The Fourteen Day Soul Detox (12 page)

She did two more passes before ending
her routine with a pose.

Aiden ran forward. “And the score
from our judges is, sixteen-million! Sarah Scott wins the gold
medal!”

Sarah’s smile couldn’t have
been bigger as Aiden grabbed up her hand and held it up like she just
won a boxing match.

I turned back to say something to
Patrick, but he was gone. Glancing around, I found him walking toward
a guy who was standing, facing us, but looking at his phone.

“Hey, that’s not cool,”
I heard Patrick say to the guy.

“Huh, what?” the guy said
looking up, he was shirtless and looked probably college-aged.

“Either delete that, or hand it
over so I can delete it.” Patrick held out a hand toward the
guy.

“Sorry, man, I’ll delete
it,” the guy said, fiddling with his phone.

“You better. I’m a lawyer,
and you don’t film kids and put them on the internet without
their parent’s permission,” he said.

“I just thought it was cool. It’s
deleted, okay?” he said, turning away.

“What a dick,” Susan said,
glaring at the phone guy who was now walking down the beach.

“Susan!” Beza said.

“Oh, sorry,” she said,
still glowering at the guy. “Thanks for doing that, Patrick. I
didn’t even notice that guy.”

“Yeah, thank you,” I said
as Patrick plopped down beside me. When his gaze met mine, I gave him
a grateful smile.

He sighed, wiping his hand over his
face. “No problem. I hate to see that type of thing.”

Susan shook her head. “It…”
she glanced at Beza, “
Freaking
pisses me off. Filming a
kid when their family isn’t looking, what the hell is wrong
with people?”

Sarah came over to me, practically
falling into my lap.

“You’re amazing,” I
whispered to her, before kissing her forehead.

“I’m going to go swim in
the ocean,” she said, smiling up at me.

“We’re going to go soon,
angel,” I said. “But maybe we can go swimming at our pool
while I do laundry.”

“Yes! Pool!” Sarah yelled.

“You can come swim in our pool,”
Kay said as she took a seat directly beside me. She looked up with a
huge smile on her face.

“Oh, thank you, sweetheart,”
I said. “Sarah and I will probably go to our pool though,
because it’s right next to the building where we do our laundry
and we need to wash our clothes.”

“You can do your laundry at our
house,” Kay said, scooting even closer.

I laughed. “Not this time
sweetheart.” Looking back down to Kay, I touched her hair.
“You kept your ponytail up,” I said, noticing her hair
was the same as when I pulled it up yesterday after school, though
now strands stuck out in every direction.

Kay touched it gently.

“She wouldn’t let me take
it out,” Patrick grimaced.

“Oh.” I bit my lip, looking
closer and noticing that her hair was tangled around Sarah’s
hair band. “Kay, do you want me to fix your hair? Or maybe do a
braid?”

Her big blue eyes widened at me. “Would
you? Can you do a braid? Because I don’t know how to. I’ve
tried on my dolls but I’m not any good at it.”

“Well, Beza is the best, but I
know how to do it,” I said.

She nodded emphatically. “I
really, really want one.”

“Well, I’d be happy to do
one for you. Can you turn around to face your dad?” To Sarah I
whispered, “Off my lap for a second, honey.”

After Sarah climbed off and went to sit
with the rest of the group, I turned to Kay.

Her little body shook, shoulders
bobbing up and down. “I’m so excited! I’ve always
wanted a braid!”

Patrick exhaled heavily, before giving
me a nod. “Do you mind if I watch? I should probably learn how
to do this.”

“Of course not, I’ll try to
explain how to do it too,” I said as I slowly, gently, worked
the hair band out from where it was caught in Kay’s hair.

“Do you want a comb?” Beza
asked as she pulled a wide-toothed comb from her bag.

“Thanks,” I said grabbing
the comb from her hands.

“Do you need a comb?”
Patrick asked as he knelt beside me with all his concentration on his
daughter’s hair.

“No, but it makes it easier.”
I combed out her long, dirty-blonde hair, working out the knots. I
leaned forward, asking Kay, “One braid, or two?”

“One, please,” she said.

In a low voice, I said to Patrick, “So,
first you divide the top part of her hair into three sections, like
this, near her forehead. Then you start weaving the sections in and
out of each other, like this. Using the comb, or you can just use
your fingers, pull more sections in, adding them to the original
three, and keep weaving them. When you run out of hair, just put in
the hair band, and done” I said. When I’d finished the
braid, I turned to Patrick.

His eyes were glued to his daughter’s
hair, like if he just concentrated hard enough, all the secrets of
life would be revealed.

He nodded. “Yeah, I think I got
it,” he said. He turned his blue eyes on me. “Thank you
for teaching me.”

“Anytime,” I said. “So,
you’re a lawyer?”

He gave me an almost sheepish grin.
“Tax law. It just doesn’t intimidate people all that much
when I say it.”

“Ha!” Susan said. “Sorry,
I was eavesdropping, but that was just too funny.”

Patrick grinned. “I like your
friends,” he said in a low mock-whisper to me.

“That’s because you don’t
know them that well,” I said, grinning to myself and digging my
feet into the warm sand. “They’re really pretty awful.”

“Stop talking trash,” Susan
said. “That… b-word would die for us. She loves us so
much it’s sickening. Don’t listen to a word she says.”

I rolled my eyes. “If you say
so.” Then to Patrick I mouthed, “Nah.”

He chuckled.

“Well,” I said, clapping my
hands on my legs. “It’s probably time for Sarah and me to
head home.”

“Can I go with Aunt Jamie?”
Aiden asked as he looked between his mothers. “Please!”

“It’s fine with me, if it’s
okay with you,” I said.

“Are you sure?” Beza asked.

“Yeah, of course. Have some time
just for the two of you. I can drop him off on my way to work at
about five-thirty. I think I have some clothes of his too from a
little while back, so he can wear that after the pool.”

“Thanks, babe. That sounds really
nice,” Susan said.

Beza pointed at Aiden. “You
better behave for your Aunt Jamie.”

“I will!” he said
excitedly, jumping up and down on his knees.

Sarah started jumping too, making loud
excited sounds.

“Can I go, dad?” Kay asked.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I
said, giving Patrick an apologetic look. “You’re welcome
to come too.”

Susan gave me a wide-eyed look like,
‘are you serious?’

I held my breath, gritting my teeth
together, waiting for Patrick to answer.

“Thanks, but it doesn’t
work for us today. We have to go meet my brother,” Patrick
said.

Turning away, I let out the breath I
was holding.

To his daughter, Patrick added, “We
have to meet him and Aunt Carrie very soon,” while running a
hand over her hair.

“Dad, no, don’t mess up my
braid!” she said, pushing his hand away.

“Oh, sorry, sorry, Kay-bay. We
probably should be off too.” Patrick grabbed what looked like a
cloth grocery bag and pulled out a shirt. Unfortunately, he then put
the shirt on before he started gathering sand toys. He looked over at
me. “Can we walk you to the car?”

“Sure,” I said as I stood,
brushing sand off my lap.

After saying our goodbyes to Susan and
Beza, the kids ran ahead while Patrick and I followed them up the
beach. The sun was in full-blown roasting mode now. All down the
beach, families ducked under sun tents or gathered around barbeques
while college-aged kids carried coolers down.

“I wonder where all these college
students came from,” I mused.

“Probably down from the UC,
that’s what we used to do,” he said.

“That’s where you went?”

“For undergrad,” he said.

“We used to come to Coral Beach
looking for a less crowded spot.” Patrick said, looking around.

“Well, those kids didn’t
find one, this place is getting crazy.”

“Where did you go?” he
asked.

“To college?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“I didn’t.” I
shrugged.

He looked over at me, his brow
furrowing, then he quickly looked away. “Oh,” he said.

I glanced over at him when he said
nothing more. After another couple seconds of silence, I looked back
at the kids, who were now waiting for us on the grass near the
parking lot. Aiden and Kay talked animatedly about something, heads
close together, while Sarah cart wheeled around on the grass.

“Not even a junior college?”
Patrick asked, though when I glanced over, he was still not looking
at me.

“Nope, nada,” I said.

“Oh.” After another couple
seconds of silence, he asked, “Why didn’t you go to
college?”

In a completely serious voice, I told
him, “My career as a prostitute during the day and a stripper
at night just didn’t leave me the time.”

Patrick glanced sharply at me and I
burst into laughter. “I’m sorry,” I said, and ran
ahead to where the kids were standing now all giggling. Putting one
arm around Aiden and the other around Sarah, I told Kay, “It
was great to see you again, sweetheart.”

“Will you do my hair in a braid,
again, next time I see you? Next time can I have two like Sarah’s?”
she asked.

“Maybe sweetheart, but definitely
give your dad a chance to try to braid your hair, yeah? He watched me
do it, so he’ll probably do as good a braid as I did. It might
take a couple practices though, so be patient with him,” I
said.

“I will!” she said,
grinning up at me.

I turned to Patrick, giving him what I
hoped looked like a friendly smile. “It was nice seeing you.
You guys have a great rest of your weekend.”

He took a step toward me. “Yeah,
it was really nice to see you too. And—” he paused,
running a hand over his head, “I—I hope we see you again…
soon.”

“Thanks,” I said, smiling
and stepping back with the kids. “Yeah, I’m sure we will.
Later.” Taking both Aiden and Sarah’s hands, I walked
toward my car.

“Jamie!”

Turning around, I found Beza running up
after us. Patrick too, was just standing where we left him, staring
after us. When I made eye contact with him, he waved. Putting an arm
around Kay, he walked with her toward the parking lot.

“The kid’s boosters are
still in my car!” Beza called when she got close. She jogged
up, not out of breath at all when she reached us. “I’m
parked over here,” she said, gesturing a little further into
the lot. After we transferred the booster seats and got the kids
buckled inside, Beza gave me an amused twist of her lips. “So
what do you think?” she asked.

“He’s nice,” I said,
giving her a quick smile.

Her expression fell into a frown. “Oh,
you don’t like him. I thought it was going so well.”

“It was, but it took a sudden
turn for the worse on the walk to the car. I think he was just a very
nice fantasy guy, you know?”

“And I ruined it for you, I’m
sorry.” She exhaled heavily, her shoulders dropping. “I
shouldn’t have pushed you into this.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Yeah,
you shouldn’t have. But, I’ll forgive you… if you
promise to never, ever do it again.”

“Fine,” she said, giving me
a lemon-scented hug. “Alright, I’ll see you at
five-thirty at the house?”

“We’ll be there,” I
said as I stepped away.

When I sat back in the car, I rubbed my
face and shook my head.

“What are you doing?” Aiden
said from the back seat.

“Your Aunt
needs
coffee,
bad,” I told him.

“Then go get some,” he
said.

“That is a fantastic idea,
buddy,” I said. Driving five blocks out of the way, I pulled
into the parking lot of the drive-thru coffee shop. Pulling up to the
speaker, I rolled down my window.

“Welcome to Harrington’s,
can I take your order?”

“Do you kids want anything?”
I asked into the back seat.

“Chocolate milkshakes!”
Aiden said.

“Two juice boxes,” I said
to the speaker. To the back seat I said, “Anything to eat?”

“Doughnuts!” Sarah yelled,
and then the pair giggled.

“Goodness, I have a pair of
comedians in the backseat.” I shook my head, making them giggle
more. Back to the speaker, I said, “Okay, what type of
sandwiches do you have?”

He listed off a list of pre-made lunch
foods, of which I ordered three turkey sandwiches. I inhaled deeply,
and then blew out the breath. “And a coffee,” I said in a
rush.

“Just regular coffee?”

“No! No coffee! Sorry,” I
said, my head falling into my hands. “Do you have tea?”

“We have bagged tea or tea
lattes,” he responded.

“Give me whichever one has the
most caffeine, please. Chai latte, probably. And that’s all,”
I told him.

“You got it. Your total comes out
to twelve-eighteen at the window. Please pull forward,” he
said.

After paying for our food and drinks, I
handed sandwiches and juice boxes back to the kids and drove forward.
At the first stop light, I lifted the Chai out of its cup holder.

“Are you making me a cheater?”
I whispered to the Chai.

It said nothing back.

“If you’re going to be like
that, I’m just going to drink you,” I told it.

The light turned green and I set the
Chai back in its holder while I drove. It stared at me all the way
home.

Finally as I pulled into my parking
spot, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I took out my phone and sent
Susan a text.

Me:
Is
Chai cheating?