| |
My mouth watered as Koen’s cooking woke me up. I only knew it was his because I was snuggled between Dayton and Bryce, and I was beginning to think he was the only one out of all of us who knew how to cook.
We’d all starve if he wasn’t around. I was already forgetting what it was like to cook. If this continued, I’d completely lose the little bit of cooking knowledge I had, and the poor twins would suffer my crispy food because of it.
I shifted, about to crawl out of our makeshift bed, but Bryce’s arms tightened around me.
“No moving,” he mumbled, his breath warm against the back of my neck.
“Yes, moving. Time to wake up.”
“Sh. Close your eyes and go back to bed.” Dayton scooted closer to me, his head pressing into my chest, on top of my breasts.
“Hey! Don’t use my girls as a pillow.”
“Wha?”
I shoved at Dayton until he scooted back, blinking bleary eyes at me. Realization dawned on him, and he groaned as he rolled over.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, trying to bury his face into a pillow.
I poked his side, biting my lip to keep from giggling when he jumped. “No you’re not, don’t lie.”
“Okay, I won’t lie. That was the best pillow I’ve had in ages. Can I use you again?”
“No!” I poked him again, and he rolled away, taking the blanket covering us with him.
“We wanted to be part of the sleepover too,” Lawson said. I tilted my head so I could see my righteous little man glaring down at us, his hands on his hips. Lee rubbed at his face as he tried to focus enough to see us.
“We’ll have one tonight,” I said.
“Promise? You keep having these without us.”
I held out my hand in a fist. “Promise.” Lawson reached out and tapped my fist with his.
“Come on, children, time to eat,” Koen called.
“Who are you calling children?” Dayton asked.
“You. I’m calling you a child.” The humor in Koen’s voice was nice to listen to. It smoothed out his voice, made it warmer.
“Aye, aye, boss man.” I sat up against Bryce’s wishes. He tried to pull me closer to him, but I rolled.
“Oomph.” Dayton grunted as I rolled over him. Once I was out of all that warmth and softness, I jumped to my feet and ran for the dining room table.
Koen kept it nice and simple, and a little too healthy for my breakfast tastes. There was a huge bowl of berries in the middle of the table, around it were two bowls of eggs—one simple, the other with veggies in it. There was also a plate of toast, a bowl of potatoes that looked extra crispy, and bacon.
“What are your plans today?” I asked once breakfast was almost done.
Koen cleared his throat to get my attention. “Newton has a tree lighting ceremony today. We were wondering if you’d like to go. It’s a little festival of activities and family friendly.”
“Don’t you guys have work?” I asked. “You can’t spend all your time with me.”
“We did say give us the weekend,” Bryce reminded us. “You know Dayton doesn’t have work since it’s a weekend. My clients all opted for missing out this week in celebration of the holidays. I’m on call, but don’t expect anything happening.”
“Same for me. I’m on call, but it’ll be a quiet weekend. We have time for all of us to spend time with you, so why not?” Koen asked.
“Well, put it like that, then I have no choice but to go.”
Dayton promised to make sure Lawson and Lee didn’t try to leave with their clothes on inside out while I changed. By the time I came out, everyone was by the door, excited to get going.
Laughing, I locked up and got into Koen’s car. This time, I tested Koen, letting him help the twins get in with the booster seats.
The man was a pro. I was beginning to think he was good at everything.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.
“Just searching for a weakness.” After answering, I jumped into the passenger seat and buckled in. It took a moment for Koen to get in and we followed Dayton’s truck back to Newton. Newton Square was done over for the day, making it almost look like a winter wonderland. If there was snow, it’d have been perfect.
People crowded the sidewalk and field, walking from booth to booth. Kids were laughing, parents either amused or frustrated. It could go either way depending on if the child knew how to listen or not. While Koen carefully parked in a makeshift parking lot, I turned to the twins.
“You stay with one of us, right?” I asked.
“Yes, Sissy,” they chorused.
“And no running off because you see something you like, right?”
“Of course,” Lee said. Lawson nodded his agreement.
“And you don’t touch without permission, right?”
“Yes.”
“And if you manage to lose yourself, you’ll find an adult working a booth, correct?”
“Yes!” Their impatience was beginning to show.
“You have my contact information, right?”
They pulled at the elastic string on their belt loop and showed me the laminated paper at the end. It had my phone number and other info on it in case I did lose them. It was an idea I came up with last week from one of those mommy sites. I was going to make sure that if something did happen, they’d be able to get help.
It would have been easy to keep up with the questioning. There was a very long list of worries, but I needed to believe that I trained them well to behave.
“Okay, let’s go!”
Bryce opened my door for me, surprising me. Smiling sheepishly, I let him help me out of the car while Dayton and Koen helped the twins.
“What’s first?” Dayton asked.
“Games!” Lawson said. Lee agreed, and we headed toward those booths. I was lucky I had a bundle of small bills for them to waste. If they kept smiling like that though, I didn’t mind sacrificing the money.
Especially with what was happening next week.
Not thinking about the court date had been easy through the holidays. Lawson and Lee were always the perfect distraction. But now that they were running off, dragging Koen and Bryce with them, it gave me that little moment of quiet for it to slip back in.
All it took was a small moment of quietness. That was all it ever only took.
“Nope, not happening.” Dayton pulled me to a stop, hands going to my waist to keep me close to him as others moved around us. “What’s with the frown?”
“We should keep up with them.” Over my shoulder, I watched as the rest of our group was swallowed up by the crowd.
“Not an issue. Maddie, you were just smiling and happy. Why are you frowning?” He tapped my temple. “What slipped in there to damper your good mood.”
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing. Tell me. Let me help you make it go away.”
My smile was painful as I said, “That’s the thing. It won’t go away until after Monday.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh. Two days away.”
“I know you probably heard this a million times by now, but it looks like you need the reminder. Nothing is going to happen. Your stepmother has nothing against you. Lawson and Lee are yours. They’ll always be yours, even when you’re a hundred years old with no teeth.”
I wrinkled my nose, hating the image he painted. His hand went to my chin, fingers gentle against my skin. “You’re taking care of them now, and when it’s time, they’ll take care of you too. That is the kind of men you are raising, that you will raise. Don’t let thoughts of Monday take that away from you. It’s an open and shut case. Olivia Hansen just needs a judge to tell her she’s being stupid for it to sink in. Then you can put this behind you and look forward to years of trouble with the two of them.”
That had me giggling and I nodded.
“Is everything okay?” Bryce asked. Lee was with him.
Clearing my throat, I put distance between Dayton and me. “Yeah. Yeah, everything is okay.” I waited for displeasure to come from Bryce but got none of that. Instead, what I saw was relief.
He smiled and nudged Lee forward. “Good. This guy got worried when he lost sight of you.”
I held my hand out, and Lee latched on. He tugged me with him as we caught up with everyone else.
“Sissy, isn’t this cool?” Lawson pointed at the booth. The vendor was selling wooden masks, hand carved.
“Oh, scary,” I said. They weren’t really. They were artsy and some of them were even painted in cute ways, like the princess-themed one.
We went from booth to booth, checking out all the goods. I bought Lee a puzzle box where you had to remove a piece to slide other pieces off. Inside was a small space to put jewelry or in Lee’s case, little army men. He mentioned it becoming their prison. Lawson settled on indigenous clapsticks, originating from Australia. I wasn’t sure how they made their way to the Boston area, but there was the vendor with all kinds of goodies, beautifully carved and painted.
“He’s going to drive me crazy with those, I just know it,” I said. Lawson was already banging them together as Lee pretended to dance to the beat. Poor Lee was never going to join any dance club, the boy didn’t have any rhythm to him. I’m pretty sure he got that from my dad’s side, since I had two left feet too.
“Think he’ll like drums?” Koen asked.
Turning, I glared at him. “Don’t you dare.”
He shrugged. “They’re at the perfect age to find hobbies. Maybe he’ll like the drums.”
I winced. Darn the man, but he was right. If Lawson really wanted to play the drums, I wouldn’t hold him back. I’d have to find a music studio and let the two of them go see if there were any instruments they liked. If so, then we’d go from there and they could pick it up at school too.
The idea of them learning in my apartment caused phantom headaches. I’d deal, maybe fork over a few hundred dollars to get noise canceling headphones.
It’d be a big investment, but worth it.
We walked toward the huge tree, already lit up.
“What are they doing?” I asked. People held different colored and shaped bows. Some of the bows were gorgeous, others messy.
“Oh, a tradition!” Bryce pushed me forward toward what looked like a craft booth. The young woman behind it grinned as she looked at us.
“Hello, here to make a ribbon?” she asked.
“What’s it for?” I looked at all the different colors.
“You make your ribbon, thinking of what you hope for for Christmas. Once you’re done, you hang it on the tree. Directions are there.” She motioned to paper on the table. “What color would you like?”
“Lime green!” I said, pointing to the ribbon.
“Good choice.” She measured out the ribbon and cut it, passing it to me.
Everyone else got their ribbons, then we moved off to the side so she could help other people.
My ribbon was done in moments as I thought about wanting to find happiness with everyone I was currently with. Then I helped the twins with theirs.
By the time we were done, the guys were still fighting with theirs.
“How did you do that so fast?” Bryce asked, glaring at his red one.
“I have a lot of practice. Sometimes, my outfits need a nice ribbon to go with it.”
“Help?” he asked.
I shook my head, feeling a little evil as I grinned. “No way. That’s all you. You’re an adult, you can do it.”
Glowering, he continued to fight with his ribbon until he was finally done. The poor thing was flat and creased from him doing it over and over again.
Koen and Dayton’s didn’t fare well either.
We marched to the tree as a group and hung up our ribbons. It was already so covered in ribbons that it was a miracle we were able to find any space to do it. The bottom of the tree was the most covered, and then it spread out more as it got higher. Obviously, only the tall people were able to reach the prime real estate.
“I want to go higher,” Lawson said.
“Me too,” Lee echoed.
“Come on.” Dayton swooped up Lawson.
Bryce grabbed Lee.
The two of them lifted the twins up and let them put their ribbons as high up possible.
It was a beautiful sight to see. The extra twinkle in the guys’ eyes warmed me to the core. I wouldn’t have been able to do that on my own. An ache entered me. The twins should have had a real dad to do this with. Some man out there in the world was missing out on what could have been a picture-perfect moment.
His loss.
It made me appreciate Koen, Bryce, and Dayton all the more. They were willing to step in, become that male figurehead that the twins had been missing their entire life.
It made me feel like I was making the right decision, letting them in my life like this.
By the happiness on Bryce and Dayton’s faces, they were in agreement with me. This was going to be a precious moment for them for years to come.
