Chapter 19 #3
The room itself was nice, with big windows overlooking the backyard with the pool and Lydia’s prized rose garden.
Fencing had already been put in even though our target age had been older.
The room was furnished with a full bed and a desk with chargers laid across the top, and the bathroom was already stocked with supplies.
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Okay, well…” Drew’s voice trailed off awkwardly.
“You really weren’t prepared for a baby?”
“No, just a teenager.”
“Weird.”
“Oh my God, Ben, you need to knock.”
The shouting and barking from the kitchen wasn’t how I expected my Sunday morning to start. Alice had been fussy last night, but now she was blessedly asleep. Drew had insisted on being the one to get up with her during the week, so I was damn sure going to be the one who did it on the weekends.
“Hey, Ben-boy, why are you breaking into my kitchen at…eight-thirty in the morning?” I asked after a jaw-popping yawn.
“Because I need to meet my new cousins,” Ben answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Ben, I told you they need to get used to the house before we barge in on them. It’s probably been a hard transition for them.” Marc was trying to smooth it over, but I also knew that once Ben had an idea in his head, it was like trying to take a bone from a dog.
“What’s trans…transit…whatever you said?”
“He said transition, and it means change,” Liam answered as he wandered into the kitchen.
He was up surprisingly early for a teenager on a Sunday morning, but I’d noticed over the last week that no matter how late he went to bed, he was always up by seven. Sometimes he was already gone for a morning run long before I even had my shoes on to take my own.
“Are you my new cousin Liam?” Ben asked matter-of-factly.
“I don’t know about the new cousin part, but I am Liam.”
Our new foster son was never rude to us, but he could be a little short sometimes. With Ben, though, his tone was much more moderated, which I appreciated. It wasn’t Ben’s fault that he was just a little kid and maybe a little too enthusiastic.
“But you live with Uncle Henry and Drew, right?”
“I do. For now.”
“Then it counts,” Ben said with a shrug. “I want to see the baby.” He looked around the kitchen for his dad, and when he found him, he asked, “What’s her name again?”
“Her name is Alice,” Marc answered.
“Can I hold her?”
“Not yet. She’s sleeping.”
“Can I look at her?”
“Yeah, come on. I’ll show you. She’s in the other room,” Liam answered.
Liam was already acting like a big cousin because he didn’t hesitate to let Ben follow him out of the room, yammering on about some game he’d been playing online. Baby, the dog, trailed after them.
“That poor kid,” Marc said with a shake of his head. “Now that he’s got Ben trailing after him like a puppy, he’s never gonna get a moment’s peace in your house.”
“Maybe that’s not the worst thing,” I suggested.
“What’s not the worst?” Drew asked as he wandered into the room.
He immediately moved in my direction and stepped between my legs as if on autopilot. My arm circled his waist, and he leaned back into me.
“Ben decided Liam and Alice are his new cousins, so he came over to meet them after I told him to stay home,” Marc said.
“Of course they’re his new cousins. He’s right. We should’ve had him over here days ago,” Drew said defensively. He was always ready to take Ben’s side. “Where’s Alice?” Drew asked, looking around the room almost frantically.
“Calm down,” I reassured him. “She’s napping in our room. Liam took Ben in there to meet her. Ben wanted to hold her, but Liam told him no because she was sleeping.”
Drew kept looking at the door, then back at us, then at the door again.
When Liam and Ben returned, he visibly relaxed, especially when he saw that Liam was carrying Alice. She had woken up from her nap and was looking around bright-eyed. Liam came close enough that she could focus on Drew, and it was noticeable that she was excited to see him.
Liam looked down at her and then over at Drew.
“Alice, you want Papa?”
Everyone in the room stopped breathing and moving after Liam spoke. Frozen in place, no one was exactly sure where to go after that bombshell.
Everyone except Ben, who had no chill whatsoever.
“Who’s Papa?” Ben asked indignantly.
“Your Uncle Drew,” Liam said. “My dad was Daddy, so that name is already taken. Drew is going to be Papa.”
“What’s Uncle Henry gonna be?”
“He’s gonna be Pop.”
Drew did everything he could to hide the fact that his eyes had filled with tears, but it was a complete failure. Liam rolled his eyes, but smiled through it. Ben demanded to know when he could hold Alice.
Phoenix had been right all along. Drew had definitely made my life a hell of a lot more interesting, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Thank you for reading The Liar in Room 5.