Chapter 2

                                    

                                          
“Good morning, honey!” Awoken by a kiss on the forehead, I opened my sleepy eyes to see my wife standing above me. “Rise and shine, we’ve got a flight to catch!” I let out a loud yawn and gave myself a good stretch, arms stretched out above, and legs stretched out below. “You sure slept like a log, I had trouble getting back to sleep, after you woke me up late last night.” “I’m sorry baby, you’re probably just as excited as I am to finally get away for a bit!” She nodded to me. “Yeah, no need to apologize, I’ll catch up on some Z’s on the plane.” No later than she could finish her sentence, I heard knocking down below coming from the front door. “There she is, right on time!” Meredith said, as she started down the staircase to the front door. I didn’t bother to mention the reason why we were going down to Florida – Meredith’s best friend, Stella, was bringing her daughter Chloe to Florida for dance nationals. Chloe was 9 years old and had been in competitive dance pretty much since she was in diapers. This year, her group’s performance in local competitions earned her a chance to perform on the national stage in Daytona Beach, Florida. Her older 14-year-old brother Evan was traveling with us too, likely not as enthusiastic, but I’m sure glad to bask in the Florida sun, as was I. Meredith and I had been talking about getting away for our tenth anniversary and traveling to support her best friend’s daughter seemed to give us a good excuse to travel. Stella and Meredith’s friendship goes way back to when they met in grade school. They have a bond that is so strong that I can’t even comprehend it. We had spent so much time together with Stella and her children that they pretty much felt like they were part of our own family. Meredith enjoys spending time with Stella’s kids, because we haven’t been able to build a family of our own. We had tried for several years to have children, but after seeing doctor after doctor, and taking test after test, Meredith had pretty much resigned to the fact that she would never be able to bear children of our own. Stella had a resolve as strong as my wife, perhaps even stronger. She has had to raise her two kids on her own since her husband walked out on her 5 years ago. A sizeable portion of her alimony check went to paying for her daughter’s dance dues and her son’s traveling baseball fees. Despite everything that Stella had on her plate, she had raised some very well-rounded kids, in my opinion. I slunk out of bed and got myself dressed and stumbled sleepily down to the foyer. “Uncle Chris!” Chloe cheered and she ran to me and hugged my legs. “Little Chloe! I bet you’re excited to go see some palm trees!” “Yeah!” she exclaimed. “And Mommy said we’re going to Disney World, too!” I looked over at Stella, who was shaking her head, as Meredith and I were holding back laughter. “Chloe, I never said that! I don’t think we can afford a trip to Orlando and pay your way through dance on this trip!” Stella chirped. “Well, if you really want to go, Meredith and I can certainly afford to-“ I said before Stella silently motioned for me to stop. “Besides, we’re going to be so busy we won’t have time to make our way over.” Stella explained. Chloe gave a pouty face as her older brother shook his head and looked at the clock. Evan pointed at the door and said “We’d better get going, the shuttle is going to be here any-“mid-sentence, he was interrupted with the honking of a shuttle bus in front of our house. “You called that one, Evan,” I said as I held my fist out. He smiled at me and gave me a fist bump, as we grabbed our bags and made our way to the van.