The Fling

32

I pressed the doorbell at Abigail's and could hear Cosmo barking inside. A few seconds later, the door swung open and I was greeted by Lizzie, who gave me a smile.

"Good morning," I said before yawning loudly. "It feels more like night, though. The sun isn't up."

"Disneyland is no joke in this family," she laughed. "We're always out the door by 5:30 so that we can get there, park, shuttle over, and be towards the front when they open. Come on in. There are doughnuts and coffee in the kitchen."

I gave the dog a scratch between the ears before following her into the house. After helping myself to a big mug of hot brewed coffee, I took a banana from the fruit basket. Loud footsteps sounded as the two younger kids ran down the stairs, making a beeline for the food. I watched in awe as they each ate two doughnuts in under a minute. Abigail came down a second later, looking adorable in dark denim shorts and a vintage-style Disney shirt.

"Can we go?" Bertie asked, bouncing up and down.

"I need coffee and some food," his mom replied firmly before turning to me. "I'm having a greek yogurt. You want one?"

"Yeah, that's perfect."

We ate at the counter, and I tried to answer the kids' questions about what our VIP package entailed. "I know we have a private guide, so we get to see some behind the scenes stuff," I told them.

"Do we get to cut the line?" Hannah asked.

"Maybe."

Her little face scrunched up with concern. "But won't people get mad at us about that?"

Lizzie laughed. "We'll be with Shawn, so no one will care. They'll probably be excited to see him when we move in front of them."

"No posting anything on social media until after we're home," Abigail said to the teen.

"I know, but you can't stop everyone else who sees Shawn. I'm going to be all over the internet two weekends in a row! My friends are obsessed with the fact that you two are-" she glanced over at her siblings, "-friends, and my followers quadrupled this week. This would be the perfect time to try to be an influencer."

"Is that what you want to do?" I asked.

Lizzie shook her head. "No, I want to study speech pathology. It's still cool to be quasi-famous by association."

"She changes her mind about what she wants to be when she grows up every week," Hannah chimed in. "I decided in preschool that I am going to design cars."

"That is so cool! What about you, buddy?" I playfully punched Bertie's shoulder.

"I might be a dog surgeon."

"That's a veterinarian," Hannah said. "You need to know the word if you're going to be one! And you can't just work on dogs. Cats need surgeons, too."

"Stop being bossy!" he shouted.

Abigail stood up and clapped her hands together. "I know we're all sleepy, but this is not how we are going to behave today. I want you kiddos to try and nap in the car so that you aren't so cranky. Bad attitudes will mean we leave after one park and Shawn got us passes for both, so that would stink."

We took her car since it had booster seats, but I offered to drive so that she could relax and drink another cup of coffee. The younger two never fell asleep, opting instead to talk excitedly about which rides they wanted to do first. Lizzie sat in the back row with her AirPods in and her eyes closed.

"Your shirt is cute," I said to Abigail.

"Thanks! My dad took me to Disneyland for my 16th birthday and gave it to me. It belonged to him back in the 70's."