Chapter 45
FORTY-FIVE
STORM
T ap-tap-tap.
Tap-tap-tap.
I crack an eye open, looking around my bedroom for the source of the sharp sound that’s breaking my sleep at six in the morning.
Granted, I’d usually be up by now, but after carrying Shae into the house via the staff entrance, I proceeded to keep both of us awake well into the morning. It was after three a.m. when I dragged us into my shower to clean up, and an hour later, we crashed into bed.
Right before Shae fell asleep, I pulled the custom round diamond engagement ring I had worked on for weeks from the drawer and slipped it on her left hand. She was so exhausted, she could only mumble a few shocked words.
Looking at the side of her face, I move one of the long braids away from her cheek—a compromise in place of letting her leave my room to go to hers for a bonnet. She looks peaceful.
Knocked the fuck out. She doesn’t even flinch when the tapping sound starts up again.
“Daddy?” Suddenly, the source of the tapping becomes clear, and I look at the door with alarm. We clearly haven’t managed to tell the kids anything about us, and I don’t want them to find out we’re together by seeing two of us buck-ass naked in the bed together.
“One second, sweetheart,” I say, recognizing Tempest’s voice on the other side of the door.
I grab the first set of basketball shorts I find and a Henley from the drawer.
My phone pings on the nightstand, and since it’s Riale’s sound, I grab it and unlock the screen.
Axel’s dude got a strong lead on LS. Going with A to shut this shit down. Will be back in 48 hrs.
I stare at the message, reading it a few times. Riale and Axel might know where Lakeland is? Part of me bristles. If there’s a lead, I should be chasing it down with them.
Right then, Shae releases a fuckin’ adorable snore and flips over on the mattress. Her ring catches the dim light coming from my nightstand.
“Daddy? Are you there?” Tempest sounds about three seconds from crying, so I shove my phone in my pocket and head to the door.
“What’s wrong, baby girl?” I ask, crouching down to meet her height once I’m out in the hall.
Her bottom lip trembles.
“I can’t find Mommy!” she wails, and I immediately feel like dogshit.
“Oh, it’s okay. Mommy’s fine,” I assure her as she flings her arms around my neck.
“How do you know? Do you know where she is? Is she coming back?” she asks through hiccupping sobs.
Shit.
“Yes, sweetheart. Your mommy is perfectly fine, and she’ll be back in a little bit. She just went to…” I think of an excuse. “She went to exercise.”
There. That’s a reasonable explanation.
“Okay,” Tempest says, sniffing.
“Why were you looking for her? It’s still pretty early,” I reply, hoping I can usher her back to sleep, wake up Shae to have a quick conversation about what the hell we’re gonna do to tell the kids about us, and get at least a few more hours of sleep.
“I’m hungry,” she grumbles. “So is Raiden, except he doesn’t want to bother anybody, But I’m really hungry.”
Just then, her tiny stomach growls, and I grin at the sound.
“See!” she squeaks, pointing to her stomach. “I’m gonna die if I don’t get something to eat fast, Daddy!”
“Okay, okay,” I say, chuckling. “Let’s make some breakfast while we wait for Mommy.”
“Can we have pancakes?” I twist around, not expecting a voice to come from behind me, but there’s Raiden, waiting quietly after making his request.
“Of course,” I say, faced with another urgent problem. It’s Saturday, and the one day the cook has called off all month. It’s too early to order in, but….
“Let’s make them together,” I say, envisioning the twins standing with me at the counter, making breakfast while laughing and getting batter on our faces.
God, I’m turning into a total simp.
“We’ll make pancakes, eggs, bacon—the whole works, that way when Mommy gets back, we can surprise her.”
It doesn’t matter that I know my way around the kitchen the same way I know how to do heart surgery, because the smile on Tempest and Raiden’s faces makes me feel like fuckin’ Superman.
The twins look at each other, shout, “Yay!” in unison, and sprint off toward the kitchen.
This will be fun. Piece of cake.
An hour later, I realize this, in fact, is not a piece of cake.
“Put it out, Daddy!” Raiden shouts, pointing at the electric cooktop I’ve just set on fire.
The frozen potatoes still cook in the hot grease I’ve pulled off the eye, and the flood of vegetable oil that spewed out of the pot when I dropped the hashbrowns spreads off the stove and onto the stone beside it.
“Fuck!” I shout, and Tempest pulls on Raiden to get them both to safety.
“Where’s the fire extinguisher!” Raiden yells.
“Flour! Blippi says to throw flour on a fire if you can’t find an extinguisher!” Tempest screams. The flames dance on the glass, and I begin to panic, grabbing the box of Bisquik and throwing handfuls of the dry batter onto the fire.
It takes all of ten seconds, but the fire’s finally out.
Then, the smoke detectors start to shriek.
“Goddamn it!” I grit out, not wanting to shout and scare the kids, but, of course, that’s the moment when Shae skids into the kitchen with her hands covering her ears. The engagement ring glints off the incoming sunlight.
“What the—” she yells over the alarms. I grimace, opening the windows closest to the stove. Then, I vault myself to stand on the kitchen island, waving a towel next to the alarm.
When all is quiet, I take in the scene: Shae stands wide-eyed and bewildered in my oversized T-shirt and panties, her hair wild around her face; Raiden looks like he’s just faced certain death; and Tempest giggles now that the danger’s done.
Well. That went well.
“What happened?” Shae says, pulling her hands from her ears and looking around the destruction that is our kitchen.
“Well,” I start, still standing above everyone on the island.
“Daddy was trying to make hashbrowns !” Tempest says, running up to her mother.
“But then he waited a long time for the oil to get hot, and when he did, it went schwrshhh !” Raiden describes the bubbling explosion of hot vegetable oil.
“Oh?” Shae asks, rolling her lips inward, probably to keep from laughing.
“Yes! But then he moved the pan and ka-bloom! There was fire everywhere !” Tempest shouts, jumping with her hands up.
“ Everywhere ,” Raiden affirms.
“I wouldn’t say there was fire everywhere ,” I object. “Plus, look at everything else we made.”
I point to the platters loosely covered with tinfoil. Hopping down, I move around the counter while Shae crosses her arms over her chest, her expression softening and a smile coming to her face.
“We’ve got,” I pull off the coverings, “bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, and pancakes.” I hold my arms out like I’m presenting on a game show.
“Fresh coffee from the drip, and the good orange juice,” I add.
Shae’s grin turns to outright beaming.
“You did all of this, Storm?” she asks, her voice light. Seeing her happy, even with the smoldering stove behind me, does something to my heart. My children and my soon-to-be wife are in the kitchen together on a Saturday morning, just…existing with each other.
I could be sad, thinking about all the years I missed this, but I choose to be happy, joyful, instead.
Because this? This is perfect.
“I did all this. Marianne is out for the day, so we’re on our own for breakfast.” I point to the fridge. “She left pre-made meals, of course, but the kids and I wanted to do something special for you.”
Her arms fall to her sides.
“Surprise, Mommy!” Tempest shouts, holding her arms out like that one Will Smith meme. “Do you love it?”
Shae seems to take in the sight, too, and after a beat, she smiles and walks over to me.
Closer.
Closer.
And then, she takes my hand.
“I love it,” she replies, looking directly into my eyes. Into my goddamn heart.
I squeeze her fingers in reply.
“Okay, kids. Why don’t we take all of this to the table and eat? Maybe to the patio to let the smoke air out?” she asks, looking at me. If she asked me to eat breakfast on the side of an active volcano, I’d tell her yes in a heartbeat.
Instead, I nod.
“And then,” she says, still smiling, still holding my hand. “Your father and I have some things we want to talk to you about. Together.”
It takes everything within me not to burst into tears of overwhelming fucking joy.
Twenty minutes later, we’re out on the back patio with plates in front of us, the fire scare behind us, and the kids bouncing in their seats like this is the best Saturday morning of their lives.
“So…” Tempest starts, drawing out the word like she’s chewing on it along with her bacon. “Does this mean you and Mommy are, like, boyfriend and girlfriend again?”
Raiden smacks his lips, pulling on the admittedly rubbery bacon.
“No, stupid! They’re getting married . That means they’re engaged ,” Raiden says.
“Don’t call your sister names,” Shae and I say at the same time, and I grin at her, which probably isn’t the appropriate response when disciplining one’s child.
“Sorry,” he grumbles, and Tempest rolls her eyes.
After a moment, she gives me a hopeful look.
“Does this mean we get to stay here? All of us? All the time?” she asks, her voice small.
I want to sweep her up in my arms right this second and smother her with love and promise her we’ll never not be together as a family ever again, but this is Shae’s place to speak. I squeeze Shae’s hand again, signaling for her to take the lead.
“You really want to live here, huh?” Shae asks, giving Tempest her full attention. Tems and Raiden share a look, and surprisingly, Raiden is the one who answers.
“Tempest and I talk about this a lot, and we want to live here. We don’t want to go back to the condo, Mom. First, the playground there sucks, and there’s so much grass here.”
“Second,” Tempest picks up, “the kids in the building are jerks, and we get to play new games with Uncle Axel!”
I look at Shae with my eyebrows lowered. Who’s been a jerk to my baby girl?
You can’t beat the shit out of a seven-year-old, Storm.
“And third,” Raiden says, saving me from my dark thoughts, “this is where Daddy lives, and we want to be with Daddy.”
My son nods, punctuating the argument, and he and his sister share twin expressions, their arms crossed over their chests.
Shae and I share a look.
“This place belongs to you two,” I say. “But it’s really up to your mom what happens when.”
I run my thumb on the inside of Shae’s wrist.
“We might not know the specifics for some time. Just know it’s all going to be amazing. Okay?” I say, giving the twins a slow smile. Tempest looks skeptical, and Raiden seems to reluctantly accept my words.
“We’ll stay here.”
Shae stuns me when she pipes up, straightening her back in her chair.
“I have a lot of work to do,” she says with a short breath. “But everything’s going to be fine, and there’s no reason we can’t all live here. You both are happy here, right?”
“Yes!” they both shout in return.
Shae giggles.
“Well, that settles that.” She looks at me, flicking a braid behind her shoulder and flashing the engagement ring. “We’re staying.”
Now I know why Tom Cruise was jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch. I feel like I could join him right this second.
“Good,” I choke out, cheesing from cheek to cheek.
“Um, Daddy?” Tempest whispers. “Who’s that?”
Tems points over my shoulder, and I turn to see Skai standing in the doorway, a young male attendant next to her.
She looks good. Relatively healthy in the morning sunlight. Compared to when she first came to stay here, she looks like she’s gained at least ten pounds, and she doesn’t have that strung-out look that seemed to haunt her features.
The only thing that’s not quite right is the way she stares at me. Actually, how she stares at Tempest and Raiden.
“Skai,” I say, standing. I don’t know if it’s to welcome her to the table or stand as a barrier between her and my family.
“Tempest, this is your cousin, Skai,” I say, tossing the words over my shoulder. Shae gives me a confused look, twisting in her chair to offer Skai a warm smile.
“Skai, we haven’t been able to meet yet. It’s so good to see you,” Shae says graciously. Skai remains frozen in the doorway, and her attendant looks around the table and at Skai nervously.
“Yeah,” Skai says after an extended moment of silence. “Shae, right?”
Shae’s grin tightens.
“Yes, that’s me. These are our children, Tempest and Raiden,” she replies. I watch the exchange, feeling an edge of awareness that something’s not quite right.
Or is that my internalized ableism?
Skai deals with challenges from her mental illness, sure, but I shouldn’t villainize her just because she’s having a hard time right now. She’s sixteen, just a child, and she needs support more than anything right now.
“Were you just out for some fresh air, or did you need something, Skai?” I ask, trying to be gentle with her.
Skai’s gaze bores into me, but then she blinks and her face blanks.
“No, thank you,” she replies politely. “I was just going out for some air. It’s really nice to meet your family, Storm.”
More smiles.
“Ah, yeah,” I say, shoving my hands into my pockets. “Well, don’t let us hold you.”
I gesture toward the path leading off into the garden. If she walks long enough, she’ll run into the arch that leads right to the art barn.
Skai hums, tilting her chin down.
“Thank you for introducing me,” she eventually says. “I’ll get out of your way.”
“Are you hungry, Skai? There’s plenty of food here,” Shae offers. Skai shakes her head.
“No, thank you. I wouldn’t want to break the family moment apart,” she says, and I can’t help but feel there’s another meaning in there.
I nod, and Skai and the young man walk off, disappearing in the foliage.
“Mommy, Daddy, can Raiden and I go find Uncle Axel and play video games today?”
Tempest bounces up and down, excitement coming off her in waves.
I glance at Shae, and she nods her affirmation.
“Sure,” I say. “Just make sure you take breaks!” I yell, trying to reach them with my voice despite them sprinting back into the house.
“That was…” Shae takes a deep breath, holding it in her chest before expelling all the air in a smooth movement.
“Yeah,” I reply, sliding back into my chair. “Don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried,” Shae adds quickly and gives me a look.
“As long as the babies are okay,” she murmurs. “That’s all that matters.”
To signal my agreement, I kiss the back of her hand, right over the ring that declares to the world she’s mine.