“And after I meet with Bella, I thought we could start working on me learning the books?”
Keely made a mental note to adjust the renovation budget first thing in the morning, before they started into learning the books, so Katherine would have no idea where the car funds came from. “That sounds fine. We’ll do it after the morning crowd.” She got up from the table, suddenly very tired. “You need anything before I go up?”
“No, I’m fine. I’m just going to finish up a few notes, then I’ll head for bed, too. I’ll see you early in the morning.”
“You sure you want to get up that early?”
“I’m sure. Night, Keely.”
“Night KitKat.”
CHAPTER NINE
“Boys, come on. We’re going to be late.” Bella felt a stab of guilt at the two bowls of cereal sitting on the table. A better mother would be providing a hot breakfast for her children, but she’d lost track of time this morning. They would at least have orange juice with their cereal and she’d packed them both a healthy lunch. That was the best she could do today.
Timmy came wandering out of his room, school backpack dangling from one arm. “Mom, I can’t find my shoes.”
“Okay, sit down and eat and I’ll look for them.” Bella walked over by the couch and scooped up one lone tennis shoe. That wasn’t going to help much. “Jeremy. You’re going to go to school without breakfast if you don’t hurry up.”
Jeremy trudged into the kitchen, a scowl on his face. “I forgot to do a stupid worksheet last night.”
“You told me you had your homework finished before you played your video game last night.”
“Well, I forgot about it.”
Bella wasn’t convinced. Jeremy had gotten a new video game yesterday and had been anxious to play it.
“You know the rules, homework before video games. Tonight I’ll go through your assignment book with you after you finish your homework to make sure it’s all complete.” She’d been trying to teach Jeremy it was his responsibility to do his homework and take the consequences if he didn’t finish, but it looked like she needed to spot check again for a while.
Jeremy plopped down in a chair and set a crumpled worksheet next to his bowl of cereal. He took bites of the cereal and scribbled answers with his pencil. Timmy reached for the bottle of orange juice and knocked into Jeremy’s bowl, spilling cereal and orange juice all over the worksheet.
“Hey, stupid, look what you did.” Jeremy grabbed his paper with orange juice dripping from it.
“You’re stupid.” Timmy retorted.
“Don’t call your brother names.” She pinned them both with a mom look.
Timmy looked close to tears. “I didn’t mean to.”
“It’s okay. It was an accident.” Bella grabbed a towel and wiped the orange juice from the paper and the table. She turned to Jeremy. “If you had done your homework last night, like you were supposed to, the paper wouldn’t have been on the breakfast table.”
“If Timmy wasn’t such a baby, he wouldn’t be spilling stuff all the time.”
“Jeremy. That’s enough. Finish your homework and your breakfast.” Bella glanced at her watch. “Five minutes and we’re walking out the door.”
“I won’t have my worksheet finished.”
“Well, you’ll have to turn it in unfinished, then.”
Bella looked by the back door for Timmy’s other shoe. Nothing. “Timmy, why don’t you wear your old black tennis shoes today. We’ll look for your new ones tonight.”
“But the black ones hurt my feet.”
Bella sighed. Of course they did, that’s why she’d bought him the new ones. He was growing so quickly these days she could barely keep him in shoes and pants that fit. She got down on her hands and knees and peered under the couch. Success. She held up the shoe like a prized award. “Slip these on. We need to leave.”
Two arguments in the car and one episode of name calling and she had the boys dropped off at school, with shoes and one unfinished worksheet.
She walked into the cafe a few minutes later, glad to have a chance to sit down and sip a cup of coffee without any spills or arguments. Katherine was sitting at a table by the window and waved to her.
Becky Lee came up and gave her a quick hug. “Hey, Izzy. I’ll get you some coffee. Katherine said you were coming to work on the Summerfest plans.”
Bella hugged her friend. Becky Lee always had a smile and a cheerful word for everyone. She was actually that rare breed that Bella could not understand—the kind who loved the early hours of the day and was actually chipper in the morning.