Chapter 13
Jalen loaded the tablecloth and picnic basket into the back of her vehicle while Kodi strapped the youngest siblings in. They were going to the park to have a picnic. She tried to take them at least twice a month when the weather was nice. Today, Rohan and Alynn would meet them there.
Once she had those things loaded, she went back to the apartment to grab the cooler with the drinks in it, get Landon out of the front door, and make sure the door got locked.
Her little sister had been spending a lot of her time on the phone, either talking or texting, and Jalen was sure it was with the boy she’d gone to the movies with.
Jalen wasn’t a big fan of it. While she didn’t see a problem with her sister liking a boy and talking to him occasionally, it was coming to the point that every time she turned around, Landon was on the phone with him.
Going down the hall, she could hear Landon’s voice from her bedroom. She knocked on the doorframe to get the teenager’s attention.
“It’s time to go,” Jalen told her when Landon looked up. She listened to her sister tell whoever that she would text them before hanging up.
“I’m ready,” Landon told her, about to place the phone in her pocket.
“Let’s leave the phone here,” Jalen stated.
Landon furrowed her eyebrows. “Why?”
She raised one of her own. “Because I asked you to.”
She watched as Landon placed the phone on the nightstand between her and Kodi’s bed.
Jalen stepped aside, gesturing for her to go first down the hall, and followed behind her.
She stopped in the kitchen to grab the cooler as her sister headed out the door.
She made sure the lights were off and the door was locked behind her before going back to the car.
After loading the cooler into the trunk, she closed it before getting into the driver’s seat.
She ensured everyone was buckled in before she pulled out of the parking lot onto the street.
They were supposed to meet Rohan and Alynn at one-thirty.
They had a little over ten minutes before then, but they didn’t live too far from the park they were going to.
As long as the traffic wasn’t bad, they should make it right on time.
The twins serenaded them as they drove. Opting to sing Hey Diddle Diddle. Mikal joined in at some point when they were close to the park.
Pulling in, Jalen chose a spot close to where they liked to set up.
It was where she could see her younger siblings as they played, regardless of the equipment they played on.
Jalen was unbuckling Omari when a car pulled up beside her.
Turning, she saw it was Rohan’s vehicle.
She helped Omari out, and the little girl immediately went to where Nathan was standing with Mikal.
“Hi, Jalen!” Alynn greeted excitedly as she got out of the car.
“Hey, Alynn,” Jalen responded, hugging the little girl as she wrapped her arms around her. The hug was quick as Alynn went to join Jalen’s younger siblings.
“Can we go?” Nathan questioned.
“No, not yet. I don’t want you by yourself.”
“I’ll go with them. If Rohan helps you unload the trunk,” Kodi volunteered.
“Of course,” he stated as he came around from the driver’s side.
“Let’s go then, kiddos,” Kodi spoke, and all of them except for Landon and Kodi took off running.
“You’re a kid too,” Landon responded before going over to the table they would sit at.
Jalen was more than sure that her sister was in a salty mood because she’d made her leave the phone at home.
However, she would have to get over it. She made a mental note to speak with Landon and ask more questions about the boy she was talking to.
As well as setting up a time to meet him.
She didn’t like that he was garnering so much of the teenager’s attention, though at the moment, it hadn’t taken her focus off her schoolwork.
Jalen had no intention of letting it get to that point.
“You’re thinking awfully hard, baby,” Rohan spoke, drawing her attention.
“Yeah, sorry. Hey, you,” she responded, rising on her tiptoes, and he leaned down and pecked her lips.
“You want to talk about it?” he questioned as she let the trunk of her vehicle up.
“It isn’t anything too serious,” Jalen responded as she pulled the tablecloth and picnic basket out while Rohan grabbed the cooler, closing the trunk for her.
“As long as you’re sure,” he responded, placing the cooler down, opening his own trunk, and taking out another cooler. He grabbed them both, and the two of them went to the table Landon was sitting at. She was watching the smaller children play while Kodi pushed the twins on the swings.
Jalen handed Landon the tablecloth while she set the picnic basket on the bench. The two of them spread the cloth over the top before placing the coolers and picnic basket on top. She figured they could let the kids play for a bit before they had lunch.
“You don’t want to go play with them?” she asked Landon as the three of them sat.
“If you want to be alone with him, just say that,” Landon responded, going to stand.
She grabbed her wrist to stop her. Leaning over to her sister, she whispered in her ear. “You need to go over to the monkey bars, take a few minutes to collect yourself, and get it together before I have to get you together. When you come back, I expect you to be in a better mood.”
Releasing her little sister’s wrist, Jalen turned her attention towards Rohan, who was watching the others play. She had told her to go to the monkey bars because it was far enough away that Landon could be by herself and calm down, but close enough to where she could still see her.
It wasn’t often, but she had to be more than a sister and be a parent. This was one of those times, and Jalen was fully prepared for Landon to be upset with her for the rest of the day.
“I take it Landon is upset about something?” Rohan asked after a few moments of silence had passed, with the two watching the children play.
“She is, and I feel like it’s just going to get worse the more I try to mediate and monitor.”
He turned to her. “Is that what you were thinking about earlier?”
Jalen nodded. “She’s been talking to this boy at school a lot lately. I allowed her to go on a movie date with him with Kodi as a chaperone. Which, now I honestly think, was a mistake because she’s been texting or talking to him non-stop.”
“She’s what, fifteen? That’s normal for a teenage girl. How long did it take Kodi to get over talking to boys on the phone all the time?”
“She’s fourteen, and I didn’t have to go through this with Kodi. Maybe it’s because she’s always tried to help me take care of the other four, and boys fell by the wayside. Or maybe she doesn’t even like boys.”
Rohan placed his hand on her thigh and squeezed it. “It’s just a phase. It’ll get better.”
Jalen leaned against him. “Yeah, you’re right. I just have to buckle up.”
????????????
Rohan laughed as Omari attempted to explain to him the severity of his trying to take the last strawberry cookie.
He couldn’t help it. Her little face was set in a serious scowl, and she looked absolutely adorable.
At the moment, she was trying to tell him how concrete dibs were and that you couldn’t go against them.
What made it even funnier was the fact that he’d only picked it up to hand it to her.
“Yeah, Uncle Rohan. Dibs are the rules. So, give Omari the cookie.”
“They have a point,” Jalen threw in with a smile.
He handed the cookie over to the six-year-old, who took the napkin he’d picked it up with gingerly from his hands.
“I accept your apology,” she told him before taking a bite of the cookie, though he hadn’t issued one.
“So, Rohan, you said that you work at a marketing firm,” Kodi continued the conversation where it left off before the cookie incident.
“I do. I’m a marketing manager.”
“Uncle Rohan owns the firm along with my Grams,” Alynn threw in.
He could feel Jalen looking at him. More than likely because she didn’t know that. He hadn’t told her that he was a partner in the firm. Just that he worked at one, he hadn’t been keeping it from her, but he’d never seen a reason to tell people anything other than that he was employed there.
“That’s cool,” Kodi said. “You’re financially stable. That’s always a good quality. I can’t tell you about the last scrub Jalen dated, who thought a relationship was asking for money because she’s a nurse.”
“Alright, Kodi. Moving on,” Jalen replied.
“You’re a senior this year, correct, Kodi?” Rohan questioned, changing the subject. He had learned from his brief conversation with Jalen a couple of nights ago at the Halloween festival that previous relationships were a sore spot for her.
“I am. I’m actually getting ready to take my ACT this month. I’m hoping to get a full scholarship to whichever school I choose, so I’ve been setting aside thirty minutes a day during the week and two hours on weekend days to study for it.”
Rohan nodded. It sounded like she had a solid plan and a good head on her shoulders. He was impressed. There weren’t very many teenagers who did.
“What do you want to study?” he inquired.
“Business Operations with an emphasis on Infrastructure. I want to go in, take a business that may be failing, and bring it back from the grave.”
“That’s ambitious,” Rohan told her. “And ambition is what it takes to get started.” He then turned his attention to Landon. “Jalen tells me you like to draw, Landon, and that you’re really good at it.”
“I’m okay, I guess.”
“Is that something you want to pursue in the future?”
“No,” Landon responded. “You can’t really make money from that.”
He could tell that she was still upset about whatever had happened between her and Jalen before they’d met up today, but she’d been doing her best not to show it.
“I don’t know,” he told her. “My brother is the operations manager for a Cayman Industries company, and Kieran’s wife is an artist. She has her own gallery and has been selling her pieces. But it isn’t always about the money if it’s something you’re passionate about.”
“I guess,” Landon responded before going back to eating the fruit on her plate.
“I hear you like comic books, Mikal. Are you reading any right now?”
“I just finished Umbrella Academy. Jalen said we could go after school on Tuesday so I can get a new one. I’m thinking about getting Ms. Marvel. I’ve been waiting to get started on that one, but I don’t like to start a new one until I finish one.”
“What’s your favorite comic?” Rohan questioned.
“I’m really into superhero comics. I think The New 52 is probably my favorite.”
“Good choice. I prefer the older version, but I have to say that one was good as well.”
“You read comics?!” Mikal asked excitedly.
“I do,” he confirmed.
“Uncle Rohan has a collection at his house,” Alynn threw in. “He buys a new one like every week.”
“I do not,” he countered, and Jalen laughed.
“Jalen reads comics too. Most of the time with me, but it still counts. So, I guess that’s something you guys have in common,” Mikal said with a smile.
They broke off into several small conversations.
Rohan tried to hold several with each of Jalen’s siblings.
He wanted to get to know them and wanted them to get to know him as well.
If he was going to be dating their sister, he wanted them all to get along.
He knew that would make things easier for Jalen.
Once they’d finished eating, the younger four decided they wanted to play a little while longer, and Rohan and Jalen went with them. Giving Kodi a break to just be by herself if that was what she wanted. Since she’d been with them the entire time before they started eating.
They pushed them on the swings, swung them on the merry-go-round, and helped the twins cross the monkey bars. At some point, Landon and Kodi wandered over, and they all played Red Rover for a bit.
They ended up staying at the park another hour and a half. Once the twins seemed tuckered out, they packed everything up and reloaded it.
“This was fun,” Mikal said.
“We should do it again,” Kodi tacked on, giving them both a sly smile.
Rohan couldn’t help but chuckle. She was playing belated matchmaker, or well, pushing them to spend time together.
“Ignore her,” Jalen said once it was just the two of them standing outside of her vehicle. “It’s the Taurus in her. They are meddlesome.”
“She’s fine. I’m sure she just wants what’s best for you. Besides, she and Mikal are right. It was fun, and we should do it again.”
“Yeah, we should,” she agreed. He leaned down and kissed her gently.
“Let me know when you make it home.” He opened her car door for her and watched her slide in. Closing it, he stepped back, allowing her to pull out of the parking spot with a wave before he got in his vehicle.
“That was so much fun,” Alynn told him as soon as he got in. “I like Jalen and her sisters. We can do this again, right?” she asked.
“That’s good, Shrimp. I’m glad you got along with them, and yes, we can do this again,” he responded, backing out. “Now, to get you home. I told Trent I’d have you back by five.”
“Yeah, I have some homework to finish. Just a chapter I have to read and some questions to answer.”
Rohan shook his head. His niece had always been one to put off her homework until the last minute when they’d let her, but she’d always gotten it done. They’d all tried to tell her about procrastinating, but it seemed she made better grades when she did.
Heading towards his brother’s house, Rohan decided he’d stick around there for a bit and see what Trent was going to cook. There was nothing like a home-cooked meal when you weren’t the one who had to cook it.