5 Years Later
Andrew
I pull into the driveway a little after two in the afternoon.
The city office was an oven today even with the air-con blasting, and I’d powered through my work like a man possessed…
headphones on, zero breaks, fingers flying across the keyboard…
just so I could leave three hours early.
The thought of our pool and my little family waiting at home had been the only thing keeping me sane.
I climb out, lock the car, and jog toward the front door in my work clothes. The trousers feel like they’re glued to my legs, the fabric hot and sticky against my skin. As soon as I step inside the cool house, the familiar sound of heavy paws thundering across hardwood comes barrelling toward me.
Goofy, our ridiculous, bounding golden Lab who earned his name the second we brought him home, launches himself at me like I’ve been gone for a year. His tongue is lolling, tail whipping so hard his whole back end wags.
I laugh and scratch behind his ear. “Down, boy.”
He gives me one last sloppy kiss on the cheek before spinning and bolting back outside toward the backyard, where I can already hear the chaos of splashing and tiny giggles.
I kick off my dress shoes with a sigh of relief, drop my bag by the door, and pad through the house. The moment I step out onto the back deck, a tidal wave of pool water crashes straight into my chest and face.
I splutter, wiping my eyes as tiny high-pitched giggles mix with Slade’s deep, rumbling bark of laughter. “That cool you down, baby?” Slade calls, voice dripping with smug amusement.
I blink the water out of my eyes and find him climbing out of the pool, water streaming down his broad chest and abs, swim trunks clinging to his thighs. Without a single care in the world, he walks straight over and wraps me in a big, soaking-wet hug, pressing a loud, happy kiss to my mouth.
I deadpan against his lips. “Really?”
He grins, unrepentant, water dripping from his hair onto my forehead. “Uh huh.”
“Did you just splash me the second I got home?”
Slade’s grin widens as he jerks his thumb toward the pool. “No, it was Poppy’s idea. I swear.”
Our one-year-old daughter is floating in her bright yellow inflatable, chunky little arms sticking out, kicking her feet happily and blowing bubbles between her lips. She looks ridiculously proud of herself.
I deadpan even harder. “She’s one , Slade. I don’t think it was her idea at all. ”
Making sure he doesn’t land near Poppy, I plant both hands on his chest and shove with everything I’ve got. Slade laughs the whole way down, hitting the water with a massive splash that sends another wave over the edge.
He resurfaces, shaking water from his hair like a dog, still laughing. “I’ll pay you back for that later.”
I feel my face heat instantly, because I know exactly what that look and that tone mean. Slade winks at me, then swims over to Poppy and pretends to gobble up her little cheeks. She squeals and blows more happy bubbles at him.
I can’t help smiling as I watch them, Slade nods towards the house. “Go get changed, you menace.”
I head back inside, still dripping, and make my way upstairs to our bedroom.
I strip out of my soaked work clothes and pull on a pair of black swim shorts.
As I tie the drawstring, my mind drifts back to how we even got here…
to the little girl currently floating in our pool like she owns the place.
It started three years ago, right after May and I finished our two-year course at community college.
May had her son, little Theo, just a few months later.
I hadn’t really thought about kids before that.
I was still figuring my own life out. But every time we hung out, Theo would melt another piece of my heart.
Now he’s three and calls me “Uncle Drew” in the most adorable toddler babble I’ve ever heard. It got to me more than I expected.
Slade noticed something was up. One night I finally opened up and admitted I was feeling a little broody.
The sentence alone sounded ridiculous coming out of my mouth.
I was worried about how Slade would react, he was thirty-eight at the time, but he just smiled that soft, steady smile of his and said, “Let’s do it. ”
Obviously, it wasn’t as simple as that. It took months.
Endless meetings with a lovely caseworker who made sure our home was suitable, that we were legit, that we had stable income, that we understood what we were signing up for.
We didn’t have Goofy back then; he’s only eight months old now and already a big bounding idiot.
I still wonder how much bigger he’s going to get.
The day we got the call saying there was a pregnant woman who wanted to meet us, I cried a little.
Slade had to ground me, reminding me it was only a meeting…
she might not pick us. But after months of getting to know Poppy’s birth mom, she grew fond of us.
She was a single mom already raising three kids and admitted the pregnancy had been unplanned.
She just couldn’t afford another little life.
She did really well when it came time to part with Poppy.
She doesn’t live nearby, so there was a lot of driving back and forth, but Poppy was worth every mile.
The day she was born, the hospital staff were incredible.
They treated Poppy like she was already ours from the first second.
Her birth mother decided it was best she didn’t spend any time with her so she wouldn’t get attached.
The nurses made us do skin-to-skin, taught us how to bottle-feed her, which teats to use, everything.
They must see it a lot. God, I cried the whole time…
ha ppy, ugly tears like an idiot… while Slade just laughed softly with me, steady as ever, staring at her all day like she was the only thing in the world.
I shake the memory away, smiling to myself as I head back downstairs and step out onto the deck. The sun is blazing, the water sparkling. I jog down the steps and slip into the pool, the cool water a shock against my heated skin.
Poppy’s little hands squeeze open and shut as I swim closer, her whole face lighting up.
It still makes my chest warm every single time.
I rest my chin on the edge of her inflatable ring, and she instantly grabs two fistfuls of my wet hair, blubbering loud, incoherent sentences at me like she’s telling me the most important story.
Slade comes up behind me in the water and presses a soft kiss to the side of my neck, his lips cool and wet.
This happy little moment is obviously interrupted when Goofy decides he’s been left out for long enough. The big idiot throws himself into the pool with a massive splash, paddling straight toward us with his favourite ball clamped in his mouth.
Slade laughs and moves to greet him, taking the soggy ball and pretending to throw it for him. Poppy squeals with delight at the new chaos.
I watch the three of them… my ridiculous dog, my beautiful daughter, and the man I love more than I ever thought possible…
and feel something settle deep in my chest. This is contentment at its finest. Not every day is this blissful…
there’s plenty of Poppy crying like infants do, an d Goofy barking at the mailman…
but moments like this make life worth living.
The End