Going Home.

Chapter 6

Knock, knock.

"Permission to come inside?" I hear coming from outside the cubbyhouse door. It's Dr Lincoln Daniels. Technically the cubbyhouse was his daughters but as his surgery is at his house, he kept the cubbyhouse so that the local kids could still use it.

"Permission granted." I say.  I giggle a little when I see him trying to get through the door.

"I'm so glad that Bernice convinced me to keep the cubby house. It seems to always provide you all with a place to think." He says as he tries to sit cross legged on the floor.

"You know that regardless of how old you all get, I still occasionally find one of you here from time to time.  I saw you duck up the side when I was closing the surgery and thought you might want a cup of tea." he says as he slid a tea cup and saucer in frount of me. 

I remember this set, it is the set from the kitchen that we were allowed to occasionally take outside. As an adult there would barely be a mouth full of tea in it, but that was one of the many things that you could rely to find at the Daniels house.

"I'm sorry for just barging in. I just needed a space to think without everyone being around me and asking questions." I say.

"That's Ok honey, you can stay in here are long as you need. I'm flying out tonight to see my daughter and her family tonight but I was about to cook up some food. Would you like to join me for dinner? Mae is going to be there too? He says.

"Did you know, about Ryker and his son?" I ask. He just gives me a nod. Of course he would know, he is the only local doctor.

"It was not my place to say, but I did strongly advise that he needed to talk to you about it." He replies. "I think all of it was a shock, but he has done a marvelous job for that little man."

I feel myself start to tear up thinking about how it all went today. " I just can not believe that he lied to me."

"Oh honey, us men can be stupid creatures. We tend to not always think things through and go with the first plan that we come up with, hoping it will fix our problems." He says.

I chuckle when I think about if I had ever seen Lincoln do anything wrong. He is like the sweetest man you could ever meet and just seemed to always be a wealth of wisdom. I always remember how he was always the voice of reason when Uncle Roo or Mickey Tanner would come out guns blazing.

Lincoln shuffles around on the floor and makes his way to the door. I finish up my tea and decide to follow him out as well. As I get out the door, I see Mae standing on the porch with a tub of ice cream.

"Sorry Mia, I saw the teapot and was on my way out with the ice cream." Mae says as she hands me a spoon.

"Hay, no desert before dinner." Lincoln says as he goes to flash up the BBQ.

"It's Mint Chip." Mae says.

"OK, a small bowl then." he replies as he takes the meat out of the fridge and heads back to the BBQ.

I sit at the island bench and watch as Mae dishes out 3 small bowls of ice cream. "Do you need a hand with anything?" I ask.

"Oh no honey, we had such a slow day today that I got the salad and everything ready." Lincoln says as he pulls out a chair for himself and grabs a bowl.

I have a few bites and then I proceed to tell them what happened. They both don't interrupt me, except for Lincoln excusing himself when he goes to check the meat. When I finish, I realise that my ice cream is now a soup. Mae is chewing her spoon and looks as she is deep in thought mulling over what I had just said.

"Meat is ready." Lincoln says as he pops the tray onto the island bench and then turns to pull the salad out. I collect all the bowls while Mae gets out the plates and cutlery

Spend the next half hour sitting around the island bench eating and making idle chit chat when Mae says "So what is you plan now Mia?".

I just stare at my plate. I mean, I am upset with him but I'm not furious anymore. I'm just hurt. Hurt that he didn't feel that he could tell me the truth. I just don't know what my plan is. I mean, I tried to 'date' other guys but each time, I just saw him and then I would just give up and thank them for their time. As much as I am mad, Ryker was my first love, he was my everything.

"I don't know." I reply. I feel Lincolns hand wrap over mine "Just take each day one step at a time love, your life plan might be a little altered right now, but your still kicking most the goals that you set out to achieve. Focus on those for the moment and let yourself just come to terms with what you want to do regarding Ryker."

He's right, I need to just take it all one step at a time and see how I go. I mouth a 'Thank you' to him and Mae.

"Ah crap Lincoln, we need to hustle to get you to the airport" Mae says as she looks above my head at the clock. I go to pick up the dishes and Mae says "Oh leave them love, I'll do them when we get back."

We all head out the door and they wave me off as I drive out onto the road and head to my apartment.