Chapter 33 #5
I introduced the kids to Porky this morning.
My dealer, okay, okay, the farmer down the road, let me know he was ready to be picked up.
If the guys didn’t want me to collect animals, they shouldn’t have built me a barn or moved me down the road from a farmer that had a petting zoo of all types of animals in her back yard.
“Jace, this is Porky. Porky, this is Jace, or Daddy Jace,” I laughed and took off before Jace could demand I take him back.
I would tell him no. He would say we had too many animals. I’ll get angry. He’ll point out that our schedule was too busy to keep on taking in new animals. I’ll cry. He’ll give in. I wanted to go straight to the end results, minus the pesky middle dialogue and emotions.
“Blake!” he called out after me. I pretended like I didn’t hear him.
I was still laughing as Noah caught me in an embrace. “Whatcha laughing at beautiful?” he pulled me in close before giving me a long, possibly inappropriate kiss.
“Nothing,” I smiled up at him as I pushed a lock of his russet waves off his forehead. He kept it longer nowadays, and I liked it.
Unfortunately, some of the females in his practice was just as keen on it.
Now that he was a doctor on top of being hot, he garnered a lot of attention from the female variety.
He was continually dodging nurses at Arkless Clinic and the hospital.
They knew of my existence, and some of them met me at various functions, but it still didn’t seem to stop them.
It’s a good thing I trusted him irrevocably, and I knew he loved me too much to ruin what we had.
“Jace wasn’t too happy with our new addition.” I smirked.
Noah sighed but couldn’t hide his smile. “He is cute. Addy’s completely enamored already, I take it.”
I smiled. “You know it.”
Addy was my animal lover on top of motocross racer. She was the perfect blend of tough sweetness. Recently she had picked up flag football and it may not have been as Jaxson imagined but we definitely had a natural footballer in her.
“A pig!” Troy cried out excitedly as he bent down next to Porky.
Our eighteen-month-old son, Liam was perched on his hip. He was the exact replica of Noah, so we knew immediately who his father was. Much like our first set of twins, our second set of twins was just as much as a surprise. Yup, I said twins and surprise surprise they were also bipaternal.
Troy fawned over the min-pig, and I couldn’t help but laugh at his excitement. He came over next, and he hugged me. “I’m beginning to think hoarding all these animals are becoming a problem.” He teased me with a kiss.
“You brought home Tripod.” I crossed my arm over my chest and raised a brow at him.
Tripod was a three-legged pitbull he found as a puppy on one of our missions.
We didn’t even know the three-pound puppy was tucked into his cargo pants pockets until we were on the plane back.
That mission was in a rough area, and if he was in the dumpster, more than likely, his owner didn’t want him.
Having three legs never hampered the dog. Now, at fifty-five pounds, he was always in Alex’s shadow. If Alex wasn’t around, he was Troy’s constant companion.
Troy’s phone began to ring, and he frowned. “Last phone call. I promise,” he kissed my nose before walking off.
We had a rule on our family days; the phones were off-limits.
Our assistants or managers knew when we were “going dark,” so unless it was a life or death emergency, they typically didn’t bother us.
Today, was one of our more extensive family functions, so most of our PA’s or managers were here.
Unfortunately, Leo was unable to make it.
They had a lot of big jobs on the West Coast and East Coast.
It took some begging and pleading to have Troy and Kade with me today because of their work in the private security firms. Last year, Troy handed the East Coast operations over to Kade to run so Leo could focus on the West Coast. Troy’s business was such a growing success he already had Patrick training to help Kade.
Ben crooned into the microphone. “Blake! Gavin!”
I looked up and smiled. Ben was on the stage with Tyler and Rick poised and waiting.
I ducked my head, embarrassed to realize I should have been on stage a few minutes ago.
After all, Ben was such an integral part of this surprise.
He came up with the idea to perform our newest single in front of our family and friends.
Gavin threw his arm around my shoulders and guided me to the stage. “It feels like it’s been forever since we were all in the same place at once,” He said with a contented sigh.
“I know,” I grinned at him. “I can’t wait for the holidays to roll around.” I admitted to him. “It’s the time of year we’re all forced to slow down.”
Admittedly we saw a lot of each other because of our kids and because we were in a band together, but spending time with our extended family didn’t happen as often as we liked it too.
“Thanksgiving at Pops?” Gavin asked, hopefully rubbing his belly.
A few years ago, Miranda and Greg moved in with Pops and Megan.
With Ella, Alex, Harry, Jamison—Pops’s and Megan’s son—and three other children they took in, it just made sense for them to all to co-parent in one household.
The three additional children came from Horatio’s dismantled empire, including Bridgette’s daughter.
They clicked with the children and chose to adopt them.
I loved that our family didn’t follow the traditional beliefs, and we did things a bit differently.
A lot of children, including myself, now knew what love truly felt like because of them.
I laughed. “That’s the plan. Jaxson has the early game but Kade will grab him when it’s time to eat.”
We climbed the stairs, and I grabbed one of the microphones.
“Thank you, everyone, for being here today. I know that it was super last minute, but we wanted to share our latest single with your first. Okay, that’s not the total truth.
I love having an excuse to overindulge in the delicious food Megan, Drake, and Micah prepared. ”
Everyone laughed, and I smiled in return. I looked at the hundred or so people gathered in front of us and couldn’t believe how far life had come. Many of the people we had become close with in the bunker was still in our lives and present today.
Gavin strapped his guitar around his neck before leaning into the microphone. “This song means a lot to us in so many ways. Since it involves all of you. Our family. This song was a collaboration of Ben, Blake, and I’s, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.”
Ben looked out at the crowd and blew a kiss and wink toward Victoria.
Their relationship had taken years to build.
Not only because of the age gap but also because he never saw her as girlfriend material after she turned eighteen.
He still hung out with Tori and Kade whenever possible but he didn’t seem to truly understand why they were connected until last year.
Than it was like a light bulb had switched on.
Kade and Victoria’s relationship had been tumultuous for many years.
They had become best friends but would be fighting like cats and dogs the next.
It hadn’t helped that Kade had actively dated until he graduated high school and Victoria had been struggling since her dad had abandoned her.
He still sent money—even to this day— but she never fit into the new life he had built.
It wasn’t until Victoria started getting serious with another man in her freshman year of college that Kade seemed to snap out of whatever hang ups he had with Victoria.
Then suddenly he wanted to be the devoted connection.
She had made him work for it but now they were almost sickeningly sweet together.
I walked over to the keyboard and adjusted my microphone. I closed my eyes for a second before I began the intro to our song. The notes were sweet and slow. I opened my mouth and began to sing the first two lines before Ben and Gavin joined me on the bass and acoustic guitars.
Their voices joined mine, and I grinned over at them. They grinned back. After many years of practices and performing we were just extensions of each other. They were my best friends outside of my men.
It took couple of years after we left the bunker to to find our stride in the music industry.
We played in bars and sent out demo’s out as much as possible.
We realized Pops and Lincoln had the connections but we had been determined to make it on our own.
Of course, Jemmy had a hand helping people discover us.
She recorded us constantly and handled the bands social media.
One or our videos went viral and, within a few days, a reputable label contacted us.
Ben and I had just finished college, and Gavin was in his first year of teaching at Knightstown.
And even though he loved teaching, he admitted that he loved playing and singing with us more.
So we took a leap of faith, and it paid off.
Within a year of touring, we were headlining our own shows and became a common household name.
Of course, I had to give some credit for our notoriety to Lincoln. He had us compose and sing most of the songs of his most recent movie. Even Andy and Jace had a hand in the musical soundtrack to his film. We fully expected that his film would be receiving a lot of awards come spring.
I looked at the man in question, and he blew me a kiss and a wink. I grinned. He rarely acted anymore. He preferred to be behind the camera. He found he had more control that way. He liked to shoot during the summer, so the kids were off school and able to travel with us.
When school started, generally, his movies only had to be edited. His room in the house was his editing studio. We didn’t mind when his people came and went during those months. At least we had him.