Free Family Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 2) by Debra Trueman

creak.
    “Before you answer, let’s move into the conference room.  We
can spread this stuff out on the table in there.”
    I gathered the files and Earl followed me out of my office and
into the reception area.  To my surprise, Maddie and the kids were just walking
in.  Oliver and Max came running over and wrapped themselves around my legs and
I bent down and hugged them.  “Hey, what brings you guys down here?” I asked. 
I looked up at Maddie with that ridiculous smile that always plagues me when
I’m around her.  “Hi.”
    “Hi, yourself.”
    We  gave each other a quick kiss and I pecked Morgan on the
forehead, then I turned to my client.
    “Earl, I’d like you to meet my family.  This is my wife,
Maddie, my boys, Oliver and Max, and my daughter, Morgan.  This is Earl
Jefferson.”
    He nodded slightly and shook Maddie’s hand, then each boy’s in
turn.  “Nice to meet you ma’am.” 
    “The pleasure’s mine, Earl,” Maddie said in her sweet voice. 
    Oliver’s head was cocked all the way back trying to see Earl’s
head.  I knew what was coming.  Ever since I’d known the kid, he’d been
fascinated with David Robinson,  the former San Antonio Spurs’ 7’1” center.
Anything having to do in any way with size – be it a house, a car, a
skyscraper, the pile of dinosaur shit on Jurassic Park – it was all compared to
David Robinson, and it always elicited the same question.
    “Are you as tall as David Robinson?” Oliver asked.
    “I sure am,” Earl said proudly.  He knelt down and still
towered over my kids.
    Oliver’s elation was palpable. Up until then, no person had
ever measured up.  He reached out and touched Earl’s arm like he was a god, and
I wondered if this might actually break whatever spell David Robinson had over
my son, now that he’d gotten a yes to that elusive David Robinson-size question.  He looked up at me with a grin so big I could see his molars. 
    “He’s as big as David Robinson!”
    “You wanna see what the world is like up there?” Earl asked,
and Oliver nodded.  Earl scooped up my son and stood up. 
    “I see the top of your head,” he told me, and he reached over
and rumpled my hair exactly like I always did his. 
    “What’s it like up there?” I asked.
    Oliver looked around.  “There’s dust on that cabinet.  And a
rubber band.”
    Earl walked Oliver around the office, holding him up now and
then to touch the ceiling.  Just what I needed.  Grimy fingerprints on the
acoustical tile.  My landlord would love it. 
    Apparently Maddie was venturing over to the Children’s Museum
with the kids, which explained her presence downtown.
    “You’re going with all three of them?” I asked in disbelief. 
“Are you sure you can manage?”
    Her response was somewhere between a laugh and a duh , so
I didn’t pursue it.  I was certain it would have been more than I could handle,
but then I never would have attempted it in the first place.  I knew my
limits.  Maddie was braver than I would ever be where the kids were concerned. 
    They stayed long enough for Penny to mollycoddle over my wife
and daughter.  Morgan had grabbed the glasses off of Penny’s nose and her eyes
looked disproportionately large, like an owl’s.  She seemed perfectly content
to let my baby maul the spectacles, as if the experience alone was worth a new
pair.  I stepped in and carefully peeled Morgan’s tiny fingers off the lenses
and handed them back to Penny.  I needed to get on with my meeting.
    Maddie must have sensed my anxiousness because she clapped her
hands.  “Let’s go troops!”
    “Thanks for stopping by,” I told her, and I kissed her goodbye.
    “I’ll see you at home.”  She turned to Earl.  “Nice to meet
you, Earl,” she said, and they shook hands a second time. 
    “You have a real nice family,” Earl said, when they had gone.
    “Thank you.  I’m very lucky.”
    We’d spread out our documents on the conference table and