I just watch after her. “What the hell?” Maybe I do need to mention Larry’s little crush to Jesse, though I don’t think it’s all that little.
Cam is asleep before I stop the car beside one of the intercoms at the drive-in. I knew he would be and I hope he stays out. The movie is just about to start and Deidre is opening the bag that has the hot dogs and French fries as quietly as she can.
“You don’t need to worry about waking him,” I tell her.
She glances back over her shoulder. “Are you sure he’s comfortable in that thing.”
I just chuckle. You’d think the car seat wouldn’t be the best place to sleep, but Cam has spent more time sleeping than awake in that thing. Sometimes I barely make it a mile and he’s out like a light. Of course, the car is moving. I’ve not tested the whole sleeping in the car seat theory while car is stopped for a few hours. “He’ll be fine.” At least I hope it will be fine and he doesn’t suddenly start crying when he realizes we aren’t moving.
She hands me a paper sack of fries and a corn dog and then takes out her fries and hot dog as the movie starts. I like old movies. I always have. But I hadn’t bothered to watch this one. I almost watched it ten years ago, after my high school girlfriend and I watched Sleepless in Seattle while she was home with a bad cold. She tried to talk me into watching An Affair to Remember that weekend, but changed her mind after she and her friends decided that teenage boys were just not mature enough to understand the significance or appreciate it, so they bought it and watched it during a slumber party. Saving me and my friends from a night of watching another chick flick.
It’s not a bad movie and I get why girls like it, but I can’t figure out where this is going. So, they meet on a ship. Fall in love and agree to meet again in six months, after they’ve had a chance to break from their significant other. Cary Grant is engaged but I’m pretty sure Deborah Kerr is a mistress or kept woman, whatever it is that they were called back then. It doesn’t come out and say directly, but a guy is paying for her apartment, I think, and helping her with her career but there’s no ring on her finger.
This is almost too easy and I’m not getting the appeal, though I’m not about to argue when Jessica puts her hand on top of mine and squeezes as Kerr heads off to meet Grant at the Empire State Building. She tenses too. What’s going to happen?
Shit! “Was she just hit by a car?”
Jessica says nothing, just nods her head and tears are in her eyes. Crap, Kerr isn’t dead is she?
Well, this does certainly change things.
I sink further back into my seat. Sucked into the movie, though I turn my hand and weave my fingers with hers. I really like holding it. We’re at a drive-in and if my kid wasn’t in the back seat, I might consider doing more than just holding her hand. Why the hell did these things go out of style? It’s a lot better than a movie theatre with sticky floors. And if you do want to make a comment to someone, you don’t have to worry about disturbing anyone else around you or getting shushed. Not that I plan on taking Cam on all my dates, but certainly easy enough to take him along here, especially since he’s asleep.
By the time the credits are rolling, I had to dab the corner of my eye. I sure as hell don’t want Deidre to know I got a little choked up. She, on the other hand, has not bothered to hide the fact that she’s crying, and brought along a small packet of tissues that were stuffed in her purse for this occasion.
“Wasn’t it wonderful?” She sighs and looks at me.
“Yeah. It was.”
I don’t start my car right away. I could pull in line, but that doesn’t mean I’d get out of here any faster. Cam, thankfully remained asleep the entire time and now I can just focus on talking to Deidre until the drive has cleared some.
“What are your plans for tomorrow night?”
“I don’t have any. Just hanging out until the rest of my family gets here.”
“Alexia said almost everyone was going to be home for break. Is everyone going to stay at Alexia and Kian’s?” Didn’t she say she had like six siblings?
She laughs. “The house still belongs to mom, but since she’s back working in New York, she has an apartment there. I think Kian plans on buying it from her someday, but for now, it’s still our home.”
“I can’t imagine having so many siblings. I was an only child.”
“You know we are all adopted, right?”
This surprises me. Not that I had given it much thought. But to adopted seven kids? The O’Brien’s must have been saints. “I had no idea.”
“Kian isn’t though. The first born, but Mom couldn’t have kids after that.”
“So they adopted six more?”
“Yep.” She’s grins. “And none of us were babies either, but seven at the time. Except my sister, who was six.”
“Wow!” most kids don’t get a chance at adoption after the cute baby stage. Especially after they’ve been in the system. I’m assuming Deirdre and her siblings were in the system until that point. Then it hits me. She said she’d been eight when he was killed. “So, you’d only been adopted a year when you lost him?”
Her light brown eyes dim with sadness. “Yeah. We lived with them as fosters, for a year before the adoption, but it was really hard.” Then she
