“And how many times since you put it on this morning have you gotten in trouble?” I ask with a smile.
His grin gets even larger, to the point where it looks like the creepy is coming out of him. “Two times!” he screams in my face, holding up his fingers. “Two times, but it was Mommy’s fault the first time. Daddy’s wiener was out, and I was just trying to keep her from seeing it.” He leans into my face, so close that our noses touch. “Girls aren’t supposed to see wieners, Aunt Dee. And Daddy’s wiener was mad that Mommy saw. It was so mad, it was pointing at her!”
Oh. My. God. How the hell I’m able to keep from busting out a laugh is beyond me. When I look over his head, and see Greg shaking his head with a slight blush on his cheeks. I lose it, laughing so hard that I fall onto my ass. Cohen, completely oblivious to the fact that he just let me know he busted Greg and Melissa, just starts laughing with me. I try to stop, but the laughter just keeps coming. Maybe some of the tension from earlier is still trying to escape, but hell, this kid could make the worst of days better.
“All right, all right . . . come on, Birthday Hero, you need to go use the bathroom and get back to your party.” Before I stand up, I pull him into my arms and give him a big hug. His little arms wrap tight around my neck, and he squeezes me hard. “I love you, Cohen. You’re right, that cape sure does work.”
“I know!” He gives me a kiss on my cheek before rushing past me and slamming the door to the bathroom.
Well, guess I’ll join the party by myself. I stand up and dust off my rear. When I look up, I notice that Beck has joined Greg in the kitchen. He gives me a warm smile, and I can tell just by looking in his eyes that he caught that moment with Cohen and me, too.
“I love hearing that laugh, Dee. It’s been too long.” And with that, he turns and walks back through the doorway and into the living room.
I must have been standing there for a while, just zoning at the doorway that he walked through, because when Greg clears his throat, I jump slightly.
“Must have been pretty far away just then. You didn’t even notice Cohen run flying right past you.” He smiles, but it’s guarded.
“Yeah, must have.”
“Are you doing okay? I know things have been pretty crazy around here lately, but you know you can come to me if you ever want to talk.” It’s times like this that I just want to scream at him. It’s not his fault. He’s had a lot going on in his life the last few months, but it still hurts to know that someone so close to me, has been completely blind. I want to scream for all the times I needed him, but he was too worried about Izzy. All the times I needed him, but he was too busy falling in love. I know it’s not fair to pass any blame onto him, but for someone who knows me better than most of our other friends, he doesn’t know me at all.
“I’m fine. Just going through some stuff, that’s all.” I plaster on my perfectly practiced, ‘I’m on top of the world’ smile, and wait to see if he can see past my mask.
God, I’m so sick of this mask.
He looks at me a beat before he shakes his head. “I’ve been a shit friend lately. I know that, but it’s no excuse. You might be able to fool the girls, but I’m on to you, Dee. I wouldn’t have even noticed if it hadn’t have been for that little breakdown I saw. And before you flip the hell out, no one else saw it. When I saw Beck had you, I cleared the kitchen and kept them out of the back hall. You don’t want to tell me what’s on your mind? Tough. We’re talking, and we’re talking soon.”
I’m thoroughly shocked when he basically stands there and scolds me like a child. What the hell is going on today? No one, not a single one of these people, has noticed anything at all ever since I first crashed and burned. They didn’t notice when I slipped so far past the level of okay. They didn’t notice when I thought about taking my own life. And, they didn’t even notice when I started trying to drink away the fear.
Not a single one of them, except for Beck.
“Can we please just forget about it for the day? Let’s not let my issues be the dark cloud on your son’s birthday. Please, Greg.”
He gives me a look of sympathy before holding his arms open. I walk into the familiar, comforting arms of one of my best friends, and take the support he’s offering.
“And don’t you dare mention Cohen’s little wiener story,” he says against my temple. “You had your laugh, but damn, Dee, that little kid was born with an internal cockblocking sensor. I’m just now living down the last time that Cohen told the group about him seeing Melissa ‘hugging Daddy under the covers.’”
I start laughing again, and just like that, my mood lifts slightly.