Chapter 27
LUCKY
Amonth into our new living situation, we’re finally starting to find our rhythm. I’m making breakfast for the boys while Mike packs their lunches.
Every chance he gets, he’s touching me, kissing me. Most times it’s simple touches—grazing my waist as he reaches around me to grab a utensil, slapping my ass when I bend over the freezer, a peck on the shoulder when I’m cooking. He touches me with such reverence, like he can’t believe I’m real.
I remove the pan from the stove and start plating scrambled eggs when Mike bumps my hip and leans close to my ear.
“Still thinking about the way I woke you up this morning. I really hooked you with my ladder.”
It’s an effort not to roll my eyes. “Leaning into the dad jokes, I see.”
“Or was it the flavor saver that won ya over?”
“You’re ridiculous.” I shake my head, but I can’t hide the dopey grin he’s put on my face.
“What’s a flavor saver?” Levi asks, and I inwardly groan. This kid has the worst timing.
Mike’s eyes flash to mine in panic, but I only offer him a smirk in return. “Yeah, what is it?”
He hasn’t yet gotten used to Levi repeating the things he says at the most inopportune times.
“It’s… It’s a…” he splutters, looking for the right lie to give him. “It’s a piece of bread, like on a sandwich. It soaks up all the… juices.”
His eyes dart to mine, pleading for help, but I just gesture for him to continue.
“What kind of sandwich has juice on it? Like orange juice?” Levi asks.
“Yeah, Mike, what kind of wet sandwiches are you eating?”
“Not orange juice. It’s more like when you have peanut butter and jelly, and the jelly is extra runny.”
“That sounds gross.”
“Trust me, you’ll love it when you’re older.” He squeezes my hip on the last part, and I can feel my cheeks heat in response.
“Micah, hurry up!” I call up the stairs right as he comes running down. “Oh, there you are. Breakfast is ready.”
“Yes, Mama,” says my perfectly sweet oldest child.
The boys sit at the island stools eating their breakfast as they watch Bluey.
Mike puts lunchboxes in the boys’ bags as I rinse off the last of the dishes. When he finishes, he wraps a forearm around my shoulder, pulling me against him. “We make a great team, a ghrá mo chroí.”
“We do—”
“Can we get a dog?” Micah asks, interrupting our peaceful moment.
“Dog! I want a dog!” Levi adds.
Everyone turns and looks at me as if I’m the ultimate canine decider. I stare back at them unsure what to say. My Bissell finally got a break; I really don’t want to sully our relationship with dog shit.
As if he can sense the impending no, Mike leans into me. “Every lad needs a dog.” He turns back to the boys. “I used to have a dog when I was your age. It was a corgi named Benedick Longbottom the third. But I called him Benny for short.”
Oh shit.
I scrub a hand down my face, covering my mouth with my hand as I try to keep the boys from hearing me. “Shhh, don’t say that word. I’ll never get him to stop repeating it.”
“What word? Bottom?”
“DICK!” Levi shouts as Micah covers his mouth with his hand, looking horrified.
I drop my head, shaking it in defeat.
“Ohh, that one. Sorry.”
“He’s definitely getting kicked out of preschool for that one.”
“I guess we need to get them a dog.” He winks at me.
I poke a finger in his chest. “You’re cleaning up the poops.” I turn to the boys. “And you’re going to have to help walk it and feed it. And you’ll have to pick up your toys every night, so the dog doesn’t eat them.”
Micah looks horrified at the thought. “Is it going to make messes like Levi?”
“I don’t make messes. You make messes.”
“Do not.”
“Do too!”
“Lads, settle down. We’ll just get a dog that doesn’t make messes.”
I burst into laughter. I love this man, but he has no clue the chaos he’s unleashing with this plan. “This is going to be fun.”
“So, we’re getting a dog?” Micah asks, voice full of hope, green eyes round and pleading.
“I guess we’re getting a dog.”
Cheers erupt from all three of them, and I laugh at the thought of a dog running around every morning, eating floor eggs and scraps of bacon the boys sneak it under the table. I sigh. There’s no way I’m saying no to this.
I look at the clock on the microwave. “Bella’s going to be here any minute. Go brush your teeth and then get your shoes on, boys.”
There’s a knock on the door and Levi darts over to it, pulling it open before we can stop him.
“Hey, stinker!” Bella calls out as she walks in. Hardy started dropping her off on the way to work so we can carpool and then the guys ride in together.
Mike kisses my forehead on the way out the door. “See you tonight, Lucky.”
I’m totally aware of the lovesick look on my face as I linger in the doorway watching them pull out of the driveway, when Bella’s words slap me back into reality.
“Uhh, Lucy, we’ve got a situation in here. Code brown.”
Cocking my head at her, I walk over to the bathroom and immediately see what she’s referring to.
“Who pooped in here?” I shout into the void as the boys conveniently scatter, both shouting about brushing their teeth. Bella and I look at each other. “Sure, this is the one time they actually take dental hygiene seriously.”
“Look at that turd in your toilet.” Bella says, standing in the doorway behind me. “No fair, it doesn’t even stink in here.”
“That’s a weird thing to be jealous of,” I say.
“Wait till they’re teenagers. Teenage poops are terrifying.”
“Moreso than adult poops?” I ask, walking over to the sink to wash my hands.
“Yes, and don’t ask me why. It’s probably all the puberty hormones or something. Want me to flush it?” she asks, walking over to the toilet to examine its contents.
“Well, I’m not saving it!”
“Isaac used to save them to show me the ones he was proud of. Now they’re massive. And scary. And I wish he’d stop showing them to me. Back then they were all little, tiny poops in funny shapes. Is it weird that I kind of miss those days?”
“Yes. Yes, it is.”
“Why are boys so gross?” she laughs, flushing the toilet.
“I dunno. Do they ever learn to flush their turds?”
“No, they do not.”
——————
Later that night, Bella takes the boys home with her, giving me and Mike a much-needed night alone.
“Are you sure you want to stay in? The boys will be gone for the whole night. We could go out? Have a meal with no interruptions? Come home and bend me over the couch?” I wiggle my eyebrows at him and love the way his cheeks blush in response.
“Oh, I will be bending you over several pieces of furniture tonight. But I’m keen to stay here.”
I give him a knowing look. “You miss the boys, don’t you? They can be exhausting, but as soon as they’re gone or asleep and the house is quiet, you miss the chaos they bring.”
“Yeah, what’s up with that?” He rubs his shoulder against mine as we sit on the couch.
“One minute you’re fishing a scorpion out of a toddler’s mouth, questioning your decision to have kids because you’re terrified of bugs and these tiny humans keep forcing you to touch them.
The next minute, you’re lonely because they’ve been asleep for thirty minutes so you decide to sneak into their room while they’re sleeping because they’re just so cute, but then you wake one up and they stay up for three more hours. ”
“Those are oddly specific examples.”
“They are.” I sigh wistfully leaning into him.
“Can you show me more pictures of them as babies? Or videos? I feel like a broken record asking again, but I could stare at them all night.”
He continues rambling on, getting more and more animated as he talks, slowly inching forward in the same way Levi does when he’s excited about something.
I lean away to look at him. “Is this really how you want to spend our last official date together?”
“This doesn’t count.”
I scoff, dropping my jaw in faux indignation. “Doesn’t count? Mr. ‘I’m counting the time I babysit the kids as a date?’”
“The rules clearly stated that I would get a date when we checked an item off your list. There is still technically one item remaining.”
“Close enough.” I say, holding up my hand to admire the beautiful emerald ring again.
“Once I get to call you my wife, I’m going to take you out on a real date.
Outside of this house. Kid-free. We will eat fancy food neither of us has to cook, and we will sleep in a bed we don’t have to make.
Don’t get me wrong, I love our family dates with the boys, but I want to take you somewhere nice and make you come so many times you lose count. ”
“I think that’s just called a honeymoon.”
He leans in, his lips ghosting the shell of my ear. “Sounds like I’m not the only one getting spanked tonight, Lucky.” Then he sits back against the couch like he didn’t just whisper filthy promises in my ear. “What’s one of your favorite memories of the boys?”
“There are too many to count.”
“We have time.” He flashes me a panty-dropping smile and it’s hard to concentrate for a second.
But I calm myself and think through some of my favorite memories of the boys.
“When I brought Levi home from the hospital. I was breastfeeding, but I hadn’t had a lot of luck getting him to latch, so I was pumping a lot.
The first day at home with two boys was chaotic, but Micah was very helpful.
I was stuck on the couch a lot, either tied to his brother or the pump.
He was very observant, and I’d catch him staring at me.
By the second day, I could tell something was bothering him and I was worried.
You never know how kids are going to react to their new siblings, and I was concerned he would feel slighted or jealous. ”
“Was he?”
She laughs. “Nope. He was concerned about something else. He’d watched me pump for two days and seemed fascinated by it.
I was in the middle of pumping when he approached me, his eyes full of concern.
He pointed to the pump parts on my chest and said, ‘Are you…are you a robot, Mama?’ He sounded so hopeful, so excited at the prospect, and I about lost it because I had to tell him that I was not, in fact, a robot.
Poor thing got stuck sharing my attention with a new baby, and he didn’t even get a robot out of the deal. ”
Mike throws his head back in laughter, wiping away tears as he tries several times to speak and fails. “I can picture the look of disappointment on his face. Poor lad.”
I tap my chin, trying to think of another one.
“And Levi has been enamored with farts since he was born.” I pull out my phone and search through my camera roll until I find the video I’m looking for.
I point the screen at Mike and press play.
A four-month-old Levi squirms on the couch, Micah hovering over him.
Levi looks up at his big brother with such love and adoration.
And then Micah makes a long, loud fart sound with his mouth as Levi bursts into laughter.
“That’s…” Mike sniffles and wipes a tear from his eye. “Can you send me that?”
“Absolutely.”
“I hate that I missed out on all that time with them. Missed their first words, first steps, all these milestones.”
“I know. But we’re together now. And I have pictures and videos of a lot of that.”
He nods and pulls me against him, kissing my head.
“What about Christmases and birthdays? Halloween costumes?”
“I have all of that captured.”
“I want to see it all. Fuck doom-scrolling on social media, I want to go down that rabbit hole. Hear their little voices as they age. See how they grow and lose their baby fat.”
“You haven’t missed every milestone. Neither of them has lost a tooth yet.”
He sits up, excited. “I get to play Tooth Fairy?”
I chuckle at his enthusiasm. “You can, but we have a system for that.”
“We?”
“The girls and me. We have a whole set of rules for Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny. Basically, any mythical creature that you want kids to believe in. Admittedly, the Santa Rules are the most elaborate, but we have some fun tricks for the other ones.”
A thought hits me, and I push up, sitting taller on the cushion. “Do you think it’s possible that you could have other kids out there? When I chose artificial insemination, I knew that was a possibility, that the boys could have siblings out there they might never meet.”
“Does that bother you?”
“That they could have siblings? No. I mean, it makes me sad to know they could have brothers or sisters they’ll never know, but I knew that going into this. Does it bother you?”
“Nah. I only donated because I was shite at dating in my twenties and figured that if I never met the right girl and couldn’t give my Ma and Da the family they always wanted, well, at least someone could create a family with my donation.
It was kind of a rash decision one night after I had too many pints.
I never regretted it. If it carried on the bloodline then it wasn’t in vain.
But I did have second thoughts about the fact that me and my folks might never know for sure if there were more of the O’Connor clan running around.
And sad that I might never meet them if there were. ”
I think through his words, in awe of the way this man has always put the needs of others first, with his parents, the crew at the station, and with us.
He looks at me, taking my hand in his. “Does that bother you? That there could be more mini-Mikes running around out there?”
“No. There could be even if we’d never met.
Knowing you now doesn’t change that for me.
I kinda hope that someone else was able to create a family with your donation like I did, just as long as I don’t have to have any more kids, because these two are more than enough for me.
But it makes me happy for you that your bloodline could be carried on by others.
It’s funny that you donated because you couldn’t find the right person, and I was looking for a donation because I couldn’t find the right person either. You gave me the best gifts ever.”
“Aye, I got more where that came from if you want me to give ya another gift later.” He nips at my ear, teasing me, and I’m filled with gratitude that I gave this man a chance.
We spend the rest of the night scrolling through memories on my phone and laughing.
One video after another and I’m pausing and stopping, interrupting as old memories resurface.
And I share it all with him. Every thought.
Every laugh. Every fart and poop story. It’s the perfect evening; all that’s missing is our little chaos monsters.