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“Yes, ma’am,” Eric drawled. He kicked off beat up work boots and discarded them in the mud room. He ambled over to his wife and kissed her. “We’d better get packing.”
“Already done.”
“You are the best.”
“I know.”
Eric walked over to the wriggling bundle cooing and reclining in what he’d dubbed the “bouncy thing.” After lifting his son in his arms, he pressed his cheek to the baby’s feathery tufts of hair. He took a long and easy breath. “I’ll never get tired of this smell. We should have six more.”
Jenna coughed but the grating sound was edged with humor. “I’ll consider two.”
Eric buried his face in the folds of the baby’s chubby neck. “But we make such beautiful little people.”
With her arms folded and one brow raised, Jenna shook her head. “The last time I checked, your contribution to the ‘making’ part was a lot easier than mine.”
Nick stood away from the table and reached into his jacket pocket. He handed Eric an envelope. “While you two decide on how many kids to add to your brood, put this in the bank for the latest…my godson.”
“You didn’t have to—”
“I’m from Brooklyn. I take mypadrinoduty seriously.”
Smiling, Eric slipped the envelope into the back pocket of his jeans. “Okay, but no pinky rings till he’s at least three.”
“Deal.”
Janie bounded through the door with a dog of questionable lineage at her heels. She scratched the little wire-haired pup’s ears. “Daddy, are you sure the guys will take care of Dusty?”
“Positive, they’ll take him out to the corral when they exercise the horses. And if it will make you feel better, he can sleep in the bunk house with them.”
The Laine farm had expanded to a ranch of sorts. A new stable, bright red with a shining copper cupola, was the jewel in the crown of the property. There was an indoor riding arena and yards of paddock fenced enclosures for the horses. With the exception of a new, two-year-old chestnut and mini-Palomino, the high-end stable was still home to Eric’s senior, swayback animals.
“Get in the shower,” Jenna ordered. “And wear something comfortable. It’s a five-hour flight to Los Angeles.”
Janie snapped her fingers. “Darn, I bet Riley that I would be in California before she got back to New York.”
Eric raised an eyebrow as he questioned his daughter. “How did you think that would be possible? Don’t they teach you geography at school?”
“Sure, but it’s three hours earlier in California.” The comment earned another provisional look from her father as she hurried off toward the stairs.
Eric appealed to Jenna. “Please tell me she was kidding.”
“She was. She’s smart…but she’s also a smart-ass.”
“Well, when Anne and Riley come back to visit this summer, I may hire a tutor as well as a riding instructor just to be on the safe side.”
Nick laughed and shrugged out of his chair. “I guess I should go pack, too. I’ll call ahead and remind my guys to have a car waiting for us at the airport.”
The Laine family was going on a trip to California. Jenna still owned a mammoth of a house in Malibu and was anxious to walk its halls, exorcise its demons, and put it on the market. Eric, as always, was besieged with pleas from his manager and agent to commit to a new film and thought the least he could do was return to L.A. and turn the offers down in person.
Options to do movies, tour, and record an album had been presented to Jenna as well, but the comeback trail didn’t call to her as much as raising a family did, so she also declined. But the door was open if either of them changed their minds.
****
As their plane sped through the sky, Jenna sat, her hand casually resting on Eric’s thigh. The baby was sleeping peacefully on his chest. Across the aisle Nick softly snored in his seat while Janie, next to him, gobbled an ice cream sundae. “I love sitting up here in first-class. I’m never flying steerage again.”
Eric narrowed his eyes. “It’s called coach, and don’t think you’ll never fly back there. Life won’t always be a big red bow. If you’re lucky enough to go places; it won’t matter how you get to them.”
“So do I finallygetto ride the bus to school?”
