Okay. Are you busy, or do you want to talk for a few minutes?
Lennox
Sure
And then there’s the one-word answers. Parenting at its finest.
My phone rings in my hand and I swipe across the screen and head upstairs with it pressed to my ear.
“Hey, how was school this week?” I ask without preamble, even though I’ve asked about his day every evening.
“It was fine, Mum.” His voice is annoyed… Not my favorite kind of hello. But even with his tone, just hearing my boy on the other end of the line makes my lips lift into a smile.
“Okay, I was just checking. Have anything fun planned with your grandparents this weekend?” I ask.
Letting myself into my room, I sit on the edge of my bed and flop back onto it.
“I think Gran is working, but Pa said he’d take me hiking.” There’s an uptick in his excitement at this.
My grin widens. Hiking was something I did with my dad on the weekends when Mum had to work. It was where my love for the outdoors started.
An unexpected benefit to having Lennox so young is that my parents get to enjoy all of his active years right along with him. They’ve only just turned fifty and are still getting out and travelingand taking adventures whenever they can, and now they get to include me and Lennox in them.
“That’ll be fun. Is he taking you anywhere cool?” I ask, tucking my arm behind my head and propping myself up.
“Loch Lomond.”
“Nice! I can’t wait to show you some of the places up here. Since we didn’t get a chance to explore last year.”
“Gran said you’re coming home in a few weeks, but I thought they were going to bring me to Skye.”
I stumble over what to tell him.
I can’t exactly go with the truth—that his dad is here—so I settle on, “I haven’t gotten us a house yet, so I thought it’d be easier for me to come to you for a few days. Once I get our new place figured out, you can come up, okay?”
“Aye, sure, whatever.” I can hear the disappointment in his voice.
“So, what’s the movie tonight?” I ask.
“I don’t know. Whatever Lachlan wants, I guess.” I can picture him rolling his green eyes and shrugging his bony shoulders. He’s rail-thin after a growth spurt this spring, all knobby knees and elbows.
“Shouldn’t you have a say?” I push. I want him to stand up for himself more, and I’m sick of his friends walking all over him.
“They were already planning to go when he said I could come, so I don’t think I get much choice.”
His “friends” at school have been excluding him more and more lately. I don’t know why, but it seems like he’s always theafterthought. I’m ready for this school year to be over. Then he can move up here and hopefully find a new group of friends.
One more thing to add to my list: enroll Lennox in the local school. I should ask Jamie about it, considering he actually went to primary school here.
“I hope you have fun at least. You call Gran or Pa if you need to be picked up early or anything.”
I miss being the one he could call. This distance between us is so much harder than I anticipated.
“I’ll be fine, Mum,” he says, like he’s exasperated with my overprotectiveness.
“Okay, sorry. I just miss you. You’re doing okay?”
“Yeah, Mum, jeeze,” he grumbles. Then his voice softens when he adds, “I miss you too.”
