“Well, I know that I’m only little, but I been thinkin’ about this real hard.”
I smiled, no doubt he had done just that. “I’m sure you have.”
He glanced up at me beneath thick brown lashes, twirling his little fingers in nervous swirls before continuing. “And…I know that Grandfather thinks that moms and dads should be married, but I like things the way they are now. I heard something…”
He hesitated, gauging my reaction. He had a penchant for eavesdropping, and I could tell he worried I’d get on to him for doing it again. “It’s alright. What did you hear?’
“Last night, I heard Grams talking to Aunt Jane and Aunt Lily, and I didn’t hear everything, but she said it was wrong of Grandfather to push you into this, Mom. That you and Dad liked each other too much to get married.”
It sounded just like my mother. I only wished she’d said it to me and not my sisters. Perhaps I would’ve decided to call this thing off before the day of the actual wedding. “And what do you think about that?”
Cooper shrugged a little as he spoke, “I think she’s right, Mama. All Grams and Grandfather do is fight, and they’re married. So do Aunt Lily and Uncle Jim. I don’t want you and Pops to start fighting.”
“Pops?” I laughed at the oddity of it. He’d never called Jeffrey ‘Pops’ once in his life.
“I heard Dad calling Bebop that and I liked it. Thought I would try it out.”
“I see.” I grinned, messing with his hair. “Well, I agree with you and so does ‘Pops.’ Your father and I can’t get married. It wouldn’t be fair of us to do that to this family. But that’s why I wanted to talk to you, we are still a family. No matter whether me and your Dad are married, the three of us are a family. Do you understand that?”
“Yes, Mom.” He sighed, clearly believing that I had no reason to doubt his understanding much of anything. Honestly, I really didn’t.
“And one more thing before we join your father. I don’t want you to think that because you’re little that I think less of what you think. If anything, I value what you think more than anyone else because you are little.”
That…and I was slightly afraid he was already smarter than me, but I certainly wasn’t going to say something like that to my son. I very much wanted him to think I was the smartest person on earth for at least another decade.
“Ok, Mom. Can we go find Dad now?”
“Absolutely. Let’s get out of here.” Lifting Cooper out of the swing, I wrestled with the globs of white lace that gathered around me until I once again stood on two feet. Grabbing his hand, I peeked around the tree to make sure the coast was clear and we took off, running toward the front of the house where his father waited with our escape vehicle.
“Are we going back to the City?” Cooper’s words came out choppy, bouncing with every step his short stride took.
“For a minute we are, but I’ll do you one better. What’s the one place you’ve always wanted to go?”
In that instant, his little feet stopped moving completely, and I nearly took a tumble with the jolt at the sudden stop of his movement.
“No! A plane? Oh Mama, am I finally gonna get to go on a plane?”
I laughed. He was four, nearly five truthfully, but still, how long could he really have been waiting? “Yes, you are. You’re going to go on a job with me.”
We neared the vehicle. Jeffrey must’ve seen us for he started the car, awaiting our approach.
“Where are we goin’?”
“Scotland.”
“Why?”
“I’ll tell you in the car.”
*
“Do you mind taking off your jacket so that I can drape it over Coop? He’s asleep. Can you hear him snoring?”
“Gladly. Sweet sound, isn’t it?” Jeffrey held his arm out to me so that I would pull on his sleeve while he shrugged out of the tux jacket. Once free of it, I twisted so that I could reach into the backseat and drape it over our sleeping son.
“The sweetest.”
Once I faced the front of the car again, Jeffrey reached over to squeeze my shoulder. “We’re getting close. Do you want to call the office to see if he’s even there? It’s pretty late.”
I shook my head, confident that nothing much had changed in Mr. Perdie’s routine since I took off work three days before for my wedding. “No, he’ll be there. He works so much he wouldn’t even come to our wedding, not that there was a wedding to come to, but you know what I mean.”
“Alright. Are you going to wear that?” He glanced at me, keeping one eye on the road.