Page 120 of Tell Me I'm Enough

I laugh, continuing. “We’d get up and make breakfast with our six kids—”

“Six!?” Simone chokes out. “Damn.”

“We’d have help, of course, her family—definitely not mine—and maybe a chef, some nannies—”

“I forgot what a luxury the rich life is,” she teases.

“What’s the point of having money if you don’t get to live a soft life? Nobody is raising my kids but me. I’ll always be present, just…some help never hurts.”

“Sounds a lot nicer than being shipped off to your grandma’s every time your mom has to work late or having to miss out on sports and your friends’ parties because there’s no one to take you.”

I stop and look at her for a moment. “Having money will never be worth more than growing up with real love, though.”

“Why can’t we just have both?” she asks, smiling a little.

“Why can’t we just have both?” I repeat back, agreeing.

“Okay, finish your day for me.”

I think about it a little more. “Maybe it’s the weekend, so the kids aren’t in school, the wife isn’t working, or she’s a stay-at-home mom, whatever she wants to do. Then…maybe I take them to the lab I’m working at or on the research boat, show them what their dad does for a living.”

“In this dream future…you’re a marine biologist, right?”

I nod. “Yeah…yeah, I think so. I don’t think I could see myself doing anything else.”

“I wish you could do it,” she tells me. “I wish you could say screw him and follow your own dreams.”

I look over at her. “Yeah, me too.”

“Okay…then what? How do you end your day?”

“Pizza…lots of pizza. And ice cream, of course.”

“Of course,” she says, smiling.

“Play with the kids after dinner, watch a movie with the whole family, make a bunch of junk food… ‘cause it’s the weekend, and then get them all in bed and spend the rest of thenight with my wife. Hopefully we love the same shows, and she likes UFC and football…‘cause there will be a lot of that on.”

Simone laughs. “She sounds like a lucky woman.”

“Oh,I’llprobably be the lucky one. I plan on marrying up. You know, someonewayout of my league.”

“So humble,” she laughs out. “But I’m sure you’ll find her. We’d better still be friends so I can be friends with her and come over with my family to schmooze off of yours.”

Picturing that makes me smile. “I hope we’re still friends too…no matter where I end up in life.”

“Me too, Sinclair.”

After grabbing lunch and going to a nail salon, we head back to campus again.

Yes, she convinced me to get a pedicure. No, I will never admit that to anyone.

I think that girl could get me to do just about anything she wanted. That’s how much I enjoy being around her.

I drop her off at her dorm to get ready for the party, then I pick both her and Lani back up and head over to the Sig house.

“Your friend’s not coming tonight, right?” Lani asks from the back seat.

I smirk. “Erik? No. He’s not really a party guy.”