Chapter 13 #2
To be fair, I could count on one hand the number of guys I’d slept with, but I’d still gone to Planned Parenthood for testing before we’d stopped using them.
That day had been fun, trying to vaguely explain that I had errands to run when the kids wanted to come with me.
Curtis had laughed his ass off as I’d detailed the hoops I’d jumped through, trying to leave the kids behind when they usually tagged along. Even Dylan had been suspicious.
“You know, it’s gonna be weird not watchin’ Dylan play football,” Curtis said when I came out of the bathroom a little while later. “He’s played since he was little.”
“Where did that come from?”
“Just thinkin’ about his trip. It didn’t really go the way he planned, since all his friends were doin’ two-a-days while he was there. I think he was a bit jealous, which is insane because those practices aren’t any kind of fun.”
“I’m sure Isla was happy about that, since he was supposed to be there to see her,” I said wryly. “Why isn’t he going to play on the team at the high school?”
“He said he didn’t want to,” he replied, leaning down to tug on his boots. “He’s been playin’ with the same group since he was ten. I think he just didn’t want to join a new program.”
“That’s kind of sad.”
“I thought I had one more year,” Curtis said with a sigh. He watched me as I dressed. “He was good, but unfortunately, he wasn’t college-level good. Fun to watch, though.”
“I bet. Jess stopped doing jujitsu when they were thirteen, but they never really did the tournaments and stuff. No interest. Finn would rather gnaw off his own arm than do a sport.”
“He seemed stoked when we were talkin’ about pullin’ out the dirt bikes,” Curtis noted.
“True. That may be the exception.”
“I’ll talk to Draco about it again, get somethin’ planned.”
“Summer’s almost over.”
“There are these things called weekends,” he said with a grin. “Kids don’t have to go to school.”
“You think you’re funny,” I mused, pulling on a tank top. “It’s cute.”
“I’m fuckin’ hilarious,” he countered, getting to his feet. He walked over to me and dropped a kiss on my lips before heading toward the door. “I’m gonna go see how Jess is doin’.”
“What do you mean?”
“Heard them go outside earlier,” he said as he swung open the door. “Weren’t they changin’ the oil in your truck this mornin’?”
“Oh shit.” I’d totally forgotten I’d asked them to do it.
“Good thing we’re takin’ the bike today,” he joked as he left.
“They know what they’re doing,” I called to his retreating back. “They’ve done it before!”
When I got downstairs later, everyone was outside, and the front door was wide open.
“Finn kicked the friggin’ oil pan,” Jesse told me angrily, pointing to the large dark splotch on the driveway that was covered in white powder. “We don’t have any kitty litter, so I used baking soda.”
“Shit,” I mumbled, looking at Finn.
“It was an accident,” he said defensively, his cheeks red. “I was running—”
“Yeah, because you stole Dylan’s hat,” Jesse snapped. “Even though he told you not to.”
“I was just joking,” Finn shot back, his voice wobbling. “I was gonna give it back.”
“He told you not to!”
“Enough,” Curtis said, his voice calm. “Good call with the baking soda, Jess.” He looked at me. “We’ve got some Dawn dish soap?”
“Yeah. Finn, run in and grab it, pal.”
Curt caught Finn as he started toward the house and yanked him into a hug with one arm, scrubbing his other hand over Finn’s hair. “Accidents happen, bud,” he said quietly. “No harm, no foul. We’ll clean it up.”
Finn nodded miserably and ran into the house.
I opened my mouth to tell Jess to stop coming down so hard on Finn, but Curt beat me to it.
“Cut your brother some slack,” he said, his voice still calm, almost easygoing. “He’s gonna do stupid shit. So is Dyl, and so are you. When you get dragged for it, it just makes you feel like shit. He can’t go back and change it, yeah? What’s the point in makin’ him feel like shit?”
“Heard,” they replied quietly.
Surprisingly, I didn’t have anything to add.
I took a moment while we were waiting for Finn to come back outside to consider the fact that it didn’t bother me when Curtis corrected my kids.
I wasn’t sure if it was because I trusted him or if it was the fact that he’d never said anything that made me feel defensive on their behalf.
It happened slowly, once in a while reminding Finn not to run in the house or Jess to clean up their shoes from the entryway until just the day before when Jess had snapped at me and he’d firmly told them not to talk to me that way.
He’d never once raised his voice or even spoken in anger. It was always calm and measured.
“Got some scrub brushes,” Dylan announced, walking around the side of the house.
“Where the hell did you find those?” Curt asked, shoving Jess playfully as he turned toward his son.
Shit like that, right there, his way of telling Jess that they were cool—that was why I didn’t feel weird about it.
“They were in a box in the garage,” Dyl said with a shrug.
“They were there when we moved in,” Jess added. “I snooped.”
Curt laughed and waved Finn over when he came back out with the soap.
I swallowed hard, watching as Curt directed Finn to pour the soap over the baking soda and then knelt with him in the driveway to scrub at the stain.
Shit. He was it. The guy. The one.
I hadn’t been looking for him. I’d been happy to do it on my own. I liked our trio. We’d done well as a trio.
But we were better now. With Curt and Dylan, we were better.
We fit. Our little group was tight. The kids fought like siblings, but stuck up for each other the same way.
When one of Jess’s friends stopped replying to their messages, Dylan spent three days looking at that friend’s social media, pointing out different stuff about them that made them a douchebag—his words.
Each of the reasons had been more funny than the last, and by the end of it, Jess’s disappointment had disappeared.
At the community pool, when a little shit kept trying to dunk Finn even though the other kid was almost twice his size, Dylan and Jess had stepped in to make sure he kept his hands to himself.
We weren’t building a family. When I wasn’t looking, we’d already become one.
“Teddy,” Curtis called, waving his hand at me. “You might wanna move if you don’t wanna get wet.”
I scrambled to the side with the kids as he sprayed away the mixture. Underneath was clean cement.
“See, told ya,” Curt said to Finn. He smiled and sprayed Finn in the chest with the hose, making my boy squeal in shock.
I quickly moved to put the truck between me and Curt, which had been an excellent decision because Jesse and Dylan got sprayed next.
They yelled and complained, but all of them were laughing by the time he shut the water off.
“No more fightin’,” he ordered, gathering up the hose. “Fuckin’ behave while we’re gone today, all right?”
“I’ll behave,” Finn said immediately. He watched as Dylan pulled his sopping wet T-shirt off and then grabbed his own by the back of the collar and pulled his off the same way.
My throat grew tight as his narrow shoulders straightened and his chest puffed out a little.
The difference between Dylan’s nearly grown chest and Finn’s skinny one couldn’t be overstated, but Curtis must’ve noticed that the boys were standing the exact same way because I felt him look at me.
When I met his gaze, he shot me a small, knowing smile.
“Okay, everyone back inside,” I ordered, waving them toward the door. “Dry your feet off on the rug and get changed before you sit on anything.”
* * *
Half an hour later, I was slipping on my sandals while Curtis laid out the ground rules for when we were gone.
“We’ll be home around dinner,” he said. “You stay in the house. No playin’ outside, no openin’ the door.”
Unsurprisingly, the older kids didn’t protest. We’d sat them down months ago to let them know that Finn’s grandfather was unpredictable and unhappy with our move to Oregon.
I hadn’t really given more information than that, but Jesse already knew what an asshole David was, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if they filled Dylan in later.
Finn, on the other hand, still knew nothing. He was too young to fully understand the situation, and I didn’t want to freak him out. Thankfully, he just wanted to be doing anything the older kids were doing, so he played by the rules we set.
“We know, Dad,” Dylan said, lifting his head from the arm of the couch. “We’ll stay inside until you get back.”
“I say movie marathon,” Jess mused from the other end of the sectional. “We can use this huge ass TV. It’s like being in a theater.”
“With popcorn,” Finn added excitedly. “And candy. And ice cream.”
“We don’t have any ice cream,” Jess replied. “But the rest, we can do.”
“Thank you,” I mouthed in their direction. They nodded back.
“I’ll lock the door behind us,” Curt said, gesturing for me to get off the couch. “Call if you need anythin’.”
“We won’t,” Jesse retorted boredly. “Go. Have fun.”
“I’ll make dinner when we get home,” I told them as I grabbed my bag and headed for the door. “Don’t let your brother get sick on candy.”
“We won’t,” Dylan replied.
“Which brother?” Jess snickered at the same time.
Dylan kicked out at their feet, and they yanked them out of his reach.
I let out a sigh and tilted my face to the sun as Curt backed the bike out of the garage a couple of minutes later.
The weather was actually nice for once, not sweltering hot and muggy like it had been for the past few weeks.
I loved the heat, and I was used to it, but even with the air conditioning in the house, sometimes our bedrooms upstairs got really warm.
Surprisingly, I was kind of looking forward to the rainy weather that everyone promised me was coming.
“You’re so fuckin’ beautiful,” Curt said, making me tip my head back down. “Jesus.”