Chapter 6 #2
“You’ve been rocking those decisions, babe. You didn’t know your kid was gonna be a genius. Just be grateful we are and that we know what she’s going through.”
“I swear she has an old head on young shoulders.” I huffed. “Fine, we’ll talk to her about getting more tutors in subjects that’ll extend her reach, like in Mandarin or something, but only if she keeps up her grades at school.”
“That’s the priority,” he agreed. “We don’t want her falling behind.”
“What was she doing when you grabbed us some coffee? I left her with homework.”
“Cartwheels, mostly.”
“Damn. She only does those now when she’s procrastinating or when Jake and Cam beg her to do a routine in the living room.” I blinked. “You ever think she’s growing up really fast?”
“I think all kids grow up faster than their parents are comfortable with.”
“Stop being reasonable.”
“What can I say? It’s in my DNA.”
“Oh, yeah. Sure.”
“She has finished procrastinating. She’d almost completed her homework.”
“That’s a relief. I told her we’d head to the pool after we put her and Benji’s tree up. You coming?”
“To see you in your swimsuit? Hell, yeah, I’m coming.”
My lips twitched. “Only you’d think my one-piece was hot.”
“Hey, Baywatch was my jam.”
“Want me to run in slow motion?”
“I mean… if the kids decide they prefer to watch TV? Sure. Treat me.”
I tapped his chin. “You’ll get a treat if you find me a STEM tutor. Maybe if she can design a bridge in her spare time, it’ll stop her being bored. I fucking hate that word now. I actually feel sorry for my dad, and that’s just obscene.”
“Consider it done.” Hands on my ass, he stood up with me in his arms, smirking all the while.
Because this wasn’t the first time I’d let him lug me around, I rested my chin on his shoulder as he carried me into the living room, where Christmas had officially vomited over the apartment.
I’d never really thought about how awesome it’d be to have a partner. One who shared the burden and who I could trust to do the job right—but that’s what Conor had become for me.
I knew that if I gave him a task, he’d follow through with it. Give him parameters and my man was a boss at checking off items on his to-do list.
Was there anything hotter?
I kissed his throat, just because.
Then kissed him again because he’d helped me decorate all six of our Christmas trees without a single complaint.
His low chuckle made my lips tingle.
“Can we have a ‘no kiss’ jar too?”
“If you want me to be poor, sure,” Conor reasoned as my precocious brat popped up, armed with her version of Cerberus—Crepe and Suzette. AKA Ren and Stimpy.
“I’d be rich.”
“I’m a hacker, Kat. Who do you think would end up with the dough?” I mocked.
“That’s stealing!”
Her gasp had me cackling. “What is it you think we do, Kat?”
Her stumped expression lit me up like a firework.
Honestly, my kid never shut the fuck up and here she was, sputtering for words.
“Is that… silence? It’s been so long since I heard it,” Conor joked.
My cackling morphed into outright laughter, and when he put me down on the back of the couch, I held my stomach because it hurt so bad.
“Don’t be mean!” Kat pouted, peering around Conor’s arm to glower at me.
Her fingers weren’t so tiny anymore, not like they used to be, but they could still nip and tickle. She hooted as I squealed, but then, in pure self-defense, I released my grip on Conor, who like the boss-ass girl dad he was becoming, immediately retreated.
Switching that same clasp, I tugged her close to me then used my grip on the backs of her thighs to roll us onto the sofa in a backward tuck.
In the glow from the Christmas tree lights, her delight glittered in front of me.
And even on the days like today, where I felt as if I’d failed her because school bored the fuck out of her, I bathed in her happiness.
In the love I’d never expected to feel for a not-so-small-anymore human.
A love that let me realize I had so much more to give—in her own way, she’d gifted me Niall and Benji.
Amused by her squeals, I twisted her around and tickled her until she howled, “UNCLE! UNCLE! UNCLE!”
Only then did I stop. “No more talk of ‘no kiss’ jars? It’d be a crime to stop kissing that face, Kat.”
Cheeks hot pink and eyes bright with her laughter, she chortled. “No more kissing—”
Another howl escaped her as I started back up again.
“FINE! No more jars. UNCLE! No more jars!”
“Oh, good!” I paused. “No more jars. Period?”
She squirmed underneath me. “I hit my target.”
“You did?” I arched a brow because something wasn’t adding up. “No way you have enough funds for a trip to Lapland for two adults and three kids.”
“Feel free to keep swearing, Star. I’ll gladly take the donations.”
“Nice try. Where’s the money going, kiddo?”
Her eyes dropped from mine. “I saw an ad on TV.”
“You did?” I flopped beside her and snuggled her as I asked, “What kind of ad?”
“One about donkeys. Did you know their hooves grow really big and they can’t walk and if they walk anyway, it leads to malformations in their legs?!”
“I did know that, baby,” I admitted on a sigh.
When Conor plunked his butt on the coffee table, we shared a look. “You gave all your fund to the donkeys?”
“Well, they wouldn’t take cash, but I didn’t think you’d mind if I took one of your credit cards—”
“How the heck did you get that?” I demanded.
“Oh, well, Dad left his wallet on that tray in your bedroom. I put the money I earned in his wallet. I promise!”
“You’re not supposed to touch our credit cards.” Not after the last time—I’d been stepping on Legos for months because, and I quote, “Benji needed them.” “Why didn’t you come and talk to me first?”
“Because you were muttering about making the best cracker in the universe and the tool in your hand was smoking. I didn’t want to distract you.”
“Dad was in the gym.”
“I yelled his name but he didn’t answer.”
“How loud did you yell?”
“Plenty loud enough,” was her quick retort.
A smirk creased Conor’s lips. “Do we agree that you don’t use our cards again, Kat?”
“Of course.” Her gaze cut to me. “But what if the donkeys need more cash? It’s Christmas, Mom. Mary used a donkey. Everyone knows that. People should be nice to them.”
“People should be nice to all animals, Kat.”
“I only had so much money.” Her lips pursed. “You’re rich, Daddy. You already said so.”
A soft sigh escaped me. “Is that why you wanted to start a ‘no kiss’ jar?”
“You two are always kissing. I’d be rich really fast. Then all the animals could be safe and have pedicures and stuff.”
“Not sure that’s what they— Never mind.” Conor ran a hand through his hair. Honestly, he never looked sexier to me than when he was troubleshooting our kids’ problems. “But we can figure something out, Kat. They do those programs where you can adopt animals.”
“Oh, neat! How many can I adopt?!”
I’d have laughed if he hadn’t walked straight into that one.
“Yeah, Conor, how many can we adopt?”
His eyes widened to borderline comical levels. “Ummmm…”
It’s not like I could be mad at this. My kid, the cheeky monster, had given all her money away to some donkeys. Her heart was so fucking big that the idea of her growing up and someone hurting her messed with my head.
I tugged her into a tighter hug, just because I could and just because hugs with Mom would eventually stop being cool, and I mumbled, “We’re open to negotiations.”
“You are?” Kat squeezed me back. “Yaay!”
The rest of the evening involved us looking into which animals Kat could adopt, all while we huddled into first Benji’s room and then Kat’s to decorate their personal Christmas trees.
By bedtime, their trees were up, we’d played in the pool for a half-hour, Kat’s voice was hoarse from talking, Benji had exhausted his encyclopedic knowledge on all things donkeys—why the kid knew so much about donkeys, I had no clue—and I could tell from Conor’s expression that in our near future, the O’Donnellys would be opening an animal sanctuary in some shape or form.
Undoubtedly, it’d be dismissed as a tax write-off that had great optics, but there was no way the heartbreak in my man’s eyes as we explored animal charities had anything to do with good PR and tax management.
The apartment was always quiet when Katina and Niall fell asleep.
Benji had a quieter disposition, so the volume didn’t shift that much around him and, ironically, he usually contained Kat’s chaos.
Just like tonight. Instead of her talking our ears off, she’d talked his off, and he’d come up with a barrage of info that had fed her ideas.
But with them all in bed, and the silence of the apartment encroaching, it never failed to put me on edge.
That was the double-edged sword of motherhood, I’d found. You fucking craved silence but never truly trusted it. And the more kids I had, the deeper my anxiety grew.
Not just because I was terrified I was fucking up, but because I wanted to make sure they had the best childhoods I could give them.
It was enough to trigger an anxiety attack, so like the smart woman I could sometimes be, I took the break as it came and went looking for my personal Valium once I’d finished bedtime with Benji.
Having figured he’d be working, I’d scoped out our office first, but he was standing against the wall of windows in our bedroom, a tumbler of whiskey in his hand as he stared at the skyline ahead.
Winter had come to NYC in all its glory. Snow tumbled in soft eddies at the moment, but earlier, visibility had been a nightmare. From this height, I could see white stuff doused Central Park, and I didn’t even want to think about how cold it was.
A whole-body shiver rattled loose of its own volition as I stepped beside him. My lips curved when his free arm lifted and he automatically looped it around my shoulders.
It was easier to read his expression in our reflection, so I just rested my head against his side and stood there, enjoying the harsh contrast of the miserable night beyond with a warm and cozy one in here.