Chapter 36
Miles
Seven years later…
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” I ask as we stop beside the firehouse building, out of the way of any trucks if they need to get out.
“Yes, Uncle Miles. And I don’t understand why this had to be a whole family affair,” Noah says, shoving his hands into his pockets and jerking his head to get the hair from his eyes. He glares at me and then his mother.
“Because we’re proud of you,” Audrey says.
“You can be proud of me at home,” he argues.
“Don’t be fresh to Auntie Audrey, Noey,” Madison says, shaking her finger at him.
I hike my baby girl up higher on my hip.
“I wasn’t being fresh, Madi. You just don’t get it because you’re four.”
“Of course we do,” I say. “We just wanted to see you off on your big day. You’ve talked about this cadet program since you were seven. This is a big deal.”
“Can we go see Daddy now?” Charlie asks, tugging on my hand.
“In a minute, bud,” I say, smiling down at my beautiful little boy.
JJ and I adopted four years ago. Paid for one kid and got two.
We found someone who knew the moment they were pregnant that they couldn’t keep their baby.
We had no idea there were two until they came out.
It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, outside of marrying my best friend, of course.
These kids have brought so much light into our lives and humble us as well. I realize that even though I’ve helped Audrey with Noah since he was born, I don’t know a damn thing about being a parent.
“Can I go now?” Noah says impatiently.
Audrey sighs, leaning in and whispering, “How did he get so big?”
“I can hear you,” Noah groans.
A car door closes behind us. Noah’s gaze lifts and his eyes widen slightly then he stiffens.
“Hey, Noah!” It’s a girl’s voice, and we all look. Even the kids. Audrey and I share a surprised look, then look back at Noah.
He rolls his eyes, dropping his head back on his shoulders. “Great.”
Ah, so this is why he didn’t want us here…
“You’re early,” the girl says as she comes up to us. She looks about his age, with long, dark hair and big brown eyes. I raise a brow at Noah.
“Is this your friend?” I ask.
She looks at us and smiles. “We know each other from school. I’m Tasha.”
“Nice to meet you, Tasha. I’m Audrey, Noah’s mom. This is Miles, his uncle.”
“And I’m Madison and that’s my brother Charlie, but he’s shy, so don’t talk to him.”
“Madi,” I scold.
“It’s okay, Miles,” Tasha says with a bright smile. “I have three younger siblings, so I’m used to it. It’s nice to meet you, Madison, and you can tell Charlie that I said that too.” She turns her attention to Noah. “You ready to go in?”
“Definitely.”
“It was nice meeting you,” Tasha says, waving as they both turn toward the path that leads around the back of the building to the door that will let them inside the room for cadet classes.
“This is crazy,” Audrey says. “I swear I just had him.”
“I want to see Daddy,” Charlie says, tugging on my hand again.
“Such a Daddy’s boy you are.”
“We love Daddy,” Madi says.
“Of course you do,” I say. “But I’m Daddy too.”
“No, you’re just Dad,” she responds.
“Oh, okay. Just Dad,” I say to myself as we head inside and up the stairs to the lounge area.
“Whoa, look who it is!” Leo shouts, kneeling down to give Charlie a high five, then standing back up to give one to Madi.
“Hey, Leo,” Audrey says with a smile.
“Audrey,” he says in this low tone that lets me know exactly what he’s thinking.
“Okay, on that note, where is my husband?” I ask.
“In the office,” Leo says, eyes only for Audrey.
I can’t be sure who it was, but I’m certain I heard someone leaving the house early this morning, and he is the number one candidate as the culprit. Audrey won’t tell me though. Funny how the tables have turned.
I take the kids into the back where the offices are while Leo makes puppy dog eyes with my sister. I put Madison down when we reach the door, and both of them run for Jericho. He spins in his chair, opening his arms wide for them.
“How are my little munchkins?” he asks, hugging them tightly.
It’s been four years, and it still melts my heart when I see him with them. It was the sweetest thing when they were babies and they’d sleep soundly in his arms, but seeing the way they smile when they see him? Nothing is better than that.
My gaze moves down to his ring finger. I’ll never get tired of seeing that black band there, but what hits me harder is the cursive M that’s tattooed into his skin beneath.
The thing that drew me to him in the first place.
Of course, it was a different letter then.
An F that had me approaching him in a bar to ask what it was about.
Deep down I think I knew what it was, but none of that really matters now.
All that matters is that we’re here and we’re happy.
“Good,” they both say in return as he puts them down and gets up. He gives me a kiss.
“And how are you?”
“Grossed out by Leo and my sister almost making out on the kitchen table.”
He barks a laugh. “I knew that was him leaving the other morning.”
“That’s what I was thinking!”
“How’s Noah? Excited?”
“And thoroughly embarrassed by all of us dropping him off, especially because there’s a girl in the class that I think he likes.” I waggle my brows.
“Is that so?”
“Yep,” I say. “her name is Tasha, so make sure you let Greg know to give you the low down.” I sneak a glance at the kids. “Madison, put that down,” I say. She gives me a big smile as she sets the stapler back on the desk. “Charlie, hey, no. We do not—never mind.”
Jericho looks over his shoulder, shaking his head at Charlie, who has drawn a line across his upper lip with the blue highlighter that was on the desk.
“Do you miss your job yet?” he asks with a grin.
I roll my eyes. I said I was only going to take a year off from work to stay with the kids, but then I didn’t want to leave them.
So now, I’m a stay at home Dad, while my rugged firefighter husband works his ass off to support us.
He knows I’d go back to work if we needed, but he says we’re fine. So, I believe him.
“Only on days that end in Y.”
“How about we go out there?” Jericho says, lifting both kids, one in each arm.
“Can you be any hotter?” I ask, fanning myself as he walks by.
“You can find out later,” he says with a wink.
“Yep, you totally can.”
He’s my husband, so I get that luxury.
JJ
Later that night…
I close the book and carefully get up to put it back in the bookshelf, then slip out of the kids’ room without waking them.
They choose to share a room, which I know won’t last forever.
Soon enough, they’ll be on each other’s nerves.
Or maybe they’ll get to an age where they need their own space before that happens.
But they’re twins, and we know their bond is different from other siblings.
We’ve read up a lot on it, and it’s all quite interesting.
“Are they out?” Miles asks from the couch.
“Like a light,” I say, sitting beside him and pulling him to me.
“Did you look at that house I sent you?” he asks.
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Doesn’t feel right.”
He sits up to look at me, pinning me with a glare. “None of them look right. If you don’t want to move, you could just say it.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to move, Miles. I just like it here.”
“It’s crowded.”
“We have plenty of space up here, and Audrey and Noah are right downstairs.”
“Exactly,” he says with a nod. “I thought we were going to move somewhere with a bigger yard, into a better neighborhood, with good schools. You know… spread our wings and let Audrey spread hers.”
“The twins just turned four, Miles. We have time.”
He narrows his eyes. “Fine,” he relents. “I’ll let it go.”
It’s not that I don’t want to move. The idea of a bigger house with more space for the kids is great.
But I’ve never had a family the way we have this right now, and I don’t want to let it go just yet.
Moving would mean no more Audrey bursting in on Saturday mornings in her pajamas asking for pancake mix.
And no more of Noah staying up here until midnight playing video games with me, even though he was supposed to be in bed already.
“Thank you.” I kiss the side of Miles’ head as his arm comes around my waist. We cuddle together and find a movie to watch.
At some point, we hear the downstairs door open and then voices.
Miles reaches for the remote to mute the TV and hurries over to the door, putting his ear to it to listen. I shake my head.
“You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
“Shh!” he says. “I think it’s Leo.”
“And if it is?” I say.
“I just want to know, and she won’t tell me,” he hisses.
“Because she enjoys torturing you.”
“It’s terrible, right?” he complains. The voices disappear as another door opens and closes. He groans, then comes back to sit on the couch with me.
“Why would you ever want to leave? You won’t get all the gossip anymore.”
He swats me and I laugh.
“Oh, Hollis called today,” he says. “He’ll be here next week.”
“Sooner than I thought,” I say.
Hollis has been doing so well for five years.
It’s the longest he’s been clean for one given time.
When he found out I was having a baby, he made sure he was good so he could see them.
He’s been clean ever since and visits a few times a year.
He always looks good, and if he needs my kids to be his reason to stay clean, then that’s fine by me.
Maybe one day he’ll have his own. I just wish he’d know that he should be clean for himself and not rely on someone else. Maybe he’ll get it one day.
“The twins will be happy to see him,” Miles says. “Nash and Carter can’t come until the Holidays.”
“I hate that my family is all over the place,” I mutter.
“So that’s it,” Miles says.
“What?”
“That’s why you don’t want to leave? You like being close to Audrey and Noah.”
“I said that.”
“Not in so many words.”
“Why does it matter?” I ask.
“I’m just trying to figure it out, is all. Honestly, I don’t want to stay here forever, Jericho. I want to move to a bigger, better place.”
I hold his gaze for a long moment. “Okay. I know you do, and yes, I don’t like the idea of just leaving Audrey and Noah here.”
Miles puts his hand on mine. “That’s hard for me, too, Jericho. Really, it is. But it’ll be good for all of us to live our lives. We really do need a bigger place.”
I pull him closer to me and kiss his head again. “We can sit down tomorrow and look at houses. Promise.”
“And dogs.”
“No dogs.”
“Oh, come on. We can’t get another fish. They keep dying.”
“Because you overfeed them.”
He rolls his eyes. “A dog would be so much better. The kids would love it.”
“Maybe after we get the house.”
“I’ll remember that,” he warns.
I just roll my eyes—because of course he will.