Chapter 9 #2
“I guess they were happy to take all of what someone else had and give nothing in return. Greed knows no boundaries, and I see these people as not wanting to work for anything. It’s sad and fundamentally wrong.
I’m really not liking a whole lot about humanity right now, but,” he said, turning to her, “please remember there are those of us, like the group here, willing to pitch in and to do our part to ensure that Talia’s world will be okay when she gets back on her feet, whatever it takes.
Not the same, of course, but regardless,” he added, with a dry laugh, “we will get it sorted. Come on. Let’s have a cup of tea.
Anderson will be home soon with groceries, and then we can pitch in and make a meal and get these babies fed. ”
“If you don’t mind, I’ll head to my room for a shower first. I’ll be fast. If you are okay here?”
“Yeah, sure.”
She came back down a half hour later to find Burton in the kitchen making coffee, and Leland was nowhere to be seen. “Leland’s with Talia for now.”
She turned, looked around, and asked, “Where are the babies?”
“Down for their nap,” he replied, “although likely it won’t be a long one at this time.”
“Oh, good, so my shower didn’t disturb them,” she whispered. Then she silently went back upstairs and peeked into the nursery bedroom and smiled. She felt Burton come up behind her, and the two of them just stared at the sleeping triplets.
“It’s pretty amazing,” she murmured, “that they are even here right now. Just the thought of what a fertilized egg must go through to make one healthy baby, not to mention three, is just unbelievable.”
He gave a soft chuckle, his breath gentle upon the nape of her neck.
“It’s just amazing that they have done as well as they have, particularly in your care,” she joked.
He rolled his eyes at that. “We haven’t done a bad job,” he protested.
“I know,” she admitted, “and I’m really very impressed with that too.”
He sighed. “Why does everybody think that just because we’re men we can’t do this?”
“It’s not because you are men,” she corrected him. “It’s because you’re green at this. You’re brand-new parents, and brand-new parents make lots of mistakes.”
“We just hope that they aren’t bad ones.”
Sammy frowned, nodding. “I guess I hadn’t considered that, but I suppose you’re right.”
“It’s a lot of responsibility to adapt to. Yet Talia has obviously learned how to manage this group,” he noted warmly. “Though that’s not at all surprising. She’s an amazing woman and an amazing mom.”
“You guys are all close, aren’t you? You seem to know her well.”
“I certainly know her, as she and Anderson are the only two in their family, and Anderson and I have been friends for a very long time,” he shared.
“We’ve stopped by the house quite a few times.
I’ve stayed here for various time periods before she got married.
Once she got married, that stopped. I didn’t have a problem with her partner, but I wasn’t particularly enthralled with him either. ” He shook his head.
“So, you had a problem with Tim?”
“He just didn’t seem like he was good enough. However, I also knew I was biased, so that was always a problem.”
“It’s hard to stay unbiased when you’re emotionally involved with the people,” she noted.
“Yet not that involved after she married Tim. Believe me that, now, we all wish we had gotten a whole lot more involved.”
“I wonder if you would have seen it back then. Maybe Tim changed over time, particularly once the children arrived.”
Silence filled the room.
“Not all men are assholes,” she pointed out, “and not all of them would abandon their family like Tim did.”
“No, not all of them,” he grumbled, “but plenty would. It’s not a matter of men versus women. It’s just the makeup and the stress levels that people can handle.”
“Maybe having triplets was not what Tim thought this married life would be. Once that awareness hits, it’s hard for some people to adapt.”
“These babies are adorable, even though they poop and belch and throw up and have iffy tummies and don’t sleep very much. Yet we were all there for it.”
“Yes, we all were. To be honest, we all still are,” she stated, grinning up at him.
He turned, staring at her intently. Maybe because she stood right there, or maybe because they were talking, sharing hard truths, but he went that little bit closer and dropped a kiss on her nose.
She looked at him in surprise. “What was that for?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Seemed like an opportunity.”
She narrowed her gaze at him. “That’s it? An opportunity?”
He chuckled. “That’s hardly the way I meant it. Yet it just seemed to be …” He sighed. “Oh, fuck it. I just wanted to.” And then he eyed her closely. “Are you upset at me for it?”
“Nope, not at all,” she said. “Just was an odd thing for you to do.”
“No, it wasn’t an odd thing at all. Sometimes I think women just don’t understand what affection is anymore. It’s like you think all men are after one thing, or we’re like Timothy, royal assholes.”
“No, I don’t think that at all,” she replied, with an odd look. “It’s just, at the beginning of a relationship, you’re not exactly sure where and what anybody is up to, nor what the boundaries are.”
“Ah, so we’re in a relationship now, are we?”
She stared at him and shrugged. “You just dropped a kiss on my nose. So, it kind of seems like something is going on.”
He burst out laughing, wrapped an arm around her, and pulled her into a hug. He turned and looked back at the babies and smiled.
“Watch it,” she warned him, as she followed his gaze. “You’ll start thinking it’s time for you to have some.”
He looked at her in surprise, then shook his head.
“Definitely not time for me to have some. There’s no time for anybody to do anything right now, except get to the bottom of this mess.
Yet I do understand what you’re saying, and you could be right.
For the longest time, I was thinking, Absolutely no way I would go in that direction. ”
“And now?”
“Right now?” he repeated, raising his eyebrow. “I got to tell you. It’s not looking all that bad.”
She burst out laughing, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him. “Well, I’m glad to hear that you have shown such progress in that area. It’s still not the time.”
“No, it isn’t the time.” He studied her and asked, “What about you? Are you planning on having any anytime soon?”
“Not anytime soon,” she shared. “Down the road? I always thought I would have some, but … in the future.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
She laughed. “I just want to make sure that I’m having them at the right time.
It’s so heartbreaking when you have young people who come in and have no clue what they’re doing, didn’t plan or prepare.
Yet here they are, pregnant, with potentially no medical insurance throughout the entire pregnancy.
Now they’re in trouble, and they don’t even know where to go and what to do,” she shared. “It’s hard.”
“I get it.”
“Maybe you do, and maybe you don’t. I see the other side of it, which is, you know, the baby is born with some health problems, and it’s absolutely devastating for the families,” she explained.
“So, there are times when I freak out about it, and I think, Nope, I’m not doing this.
And then something like this happens, where I see these precious babies, and they’re happy, healthy, and beloved.
They’re adjusted and looking like the world is their oyster. At those times, I want a dozen.”
He smiled. “That’s doesn’t sound practical to me.”
“Tell me about it.” She chuckled. “Just when reality hits, I kind of drag that back a bit to something more like maybe two.”
He smiled, gave her another hug, and nodded. “I’m so in agreement with you on that one. Practical too.”
“They are adorable, aren’t they?”
“Absolutely. And two would be enough,” he stated immediately.
“Any more than that, and it just seems like we don’t have enough hands.
” She smiled. “Yet some parents think, even wanting two babies, that they should have a third, as a spare.” She shook her head.
“How horrible would it be to grow up as the spare child? That’s gotta be heartbreaking and psychologically stunting too. ”
“And yet look at what Talia got.”
“She was obviously thrilled,” Sammy suggested, as she turned to him, “and that’s a different story. But what if you didn’t sign up for this chaos?”
“Maybe you just can’t stand to not have more.”
“That is actually something I’ve heard from other women. They just love babies. So, they keep having more, whether it makes good sense or not.”
“The problem is, babies turn into children, and children turn into teenagers,” he pointed out.
“Yep. And that’s the kind of logic that people sidestep, which gets people into trouble.
They don’t take that extra step and work out whether that’s really something they can handle at all the various ages,” she said, shaking her head.
“In my case, I think two would probably be more than enough. Plus I don’t want to give up my career while I’m at it. ”
“You don’t have to,” he declared, patting her on the cheek. “Certainly not in this day and age.”
“Good,” she declared.
“And now that we’ve got all those details worked out,” he noted, then burst out laughing, “can we just … get right to it?”
She playfully slapped him and laughed.
“Oh, I do like your sense of humor,” he said, with a smile.
She snorted. “Glad to hear that,” she began, “because you seem to be knocking off a few issues in your mind about a relationship pretty fast.”
He shook his head. “No,” he stated vehemently. “Most of the time when I have a relationship, I know it’s short-term with no strings. However, I don’t think that’s the kind of relationship you’re up for.”
She shook her head slowly. “No, it isn’t,” she stated. “I guess I had a period after college where I might have been a little wilder than usual, but I was not, even then, a party animal.”
“Good to know,” he muttered, rolling his eyes.