Part 339
Leaving Kellie’s, Sarah snuggled next to Howie playing with his wedding band. A flood of emotions washed over her but the biggest one was relief…relief that she’d have Howie with her when the twins were born; relief that he would be by her side to help raise them; relief that she’d seen Kellie.
Howie reached over and caressed Sarah’s stomach feeling one of the babies move. He grinned, "Are they moving much?"
"Sorta. It feels like they’re taking turns," answered Sarah softly putting her hand on his.
"You okay, ‘Tigger’?" asked AJ as he put his hand on her knee.
"Just counting my blessings, Alex."
From the front seat, Kevin said, "Something we should all do every day…not just when we’re faced with something like this."
"Very true," agreed Sarah. "Unfortunately, it takes something like September 11th to make us realize what we have but I can promise you one thing. I’ll NEVER take my life for granted again."
The four men chorused their agreement and talk turned to the day’s work ahead of them.
*************
Having visited with Kellie and her children, Sarah was enveloped with the need to talk to her daughter. As the guys were listening to the tape they’d done on the road and discussing the changes, Sarah pulled out Howie’s cell phone and dialed.
"What?" snapped Nick.
"Gee, nice to talk to you too," laughed Sarah.
"Sorry, Sarah. I was just a little preoccupied with your daughter."
"What’s my princess up to?"
"Princess?" snorted Nick. "More like hellion. Oh, she’s just being YOUR daughter. Wanna talk to her?"
"It would be nice."
There was a momentary pause as Nick handed the phone to Jesse. Then, a high pitched squeal, "MOMMY!"
"Hey, baby! Are you having fun?"
"Sorta," wheddled Jesse.
"Sorta? What’s wrong, Jess?" asked Sarah hearing the tone of Jesse’s voice and knowing full well that Jesse had had enough time to torment Jane.
"Jane’s MEAN!"
Sarah had to check her laughter to ask, "Why do you say that?"
"She wouldn’t fix blueberry pancakes for me for breakfast," whined Jesse.
"Well, what did she fix?"
"French toast and it was yucky. She didn’t put the brown stuff on it like you do. And for lunch, she fixed peanut butter and jelly and it was gross and she didn’t cut my crust off and she called me a brat and she said Daddy needed to wear my butt out and your’s too," gushed Jesse without taking a breath.
"Jess, first of all, not everyone cooks like I do and you should use your manners and eat whatever is put before you," said Sarah sternly. "I’m sure that Jane will fix you pancakes tomorrow if you ask."
"She said she’d try…if she could get the mix and find blueberries."
"There you go, baby. I’m sure that Aunt Becca will help make sure you
get blueberry pancakes and bacon tomorrow morning. Did you ask Jane to cut your
crust off at lunch?"
"No," pouted Jesse.
"Then that’s your fault. I’m sure if you’d asked Aunt Becca or Uncle Nicky, they’d have done it for you. You know, Jane’s NOT a mind reader."
"They were busy with GT. Mommy, I wanna be with you and Daddy. I HATE Jane."
"Jessica, you don’t hate anyone. Isn’t Aaron there?"
Jesse’s whining quickly changed to excitement as she said, "Yes ma’am! He went swimming with me this morning and Angel and BJ colored with me."
"Now see, you’re having fun. You’d be bored to death if you were here, baby. Uncle Kevin is being a real meany and making us all work really hard."
Kevin shot Sarah a cross look when she said that as AJ and Brian laughed.
"What’s Daddy doing?" yawned Jesse.
"He’s listening to some music. Do you want to talk to him?"
"Uh huh."
"Excuse me."
"Yes ma’am."
"Howie, Jess wants to talk to you."
Howie took the phone from Sarah, "Hey, Princess. Are you behaving?"
Softly and timidly, Jesse answered, "Not really."
"Jess, you need to mind your manners. You don’t need to be giving Uncle Nicky and Aunt Becca a hard time."
"I miss you," whimpered the little girl.
"I know, Princess," said Howie in a soothing voice. "Just a little longer, okay?"
"Okay, Daddy."
Looking at his watch, Howie asked, "Shouldn’t you be taking a nap?"
"Yes sir but I forgot my book."
"How about I sing to you?"
"How are you gonna do that, Daddy?"
Howie smiled as he motioned to the others to join him. "We can do it over the phone. How about Drowning? It’s your favorite."
"Yes! Yes! Yes!"
Together, the five sang the song to Jesse with Sarah taking Nick’s part.
When they were done, Howie said softly, "Sweet dreams, Princess."
Becca had taken the phone and said, "Thank you, Howie. Jesse dropped off shortly after your part."
"No problem, Bec. Give her a kiss for us and we’ll see you soon."
As Howie cut the phone off, Sarah laughed, "I can’t WAIT to hear what Jesse did to Jane for her to be called a brat."
Howie put his arms around Sarah kissing her on the forehead. "Jesse being Jesse is enough. Let’s get to work, Angel."