Chapter 50

About halfway to the campground, they stopped at the grocery store to grab food. Gabby, Jay and Adam were the only ones awake, so they left others sleeping in the cars while they did the shopping. Brayden was  woken up by the sound of Adam opening the back.

"Whatcha get, daddy?" He asked, leaning over the backseat.

"Junk." He said, loadeding the groceries in the backseat.

Brayden started snooping in the bags. "I see chips, cookies, fruit snacks-"

"Hey hey hey get out of there." He said.

"Can I at least have an apple? I'm starving!" He whined.

"Sure, buddy. That's it for now, okay?"

"Yes daddy." Brayden said in reply, grabbing the apple and sitting back down in his seat.

By the time they arrived, Erin and Gabby had fallen asleep.

"Matt, did you pick up the bags of ice?"

"Right here." He tossed two bags to Adam, who emptied them in the cooler.

"Any clue when the girls are gonna wake up?"

As Jay said that, the van door opened and Hello Kitty flip flops hit the wood chips. Ninja Turtle sandals hit the ground seconds after.

"Looks like my kids are awake." Adam laughed.

MacKenzie poked her head out of the car. She elbowed Mikayla awake. They started throwing everything on the ground.

"Hey punk, make yourself useful." Jay said, tossing the girls' tent at Mikayla's feet.

"Can I get a please?" She said, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Please set up your tent."

"That's better, thank you for asking. I will do as you say, but I WON'T enjoy it."

Hannah pulled out the directions, turning them all different ways to make sense of them. Brayden took them and did the same thing, then handed them to Kim.

"Mommy, I can't read this."

"I'll help you guys." She set them down on the picnic table and walked over to the girls. They dumped the poles on the ground and tried putting them together.

"I'm going to need you guys to each hold a side so I can secure the poles, okay?"

They nodded their heads in response, each held down a side so she could set up the poles. She struggled because there wasn't enough weight on each end to keep it up.

"You look like you could use some help." A man's voice said, coming up behind her.

She didn't even turn around. "Yeah, that would be great. Thanks." She said, still fighting with the poles.

He came into sight and when he did, her mouth almost dropped to the ground.

"Marcus." He flashed a smile and shook her hand.

"Kim." She said back.

"This your first time up here?"

"Yeah. A little family outing I guess you could say."

"There's lots of families here this weekend, so I'm sure your kiddos will make friends."

"You look an awful lot like someone I know back home."

"Oh really? Who?"

"Do you have a brother named Sean?"

"Yes I do."

"He's a police officer in Chicago, the twenty first district?"

"Yeah he is, how do you know that?"

"He was my partner for three years until I got a promotion."

"I'm sorry you had to deal with that for three years. My brother is an ass and a half."

They both laughed. Adam was eyeing them and not liking what he was seeing.

"Can I help you, sir?" He asked, putting an arm around Kim.

"I know she's married." Marcus said.

"Who's this?"

"This is Sean's older brother, Marcus. Marcus, this is my husband Adam."

"Pleased to make your aquatinence."

Adam gave him the evil eye and went back to putting stuff in the coolers.

"Don't mind him. I've done some pretty screwed up stuff in the past, not sure I should talk about it."

"Please tell me my brother didn't try anything-"

"Yeah, um, about that..."

"What did he do to you?"

"It was a long time ago. We both put it behind us. It never happened and he and I want to keep it that way."

"I won't say anything, you have my word."

"Not that important. Maybe we can discuss it some other time, like over coffee or something."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

"Anyone hungry?" Erin asked, taking out some cereal cups.

Brayden unzipped part of his tent and held out his hands. "I'll take some Apple Jacks, an orange juice and a plain donut. Please and thank you." He smiled before closing the tent back up.

"He reminds me so much of you in our camp days, Adam. The little shit that you were,  thought I was a delivery service all because I was a table girl."

"Didn't I call you the Erin Express or something?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Don't call me that again."

Brayden unzipped the tent and took his breakfast that Erin had waiting for him.

"Thanks auntie Erin." He smiled.

"You're welcome, buddy." She kissed the top of his head and went back to the table.

Most of the morning consisted of setting up the site and making sure the kids were protected from the sun.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" A woman's voice said.

Kim turned around and saw Bunny walking towards them. She elbowed Erin.

"Don't look now, but the wicked witch of the west is right behind us."

"What is she doing here?!" Erin whispered loudly.

"Let's pretend we don't see her and maybe she'll go away."

As they were getting ready to head down to the lake with the kids, Bunny caught up with them.

"Hey ladies. What brings you up to this neck of the woods?"

"Something wrong with wanting a fun outing with my friends?" Erin crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Not at all. I was just curious as to why you guys would come all the way up here."

"It's a nice place with lots of things to do."

"I'm here with my boyfriend at the campsite down there. I mean if you wanted to come over and say hi later."

"Yeah thanks mom." Erin put her sunglasses on and headed down to the lake, Kim followed.

"Talk about a ruined weekend." Erin muttered.

"You said it."