doesn’t matter. He’ll never convince me.” She’s full of anger as she stares off at nothing. I can see how hard this is for her.
“You guys should have seen him when he showed up at the diner. He tried to play it cool, but his body language gives off nothing but anger with everything he says and does. Poor Ryker was holding on to Shelly for dear life. He was visibly trembling.” I shake my head. “That poor kid remembers everything about that day. I have no doubt in my mind,” I explain.
“Poor thing.” Sky rubs Shelly’s arm, trying to comfort her.
I think everyone here honestly feels for her because they all have a child they love, whether it be a niece, nephew, or their own. This family has so much love there’s no way any of us could ever fathom doing what Eli did to his child.
“What’s wrong, Mommy?” Ryker tugs on his mom’s shirt.
“Nothing, buddy. Do you need something?” she asks, plastering a fake smile on her face.
“Mikey bought us cookies. Can we have some?” She looks to Sky and Sadie, who both give her the slightest of nods, mom code is awesome like that.
“Sure, honey. Why don’t you three have a seat and I’ll get you some milk and cookies.” The three kids cheer and climb up on the stool for their snack. Their mood is infectious. We all start to smile at how happy they are over cookies.
“Hey, on a positive note, look—I just got a picture of Katie and the baby,” Miranda announces, and then passes the phone around for everyone to see.
“I can’t wait to see them tomorrow,” Miranda says. “I’m going there straight from work.”
Once the kids have finished their chocolate cookies, Sky, Sadie, and Shelly all take them into the bathroom to wash their hands and faces, and on the way back, Sky announces it’s time for them to get going so she can get the kids to bed. As with most dinner nights, the rest of the crew agrees and calls it a night as well.