Damaged Hearts

Chapter 7

Nicole

It's 4th of July weekend and the kids and I are headed up to Jason's family lake house with him, Kristen, Carter, the twins. Then Trent, Cassidy, Weston and then Zach I believe is coming up by himself. I don't think the girl he's talking to, Kelly is coming but I could be wrong. It's weird Brian isn't along but I told myself I'd do whatever it takes to make this still a good year for the kids.

"Hey guys! Carter! Look who's here!" Kristen comes out to the front porch with Lane on her hip. I hand Landon and Audra their bags and we make our way towards her.

"How's it going?" I ask her and give her a hug.

"Good! How are you!?" She asks cautiously knowing there's a lot of tiny ears around.

"I'm good. Needed this weekend." I tell her and she nods understanding. I get distracted by Lane and bend down to talk to him, "You are getting so big and look like daddy don't you?" He's only a few months shy of a year old and so cute. Both the twins are.

"He's Jason's twin. Lilah not so much." She says with a laugh. Lane babbles something and is looking at Kristen pointing out towards the water.

"The lake? Yeah we're gonna go see it in a little bit." She tells him. I wish I could remember more of my kids that little. Hear their little voices and sounds again. That was my favorite age.

"Hey! How are ya darlin'?" Jason comes out and asks me with a big hug. I used to see him more when he worked with Brian and them but he took a job in Allentown 2 years ago so I don't see him much now. Plus he's got Kristen and 3 kids so there's that. "Let me help ya, got a lot of stuff?"

"Eh probably. That cooler is a two man job though." I say and follow him to my suburban. He lifts one end of it up to see and curses.

"Damn women. How'd you get it in here?!"

"Oh I packed it after it was in there." We laugh.

"Good idea. I'll get Zach." He says and goes back to the house. Cassidy comes out with Weston and also comes to give me a big hug.

"How was the drive by yourself?!" She wonders and I shrug it off like it was no big deal. When really it was a little nerve racking. Brian drove everywhere. I've never driven more than an hour alone.

"Look how big you are! Oh my gosh, I haven't seen you in forever mister!" I bend over a little to talk to Weston. He's around the same age as the twins. Again, baby fever beware.

"Mom! Audra needs a bandaid!" Landon yells from the door. Just in time for the baby fever to break. I can't help but laugh to myself.

"I'm coming." I say and head inside to see what happened. I'm sure she barely even got hurt, she's very dramatic most of the time. As soon as I get in the door though I hear her crying and it's a cry that sounds more as if she did actually get really hurt. I follow Landon to our room. She's sitting on the edge of the bed, Zach's knelt on the floor tending to her ankle.

"Oh! What happened?" I kneel down to see for myself.

"She cut herself on the footboard, there's this stupid nail sticking out, anyone could've got caught on it." Zach is calm and collected as he shows me. When he lifts the tissue he's using to stop it from bleeding I'm a little shocked at how deep it is and the fact it doesn't look like it's stopping anytime soon.

"Oh my..."

"It's good. It's fine." Zach looks at me in a way that says, don't over react or she will.

"Yeah. No biggy sweetie. I'll get some Neosporin." I say and dig through my bag knowing I packed some. I glance over at Zach, he's so calm as he nonchalantly switches to a new tissue beings the first one got filled with her blood already.