Chapter 12

MELODY LEFT EARLY SATURDAY MORNING to go visit Amy on the other side of the mountains. Lissa left to pick Kate up at about one o’clock, asking me repeatedly if I was sure it was okay to leave the boys with me.

“We’ve got plans,” I said. “If we’re not home when you get back, don’t worry. Just text me and I’ll let you know when we’re coming back.”

She finally left and I got the boys dressed for our outing. About half an hour later Jack showed up.

“This was a great idea, Tony. How much do I owe you for the tickets?”

“A hotdog and a bag of peanuts,” I laughed. “Really, Jack. I’m just glad you agreed to join us. I know it’s not your weekend, but...”

“I wouldn’t have missed it,” Jack said. “I try to think of everything, but sometimes two heads are just better than one.”

We looked at the boys sitting next to us. It was still early in the game, but both boys had met a major league player and had a newly signed baseball in their gloves. Their hats were almost as big as their heads and Jack and I had smeared them liberally with sunblock. We were in cheap seats on the second deck, but I figured that just meant we were closer to the sun.

“That’s something I wanted to talk to you about,” I said. “I remember, when I was about eight, my dad took me on a trip to Kansas City to see the Royals play baseball. We went to a double-header against the Twins. The Royals lost both games miserably, but I didn’t care. I was with my dad going to a real baseball game. I wanted to share that, too, but I’m...”

“ ... but you’re not their dad,” Jack finished for me. “Tony, there’ve been conflicts between dads and stepdads for centuries. We’re doing a pretty remarkable job of not having many. What you did today by inviting me along was the right way to do it and I’ve got to say thanks. Maybe Drew’s a little young for it, but it’s never a good idea to make the older wait to do something just because the younger isn’t ready. With two of us here, if Drew gets too tired to go on and Damon wants to stay, we can split up.”

“I was afraid you’d think I was overstepping my ... well ... I don’t have any authority or responsibility or anything. I’m really just a babysitter when it comes down to it.”

“Is that what you feel like, Tony? Just a babysitter?”

I looked at the boys. I hadn’t been paying much attention to the game, but they both stood up and yelled just as Justin Smoak put one over the fence. Everybody was standing and the boys couldn’t see anything. Jack and I reached for boys at the same time and Damon was up on my shoulder at the same time that Drew was perched on Jack’s. Both boys were screaming as loud as the rest of the crowd put together. The organ was playing; fireworks were going off on the big screen as a picture of a baseball flying through the air with the cover coming off streaked across the board. When we got settled back in our seats, Damon stayed on my lap and Drew on Jack’s. I looked at Jack.

“No. That’s not what I feel like,” I said. Jack held out his hand.

“Partners?” he asked. I shook the offered hand.

“Partners.”

“Well, well, well, young lady. You finally got home,” I chided Lissa. Ten o’clock wasn’t that late but the boys were in bed asleep and I’d had a good hour to focus on drawing in the quiet house. With Lissa out on a date with Kate, and Melody across the mountains with Amy, the house seemed very big and empty after the boys went to bed.

“Oh, Tony,” Lissa sighed. “It was so nice.”

“Come here, lover, and tell me all about your big date,” I said.

Lissa cuddled up with me in the recliner. That had become my favorite spot for one-on-one cuddles with my wives and I could hold both boys there while I read. Lissa curled up in my lap and gave me a long, slow-burning kiss.

“I can taste Kate,” I said. “How long were you two making out?”

“A bit,” Lissa said. “Can you really taste her? She has such sweet lips.”

“So do you, darling. I suppose, though, that I just imagine I taste her. Now, tell me all about it.”

“We need to figure that out,” Lissa said.

I stroked her cheek and let my hand trail over her shoulder and down her arm until we intertwined our fingers. Lissa had chosen a summery dress that hugged her curves and left her shoulders bare. It was unusual to see her in yellow, but her hair seemed to reflect the brightness. I hadn’t turned on a lamp yet and we could still see the mountains silhouetted against the horizon on the other side of the Sound. I nibbled her ear and she squirmed delightfully in my lap.

“What do we need to figure out?”

“How much we tell each other about what happens on our dates,” Lissa said. “I don’t mean we should hold anything back from each other, but Kate is in an interesting situation. She wants to be with all three of us, but she wants to get to know each of us individually. It wouldn’t be fair to her to tell you everything she said to me, because then she would feel like she had nothing to share with you when she takes you out. Does that make sense?”

“I can definitely see your point. Did you talk it over with her?”

“Yes, a little. In fact, most of what we talked about was how dating worked. She hasn’t had any more experience dating than I have. She didn’t say much about her home, but I got the impression that her choices for dates before she came to college included horses, cows, and pigs. I’m not sure if she was being literal or figurative.”

“Probably both. I looked up her hometown area online and there’s nothing there. The population of the town is forty-nine and she said she lived way outside of town.”

“Kate’s really smart and a wonderful artist, but dating isn’t the only thing she’s inexperienced at. She’s so hungry to do things. It’s almost like taking the boys out. Everything is new,” Lissa explained. “Speaking of which, what did you and our sons do today?”

Our sons. Wow! I hugged Lissa close and gave her a kiss. Then I told her about Jack and the boys at the baseball game.

“What a wonderful idea!” Lissa said. “I want to do it, too!”

“Why don’t we do a ballgame next weekend? Just for the four of us?”

“Wait. Which four?”

“A date.”

“Okay. Are the Mariners in town?”

“No. But the Aquasox are.”

“The who?”

“It’s our farm team up in Everett. A lot cheaper than Safeco and just as much fun, I’m told. It probably would have been a better place to take the boys for their first time out, but they had fun and it wasn’t too crowded.”

“Who gets to ask our girlfriend?”

“We’d probably better let Melody in on it first, but speaking of girlfriend, you cleverly diverted the conversation away from your date.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. But, there’s just one thing. Did she give you a kiss to share?”

Wow! We spent half an hour as Lissa attempted to get the exact nuances of Kate’s kiss correct as she practiced on me.

“It was so much fun!” Melody squealed when she got home from visiting Amy.

She pulled into the driveway at about two o’clock Sunday afternoon. Lissa and I had spent a quiet morning as the boys played in the backyard on this bright and sunny day. Amy had to go to work at noon and Melody left to drive back home after having schnitzel at Amy’s drive-in.

“And look at the drawings!” She pulled out a small portfolio that held new sketches for the company logo. “Amy will do the whole website design, too. And she has an idea for our market launch at Opens.”

“This is great!” Lissa said. “We can go to market in the fall if we can get the fabric problems and financing worked out.”

“And that’s where I come in,” I said. Both Lissa and Melody looked at me in surprise. “My agenda yesterday was more than entertaining the boys,” I continued. “We took them to Red Robin for dinner after the game and Jack and I talked a little business. After I told him all the details about the little bleaching catastrophe and my portrait appointment, we agreed that it would be a good thing to have a studio someplace that was appropriately set up to do our necessary manufacturing and where any of us could paint or bring in models. Jack is investigating the possibilities.”

“Wow! You didn’t tell me about any of that last night.”

“We had other things to discuss, and I wanted to wait until all three of us were together.”

“But the whole bleaching thing would still leave the studio smelling bad, even with good ventilation. You couldn’t bring people in there to paint. I’d be worried about you even spending time there without wearing a mask,” Melody said. “Excuse me for being paranoid, but I got a serious wake-up call this week.”

“But think of it this way,” I said. “We need to get fabric and get the bleaching done in the next month so we can send it to manufacturing. By mid-September, it would be empty and with a little de-fumigation, it would be ready for art until you’re ready to start next season’s fabric.”