Summer on Blossom Street (Blossom Street #6)(61)

Casey’s smile lit up her face.

“Is everyone still game to go to the lake?” Brad asked. He didn’t need to repeat the question. Cody and Casey let their feelings be known with boisterous hollering. After some discussion we decided to leave Chase behind. Cody protested loudly but I was afraid the dog would get loose. Chase was otherwise a reasonably well-behaved dog, but he had a bad habit of running ahead, forcing us to chase after him. When we got to Green Lake, I was pleased to see that it wasn’t nearly as crowded as usual. Like us, many families seemed to have abandoned their weekend plans because of the weather. Now, just a couple of hours after the rainstorm, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We reached the bicycle rental place and while Brad paid the fees and signed the paperwork, I helped Cody and Casey choose their bikes and put on their helmets. Brad and I thought that instead of walking today we’d cycle, too. The path around the lake was well laid-out and Cody took off f irst, with Casey directly behind him. We circled the lake twice before we stopped for ice cream. Sitting on the bench along the pathway, the four of us licked chocolate-dipped cones, hurrying to eat the ice cream before it melted in the hot July sunshine.

“Did you hear about the surgical patient who woke up before the doctor was finished with the surgery?” Brad asked the children.

He posed it as a serious question, like something he’d heard on the evening news.

Cody shook his head. “Not me.”

“Me, neither,” Casey said.

“Apparently, the man wanted to f inish his own surgery. The surgeon explained that all that remained was the stitches.”

I thought I knew what was coming.

“The man said he could do that, so the surgeon told him to suture himself.”

Cody groaned.

“Good one,” Casey said, grinning broadly. “Suture himself,”

she repeated, and burst out laughing.

Cody’s laughter joined hers, while I was content to roll my eyes and lick my ice cream. Brad was obviously quite happy with himself.

Casey looked at me, her eyes brimming with joy. It was diff icult to remember that this was the same angry, def iant girl who’d shown up on our doorstep a few weeks earlier.

“When do we have to return the bikes?” Cody wanted to know. Brad checked his watch. “Fifteen minutes.”

Cody roared to his feet. “That’s long enough to ride around the lake one more time.” He grabbed his helmet and slammed it on his head. “Last one back is a dead frog.”

Well, I for one had no intention of being referred to as a dead frog, so I f inished my cone and hopped on my bike. Cody and Casey were already way ahead of me. Brad took his time but it wasn’t long before he sailed past.

I was the last to arrive at the bike rental shop—to no one’s surprise. Cody leaned against the side of the building with his ankles crossed, as though he’d been waiting there for hours. Brad, who stood beside him, tapped his watch.

“Here comes Lydia, the dead frog,” my husband announced. Casey bent double with laughter as if this was the funniest thing she’d ever heard. Fortunately I’m a good sport.

“You three had better beware. You never know what might turn up in your stew tonight.” I was planning to ask Brad to grill hamburgers, but I wasn’t telling Cody and Casey that. “Frogs, anyone?”

Cody shifted toward Casey and said in a stage whisper, “Last Halloween Mom made monster eyeballs.”

“Yuck.” Casey pretended to be horrif ied.

“It was really meatballs with a green olive poking out,” Cody explained.

“Don’t forget the bat wings,” I reminded him.

“They looked like chicken wings to me, but what do I know?” Brad said.

“Ghosts, too,” Cody added. “Those were really just mashed potatoes.”

Casey glanced at me. “You have a great imagination.”

“I try,” I said and looped my arm around her neck as we walked back to the car.

On the way home we stopped at the grocery store and picked up hamburger buns and fresh tomatoes, although Cody and Brad both hated them.

Casey and I liked tomatoes and cheese on our burgers, however, and I wasn’t about to be cheated out of this small treat. While I picked out the best tomatoes, Brad and Cody went to the deli for potato salad and baked beans. We were going to have the perfect summer feast.

While Brad lit the barbecue, Casey and I got everything into serving dishes and set the picnic table in the backyard. Chase and Cody raced around the grass. Cody tossed a Frisbee in the air and the dog caught it every time.

“You want to throw it?” Cody asked Casey when she’d f inished helping me.

She shrugged. “I guess.”

I could see that she was grateful, and again I wanted to hug Cody for his thoughtfulness. Our son was capable of real sensitivity and I was sure that was due, in part, to the diff icult situation with his mother. He hadn’t said much about his visit with Janice a week earlier, and I hadn’t asked. Brad had stayed in the car, listening to the radio, while Cody was up in her condo. Cody, like any little boy, loved his mother. He loved me, too, and I didn’t want him to feel guilty about his feelings for Janice. I hurt for him that Janice showed so little interest in his life. During dinner Brad told more of his silly jokes. I remembered a few old knock-knock jokes my father had told when I was a kid. We all laughed rowdily as if we were clever and funny when we were probably neither. We were just having fun as a family. By the time we’d f inished cleaning off the outside table, we decided to work on the jigsaw puzzle again. With the four of us all f inding pieces, it was coming together quickly. Eventually, we grew tired of that and gathered around the television to watch a movie Brad had rented while we were at the grocery store. When the f inal credits rolled, Cody was yawning. It’d been a full, full day.