“Just so you know, we have peanut allergies, so there better not be any nuts in here, okay?” Cooper said, and my heart broke for them.
“I promise, there’s no nuts inside.” I patted the top of his head. “And thank you for telling me. That was very brave of you.”
He nodded and then they tore at the hockey player wrapping paper I’d used on it, then four hands dug inside and started pulling out the many books I’d bought for them.
“Oh, cool,” they said, over and over again.
“Can you read these to us?” Cooper asked, holding up a children’s picture book about hockey.
I took the book from him and said, “I can, if you want. If your dad says it’s all right?”
We all looked at Beau. He leaned against the back of the chair and grinned at us. “Of course.”
“This is a very special book, do you guys know why?” I asked as I gently touched the front of the book.
“Umm, it’s about hockey?” Carson asked, copying me and touching the smooth cover as well.
I nodded and said, “Mm hmm, and it’s in French. All of these books are. Do you know what French is?”
Carson bounced on his knees. “I do, I do! It’s what Daddy was speaking on the phone.”
“Your daddy is from Montreal. In French it’s pronounced, Montréal,” I said with the proper, French accent.
“Cool, you know French, too?” Cooper said. “Can you teach us it?”
His eyes were so adorable as he looked up at me with anticipation. “Your daddy can teach you. So can your grandparents. These books will help you learn some of the words, so make sure you always listen with both ears wide open when your dad reads them.”
“And when you read them to us, too,” Cooper said, yawning.
My stomach twisted and ached at the thought I wouldn’t be around to do that. “This story is about a lonely giraffe who doesn’t have any friends. Until one day when he sees a group of animals his age playing hockey on a pond.”
Carson looked up at me skeptically. “You can play hockey in a pond? Don’t you get wet?”
I threw my head back against the couch and laughed. Cooper did, too, but I was sure he only did it because I did.
“When it’s frozen. Further north, it gets so cold in the winter, that the rivers and lakes freeze. Then you can skate on them.” They both looked at me like I had a screw loose. “I even have a skating rink in my backyard.”
Their eyes and mouths opened up so wide. “What? In your own backyard?” Cooper asked as though it were inconceivable.
I laughed again as I put my arm around him. “Lots of kids do where I come from.”
“Can we see your rink?” Carson begged, his tiny fingers digging into my arms. “Please?”
“Yeah, Geneviève, can we see your rink? Please?” Beau asked as he plopped into the chair across from us. I’d missed his mischievous smirk.
I’d missed everything about him.
“Ready to read the book now? Make sure you stop me if you recognize a word. Many English words you already know sound a lot like their French counterparts.”
Then I read them their first French storybook.
Then I read another.
And another.
After that, I had two, half-French Canadians sleeping on me. “Yikes, I guess I was pretty boring,” I mumbled as I laid Carson down on a pillow, then moved Cooper further down to the end of the couch on a different pillow.
“No, you were that good,” Beau said, his voice sounding rough and gravely, like when he’d just woken up.