AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Glad you could join us,” she said.
“Me too,” I said. “Me too.”
We sat by the river for the next hour or so, eating breakfast with our feet in the cool water and slurping coffee Bianca brought in her flask. Cleb drank lemonade.
None of us said a word as we sat in the sun as it dried our clothes. We sighed every few minutes with satisfaction.
“Do you miss the office?” Bianca said.
“No,” I said. “Strangely.”
“Why is it strange?”
“I haven’t missed a day at the office in… forever.”
“How does it feel to be out?”
There was only one word to describe it, especially with her looking at me that way.
“Wonderful,” I said.
Cleb emerged from the wood with a bouquet of wildflowers clutched in his tiny hand. He extended them to Bianca.
“These are for you,” he said.
Bianca clasped her hands over her mouth in dramatic fashion.
“Thank you so much!” she said. “They’re beautiful.”
“There’s one of each of the plants we learned about yesterday,” Cleb said. “Except a couple. I couldn’t find them.”
“Can you name them all?” I said.
Cleb looked at me shyly and shrugged his shoulders.
“Want to give it a try?” I said. “I bet you can do it.”
Cleb swayed his hips left and right. I could tell he wanted to try but he was worried he might get the answers wrong in front of me.
Bianca was right. I never should have ignored Cleb. He needed a caring and loving parent figure in his life. Even if I wasn’t his father, I was his godfather. The least I could do was give him some of my time.
“Go on,” I said. “Try.”
Cleb stared at the flowers but wouldn’t start. I drifted over to Bianca’s side. As delicious as the flowers smelled, they didn’t have a patch on her.
“How about… this one?” I said, picking the most common flower among them all.
Cleb answered quick as a flash.
“Very good,” I said. “What about… this one?”
Cleb went through every last plant until we got down to the final two. He seemed to have trouble remembering them.
“That’s ten out of twelve,” I said. “Pretty great if you ask me. There were some you got that I couldn’t remember.”
“Really?” Cleb said, astonished. “But you know everything!”
I chuckled.
