Fun in the Sun

Chapter 2

“I just talked to my daddies,” Bree said proudly as she skipped into the backyard of Edna’s Treasures where Patrick and Ashley were throwing a stick which Beau was only too happy to retrieve.

“How’s your Daddy?” Patrick asked as they all sat down in some lawn chairs under the big tree.

“Dada says he’s taking care of him. I think Daddy’s doing good,” Bree responded. “He really needed a vacation.” She had told her cousin and her friend all about her trip to Toronto, and also about how uptight and worried her Daddy had been about his art show.

“That’s good,” Ashley told Bree. “My mommy would like to have a vacation,” she said with a little sadness in her voice.

“Isn’t she having a vacation while you’re here this week?” Patrick asked with the Kinney smirk.

Bree gave her cousin the glare of death. Patrick’s smirk disappeared immediately.

Beau walked over to Bree and dropped the stick they had been throwing for him. He knew instinctively that the fun was over for now. He laid his big head in Bree’s lap. She ruffled the fur around his neck and Beau looked up at her with sorrowful eyes. He was glad to have his young mistress home, but he wondered where his other masters were. He missed them.

“It’s okay, Beau,” Bree stated. Instinctively, just like Beau, she understood what was going on with the big dog. “My daddies will be home soon.” Beau gave a groan and laid down beside Bree’s chair to observe his young charges.

“Why didn’t you go with them?” Patrick asked. He would have gone with his dads if he had been invited.

“I think they needed alone time,” Bree said.

“What’s alone time?” Ashley asked in all innocence.

“It’s like when they go in their bedroom and lock the door,” Bree replied.

“What do they do in there?” Ashley inquired. Not having her father in her life, or her mother in a relationship, Ashley had no experience with this concept. Her mother’s bedroom door was always open to her.

“I don’t really know, and somebody won’t tell me,” Bree stated pointedly as she looked at Patrick with accusing eyes. Patrick blushed.

“I don’t get it,” Ashley said.

“They’re loving each other,” Bree added, parroting what Uncle John had told her.

“Oh,” Ashley said. She still didn’t get it, but apparently she wasn’t going to receive any better answer. “Grown ups are funny.”

“You can say that again,” Bree agreed.

“Especially Aunt Claire,” Patrick piped up.

“Why is she funny?” Bree asked.

“She sure isn’t funny to make you laugh.”

“Then why is she funny?”

“She’s weird,” Patrick said as he thought about how to answer the question more completely. “Every time me and Dad went to her son’s house, she acted real strange. She’d stare at me like she couldn’t believe I was real.”

“Did she think you were a ghost or something?” Ashley asked.

“She kind of did.”

“What do you mean?” Bree asked. “You’re not dead. You can’t be a ghost.”

Patrick frowned. “It was like she couldn’t believe I was real. She kept looking at me like she was waiting for me to do something … bad.”

“Why would she want you to do something bad?” Bree wanted to know.

“I don’t think she wanted me to, but she thought I would.”

“That is weird,” Bree agreed. “I tried to like her when she came here for those days a long time ago, but she never really let me. She always looked at me funny too, now that I remember how she was.”

“I’m just glad we don’t have to go back to see her anymore,” Patrick stated.

“So what are we going to do for this afternoon?” Bree asked. “I think we should ask Uncle John to take us horseback riding.”

“That would be fun,” Ashley agreed, getting excited about the prospect of being on a horse again. She wasn’t the best rider, but she liked to be up high and ride along looking at the scenery.

“Dad’s working from home today, so I don’t think he can take us,” Patrick informed them.

“Poop,” Bree responded. She really wanted to go horseback riding. “We could ask him,” she suggested coyly.

“Sure, go ahead and ask him,” Patrick said, “but he won’t be able to do it.”

Bree frowned, but she was also determined. Just then John came out of the sun porch.

“Uncle John, Uncle John!” Bree called leaping from her chair and rushing to her uncle so she could throw her arms around him.

“That’s the kind of greeting I like,” John said with a big smile as he hugged the petite girl back.

“I love you,” Bree added for good measure.

“I love you too, princess.”

“Uncle John, we decided we’d like to go horseback riding.” Bree smiled and batted her violet eyes at her uncle.

Patrick shook his head as he watched the shenanigans of his favorite cousin.

“I think that could be arranged. When would you like to go?”

“Now,” Bree declared with a coy smile.

“I don’t think that’s possible,” said John. “I’m waiting for an important phone call, so I can’t leave the house.”

“But can’t you use your cell phone?” Bree asked appearing suitably sad and subdued by her uncle’s news.

“Afraid not. I have to have some plans in front of me when I talk to this client, so that we can agree to some changes.”

“Oh,” Bree said dejectedly. “I really wanted to go horseback riding.” She stared at her uncle with her big eyes, pleading silently with him to change his mind. That sometimes worked on her Daddy, and rarely on her Dada, but it was worth a try.

John frowned and looked worried. He wanted his charges to be happy, but he could hardly read and revise plans for a building while sitting in a saddle. “What about another day?” he asked.

“I really wanted to go today,” Bree replied, trying to find a voice that wasn’t too whiny, but would make her uncle aware of how much she really wanted to go. She stared at the ground not letting herself look at her uncle.

John felt bad that his princess was not happy. He struggled to come up with some plan that would allow him to meet her wishes, but he couldn’t think of anything. He looked over at Patrick for some help.

His son sat with a strange look on his face, watching the interaction between his father and Bree intently. John willed his son to come to his rescue and say something that would make Bree feel better. Patrick gave his father a curious little smile and merely shrugged.

That was when it hit John. He was being played … by a nine year old. He studied the little girl in front of him. She refused to look up, but John had the distinct impression that she was waiting for him to buckle under her pressure.

He cleared his throat. “You really wanted to go today, did you?” John asked.

“Oh yes, Uncle John,” Bree said sincerely, finally looking up into his eyes. John could see the hope evident in the violet eyes before him. She thought she was going to get her way.

“And no other day would be as good?”

Bree shook her head. “We really, really wanted to go today,” she said with all sincerity.

“Hm,” John said rubbing his chin. “I’d be happy to take you tomorrow, but I can’t do it today. I guess that means you don’t want to go at all. Have you three got plans for tomorrow?”

Bree’s mouth dropped open. This was not at all the outcome that she had expected. “Oh no, Uncle John, we don’t have anything planned for today or tomorrow. That’s why we wanted to go riding.”

“I see. Then tomorrow would be all right? I could call the farm and arrange it for tomorrow morning when it’s cooler. Would that work for you three?”

Bree looked at the others who both nodded enthusiastically. “I guess that’s okay, Uncle John.” She still wanted to go today, but it didn’t look like her womanly wiles were working on her uncle.

“I’m glad we could come up with a plan that will work for all of us,” John said with a smile. “Is everybody happy?”

“Yes, Mr. John, thank you,” Ashley said politely.

“I’m good, Dad,” Patrick threw in. He grinned at his dad who gave him a conspiratorial wink.

“Thank you, Uncle John,” Bree said contritely.

“Do I get a hug?” John asked.

“Sure.” Bree put her arms around her uncle’s neck when he bent down.

“Don’t try to manipulate me, princess. It won’t work,” John whispered in her ear, before standing up and heading towards the sun porch. “I’ll make that call to the farm now,” he added in a loud voice before he disappeared into the house.

“Poop!” Bree said as she flopped into the lawn chair where she had been sitting before.

“My dad’s smart,” Patrick said proudly.

Bree gave him a sour look.

“I thought you were going to get him to take us horseback riding today,” Ashley stated with a smile for her best friend.

“I thought so too,” Bree agreed. She didn’t like not getting her way.

“You can’t always have your own way,” Patrick informed them.

“I usually do get my own way.”

Patrick tried not to chuckle. He knew Bree was right. Her fathers, and everyone else at Edna’s Treasures, usually gave in to the little dynamo. It was good to see her not get what she wanted for once. Patrick wasn’t quite sure why that pleased him as much as it did, but he had enjoyed seeing his dad best his cousin.

“So, what are we going to do now?” Bree asked with a major pout.

“You’re the one with all the good ideas,” Patrick joked.

“I think we should call Gus or JR,” Bree stated confidently.

“And why would we call them?” Patrick asked.

“They have lots of good ideas.”

“Such as?”

“How do I know until I ask them,” Bree said petulantly.

“Why don’t we go to the stream?” Ashley asked hopefully. “We could dangle our feet in the water. It would be really cool.”

“Okay,” Bree agreed brightening up.

“We should ask first,” Patrick interjected as the girls stood up.

“We’re not going swimming,” Bree protested. “We’re just going to put our feet in the water.”

“I still think we should tell Dad.”

“He won’t care,” Bree declared.

“Um, Bree, I think he will.”

Bree looked at Patrick and then ignored him. “Let’s go,” she said to Ashley. “The scaredy cat can stay here by himself.”

“Bree!” Patrick protested.

“That wasn’t nice, Bree,” Ashley advised.

“I don’t care. Let’s go.” Bree headed towards the path to the stream. She could do this all by herself if she had to. Uncle John wasn’t going to stop her.

“You should tell your father,” Ashley whispered to Patrick before she started after he friend.

Patrick looked back and forth between the house and the girls. He didn’t want to make Bree mad at him, but he knew that his father would be mad if they went to the stream without telling him. While he stood there, the girls disappeared behind the Wendy house. Patrick ran towards the sun porch to get his father.

A couple of minutes later Patrick and his father caught up with the wayward girls. They were stopped dead in their tracks by a growling Beau who blocked their path.

“Just what do you young ladies think you are doing?” John demanded.

“Going to the stream,” Bree said defiantly. “But Beau won’t get out of the way.”

“Good Beau,” John approved. “You both know better than to go to the stream without permission.”

“Ashley told me to get you,” Patrick piped up. “It’s not her fault.”

“So, Miss Briana, you’ve decided to take matters into your own hands since your trip to Toronto,” John said shaking his head.

“I’m not a baby. I helped my Dada sign a deal in Toronto and I helped Daddy with his paintings and the whole trip was my idea and I want to go to the stream and I want to go horseback riding, but nobody will let me do nothin’.”

“Breathe, Bree,” John advised.

“I don’t want to breathe. I want to do something fun. I want my daddies.”

“Bree, they’ve only been gone a couple of days,” Patrick informed her.

“I don’t care. I want them back.”

“I thought you were happy they had gone on this trip,” John said not understanding what had set off this series of unprecedented events.

“I … I am happy for them,” Bree said tears starting to well up in her eyes. “But…I…I…”

“You what? Tell me what’s wrong?” John asked.

“I want to make some decisions. I don’t want to always have to do what everybody else tells me to do,” Bree wailed as the tears fell in earnest.

“Bree, sweetheart,” John said squatting down in front of the distraught girl, “you aren’t old enough to make all the decisions I’m sure you’d like to make, but maybe we could sit down and plan the rest of the week. That way you can choose and decide what you want to do and what you don’t want to do. How would that be?”

“B…Better,” Bree said between gulps for air.

“Do you two agree to that?”

“Yes,” Patrick and Ashley both agreed. They hated seeing Bree cry, but they didn’t know what to do about it.

“I need to go back to the house and finish making some notes that I was jotting down when Patrick came to get me. But as soon as I’m finished we’ll all sit down together.”

“That sounds good, Dad,” Patrick agreed. He put his arm around Bree’s shoulders hoping she wouldn’t shrug him off. To his surprise she leaned against him. “It’ll be okay, Bree,” he said gently.

“Yeah, it will be okay,” Ashley repeated. She slipped her hand into Bree’s.

Beau gave a little woof and nuzzled Bree from behind.

“I’m still mad at you, Beau,” Bree stated petulantly.

“He was only doing his job,” John advised as they started walking towards the house. “I think you should forgive Beau.”

Bree took a deep breath and wiped at her tears. “Sowwy, Beau,” she said in her little girl voice.

“Woof,” Beau replied bounding around the little group and licking Bree’s hand. She bent down to pet the big dog. He licked all over her face making her giggle.

“It’s okay, Beau,” Bree said. “I know you were trying to help. I just didn’t like you interfering.”

John smiled to himself as he led the way to the house. It looked like the crisis had been averted. He wondered how many more there would be before his brother came home. “What do you say to some lemonade when we get back to the house?”

“Sounds good,” Patrick said.

“Sure,” Ashley agreed.

“Okay,” Bree said with a little sniffle.

“While we’re drinking our lemonade we could call JR and see what fun things she might suggest for us to do,” Patrick offered.

John rolled his eyes. He didn’t need any more suggestions of things to do, but he wasn’t going to say anything yet. This situation was over, and he would deal with the next one when it arose. He didn’t want to have to call Brian and Justin, and tell them that their daughter was hysterical and they better come home.

John looked at his watch. He wondered how much longer it would be before Bobby got home. He could use some back up.

 

*****
 

Bree, Patrick and Ashley sat in the sun porch sipping their lemonade.

“So what did JR tell you to do?” Patrick asked. Bree had called her sister before they sat down in the sun porch.

“She said we should come to the comic book store and get a comic.”

“I’ve never read a comic,” Ashley admitted.

“You haven’t?” Bree asked in surprise. Ashley shook her head looking a little sheepish about this admission. “Then we should definitely go to the comic store.”

“What else?” Patrick wanted to know.

“I think we should go to McDonald’s one day,” Bree suggested cheerfully.

“Do we have to?” Patrick asked with a sigh.

“Why don’t you want to go?”

“I’m too big for that playhouse.”

“Oh?” Bree was surprised, but she remembered that it had been hard for Patrick the last time they were at McDonald’s. “Then why don’t we see if we can go to a nice restaurant one night? I had this neat cocktail in Toronto called a Shirley Temple. It was soooo good!”

“You had a cocktail?” Ashley asked her eyes very big with surprise.

“It’s a cocktail for kids, Ashley. It’s okay to have it, and it was delicious.”

“Oh, okay.”

“I could go for that,” Patrick added.

“We can go horseback riding tomorrow, maybe to the stream for a swim if it’s hot tomorrow afternoon,” Bree suggested.

“Sounds good,” Patrick agreed.

“My mom was going to take us shopping for school,” Ashley reminded them.

“Right,” Bree stated. “We need to find out what day she wants to do that.”

“I could call her,” Ashley suggested.

“Okay, use the phone in the kitchen.”

Ashley skipped off to the kitchen to make her call. Bree looked thoughtful for a moment. “I’m choosing all the things we do,” she said with a frown.

“You wanted to make your own decisions,” Patrick reminded her.

“Yeah, but you guys should get to do something you want to do.”

“You think so?” Patrick asked using his Kinney smirk again.

Bree decided she didn’t much like it when he did that. “You should get a say and so should Ashley.”

“A say in what?” Ashley wanted to know when she returned from the kitchen.

“I think you and Patrick should each choose one thing you want to do while my daddies are away.”

“Oh? Do you know what you want to do, Patrick?”

“Not yet, but it should be a rule that the others have to agree even if they don’t really want to do it.”

“Okay,” Ashley said.

“Okaaay,” Bree agreed reluctantly. She didn’t like the idea of a day of baseball practice, but she supposed she could put up with it if that was what Patrick really wanted.

“My mom wants to go shopping day after tomorrow,” Ashley informed them.

“Okay, then you guys need to decide what you want to do on the rest of the days.”

They all sat back with their lemonades and tried to think of fun things they wanted to pursue.
 

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