himself and eats them, saving me from cleaning up.”
Stunned, Carly said, “Married life must be agreeing with you. You are the last person I would expect to let any mess be left out. Your eye doesn’t start twitching when you see pieces of kibble on the floor?”
“You’re probably right. I’ve relaxed in the last several months. It was hard to ignore the food at first, but then I realized if I did pick it up, Droopy wanted to eat again since he lost half of it walking around the house.”
“I noticed that too. And that he falls asleep in his food bowl.”
“What? He fell asleep in his food bowl? Tell me you have a picture of that!”
Of course Carly did. It was too cute not to snap a shot of it. And too ridiculous to not put on her computer and share with all her students the next day. The class thought it was so funny that she turned it into a fun assignment. “Describe this picture in five words or less.” Her students all had one heck of an imagination. She even had some of their responses typed on her computer so she could put it together in a little collage of bubble words above a picture of Droopy for their classroom. Maybe she’d make a second one for Brynn. She knew Brynn would appreciate it.
“Let me grab my phone.”
“If it was on your phone, why didn’t you send it to me?” Brynn reached for the phone, looked at it, and bent over laughing as she gazed at the picture of Droopy spread eagle, legs in all directions, belly on the floor and face in the food bowl.
“I didn’t want to bother you on your honeymoon. Okay, enough about your baby; let’s get to the good stuff. How were the Florida Keys?”
“Beautiful. Wonderful. Magical and exciting. The list goes on and on.”
“I don’t really want to know about your sex life,” Carly said dryly. “I want to know how the island was. I can’t believe Alec rented an island for a week for the two of you.”
Brynn snorted. “Well, the sex was all that and more, but the island was pretty speculator too. I told him that we needed to find a time to rent it out and all go down as a family. All the siblings, maybe even all the close friends. We toured some other islands for rent that had multiple houses on them.”
“That sounds wonderful.” Carly couldn’t imagine doing anything like that. Growing up, she never really went on any vacations. There wasn’t the money for it. Even if her mother was working steadily and holding down a job for a long period of time, she wouldn’t have been able to handle the stress of going away. Not to mention most of the jobs her mother had were under the table and could end at any point. Any extra money they had was put away in case of emergencies. Carly learned to never even ask. She had just been thankful to be in a peaceful home and not looking over her shoulder as much.
“Okay, moving on. I don’t want to take up too much of your time and I know Alec misses Droopy, too. But I need to ask…how does my house look?”
Carly winced. “You found out?”
“Yeah. Phil called us on Monday after you guys painted everything. He told Alec all about what happened and said the guilt got to him, that he knew how he would feel if someone did that to his house. He could only blame the fact that Isabel is very persuasive and everyone is afraid to say no to her.”
Carly walked over and rubbed her hand up and down Brynn’s arm. She knew Brynn would have been sweating it the entire time and was surprised Phil had called to tell them. “It looks really good. I was nervous about it myself, but in the end I think you’ll love it.”
“Thanks,” Brynn said, grasping Carly’s hand. “I’ll take your word for it. Phil assured Alec it looked great. Alec believed Phil, but you know me better than even Alec and I wanted your honest take. I appreciate it, I really do, but I was nervous just the same.”
“Trust me, it looks wonderful. Phil followed all your plans exactly.”
“Good, that’s good. So tell me,
Stunned, Carly said, “Married life must be agreeing with you. You are the last person I would expect to let any mess be left out. Your eye doesn’t start twitching when you see pieces of kibble on the floor?”
“You’re probably right. I’ve relaxed in the last several months. It was hard to ignore the food at first, but then I realized if I did pick it up, Droopy wanted to eat again since he lost half of it walking around the house.”
“I noticed that too. And that he falls asleep in his food bowl.”
“What? He fell asleep in his food bowl? Tell me you have a picture of that!”
Of course Carly did. It was too cute not to snap a shot of it. And too ridiculous to not put on her computer and share with all her students the next day. The class thought it was so funny that she turned it into a fun assignment. “Describe this picture in five words or less.” Her students all had one heck of an imagination. She even had some of their responses typed on her computer so she could put it together in a little collage of bubble words above a picture of Droopy for their classroom. Maybe she’d make a second one for Brynn. She knew Brynn would appreciate it.
“Let me grab my phone.”
“If it was on your phone, why didn’t you send it to me?” Brynn reached for the phone, looked at it, and bent over laughing as she gazed at the picture of Droopy spread eagle, legs in all directions, belly on the floor and face in the food bowl.
“I didn’t want to bother you on your honeymoon. Okay, enough about your baby; let’s get to the good stuff. How were the Florida Keys?”
“Beautiful. Wonderful. Magical and exciting. The list goes on and on.”
“I don’t really want to know about your sex life,” Carly said dryly. “I want to know how the island was. I can’t believe Alec rented an island for a week for the two of you.”
Brynn snorted. “Well, the sex was all that and more, but the island was pretty speculator too. I told him that we needed to find a time to rent it out and all go down as a family. All the siblings, maybe even all the close friends. We toured some other islands for rent that had multiple houses on them.”
“That sounds wonderful.” Carly couldn’t imagine doing anything like that. Growing up, she never really went on any vacations. There wasn’t the money for it. Even if her mother was working steadily and holding down a job for a long period of time, she wouldn’t have been able to handle the stress of going away. Not to mention most of the jobs her mother had were under the table and could end at any point. Any extra money they had was put away in case of emergencies. Carly learned to never even ask. She had just been thankful to be in a peaceful home and not looking over her shoulder as much.
“Okay, moving on. I don’t want to take up too much of your time and I know Alec misses Droopy, too. But I need to ask…how does my house look?”
Carly winced. “You found out?”
“Yeah. Phil called us on Monday after you guys painted everything. He told Alec all about what happened and said the guilt got to him, that he knew how he would feel if someone did that to his house. He could only blame the fact that Isabel is very persuasive and everyone is afraid to say no to her.”
Carly walked over and rubbed her hand up and down Brynn’s arm. She knew Brynn would have been sweating it the entire time and was surprised Phil had called to tell them. “It looks really good. I was nervous about it myself, but in the end I think you’ll love it.”
“Thanks,” Brynn said, grasping Carly’s hand. “I’ll take your word for it. Phil assured Alec it looked great. Alec believed Phil, but you know me better than even Alec and I wanted your honest take. I appreciate it, I really do, but I was nervous just the same.”
“Trust me, it looks wonderful. Phil followed all your plans exactly.”
“Good, that’s good. So tell me,
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