Chapter 5 #3
Lily inspected my nails with a sigh. “I wanted to do them all.”
Yeah, I knew she did. But we’d been short on time, so she’d only painted two of them. In a sparkly, light blue color.
I looked fucking fabulous.
“You can do the rest later,” I said. Unless she ditched me to play with Paws.
Nate came back from the hostess’s desk and let us know our table was almost ready. Then he brought out his phone, and I followed his gaze to where Dylan and Hallie were standing by a big fern. They were, for once, smiling when they talked, and Nate took a picture of them.
For safekeeping, for evidence, for blackmail…
“I’m so hungry.” Mikey tugged at his suspenders. He looked so damn adorable, all dressed up.
“I know, buddy. Me too.” I folded up the sleeves of my button-down. “Do you know what you want yet?”
It wasn’t the first time we’d come here, and it wouldn’t be the last. We loved our Mexican food, and this place had an energy to it. Bright, colorful walls, fitting music, great food, and good deals on family platters.
Mikey nodded. “Tacos.”
“Excellent choice,” I said. “No taquitos? You love those.”
“Only when Nana makes them,” he said, sticking his thumbs underneath the suspenders. “She’s the best at cooking—except when you and Dad make spaghetti.”
We were admittedly awesome at spaghetti and Bolognese.
I smiled and ruffled his hair. “You know how fucking cute you are?”
He grinned and stood taller.
“I’m cute also, Daddy!” Lily exclaimed.
“Of course you are, princess.” I picked her up and positioned her on my hip. “All our babies are cute.”
She giggled and smushed my cheeks together. “We’re not babies.”
Don’t remind me.
About half an hour later, my heart couldn’t be happier.
The whole family was gathered around a big table, which was filled with food and drinks, and I already had an enchilada in me.
We always reserved the same corner booth when we were here, because the round table was the perfect size for us.
And we weren’t assaulted by the din from the other guests.
Minimal fussing between Dylan and Hallie too—a big bonus. They were currently teaming up against Nate and Mikey in a debate about where we could go this summer.
I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday.
“Daddy, I don’t like these red things on the shrimpies.” Lily held up a shrimp for me.
“It’s chili. Hold on.” I sucked some queso off the side of my thumb before grabbing it, and I dunked it in my water, making sure the chili flakes came off. “Try it now.”
She found that super funny, but hey, it worked. Her eyes lit up as she chewed. “So yummy!”
I winked and went for a chicken quesadilla.
She promptly stole my water so she could give the rest of her shrimp a bath. At the same time, Nate slipped a hand onto my thigh, stealing my attention.
“I know you want to visit the West Coast again, but there’s a reason I think we should stay closer to home this year,” he was saying. “Actually, two reasons. This year, we didn’t start planning our road trip eight months in advance like we usually do, because Dad and I have been very busy.”
I nodded in agreement, rolling with the punches. We were doing this now—finally. It felt like the last puzzle piece before we could move forward.
“We’re also already goin’ to Mammoth Cave,” I pointed out, chewing. “Two days to get there, three days exploring the park, two days to get home.”
“Exactly,” Nate agreed. “But before I get to my main reason, we—Dad and I—talked about how this past year kind of got away from us.” He covered Mikey’s hand with his own. “We had this plan, you see. We were gonna work harder and save up to buy a bigger house.”
Mikey tilted his head.
“And sometimes, when you’re so focused on something, you forget what’s really important,” Nate went on. “Dad and I started fighting a lot. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Micah.”
I kept an eye on Lily, who was watching us silently and munching away on her watered shrimp.
Mikey eventually nodded hesitantly. “You didn’t hug anymore before today. Today you hugged a lot.”
The rest of my food went down with a gut punch of guilt.
Nate was the family diplomat and had endless patience, so I didn’t interfere.
“Do you remember when you started noticing it?” he murmured.
Mikey thought about it. “I don’t know… Maybe ten or seventeen days ago?”
God, I just wanted to squeeze him in a hug. Ten or seventeen—got it. It was a span, at least. And it hadn’t gone on forever.
Our family head doctor wasn’t done digging. “And did you feel like you couldn’t come talk to us about it?”
“Daddy,” Lily almost whispered. She tried. “My shrimpies are gone.”
I coughed to hide a chuckle, and I reached for the plainest type of quesadilla. Cheese. She liked those.
“Have one of these,” I whispered back.
“…and ’case you got divorced like Charlie’s mom and dad, I didn’t wanna say anything,” Mikey was admitting. “I just tried to get you to hug more.”
My fucking heart.
“I understand. Well, you haven’t imagined it. This year has been tough.” Nate gathered our boy’s hands and kissed the tops. “I’m so sorry we’ve worried you, sweetheart. That couldn’t have been easy.”
I cleared my throat. “We’re very happy you’re telling us now. We always wanna know how you’re feeling so we can make things better. That’s our responsibility.”
Nate nodded. “It’s super sweet of you to want to help us, though. But in the future, you come first. If you one day have children, you’re gonna want them to tell you as soon as something is wrong too.”
At that, Mikey wrinkled his nose. “Gross.”
I snorted.
Nathan chuckled and leaned in to hug our boy, and Mikey never turned that down.
I turned to the princess and nudged her a little. “What about you, shrimpie? Have you noticed anything weird with Daddy and me?”
She nodded and took a big bite of her quesadilla. “I said that before—that you don’t hug.” Then she shrugged. “I don’t like hugs all the time. ’Specially when it’s warm.” She pointed at the plate with the quesadillas. “Can I have one more?”
Safe to say, Lily was all right.
“But the point is, everything is good now, right?” Hallie pressed. Maybe for Mikey’s sake. For closure’s sake.
“Absolutely,” I replied. “Dad and I have talked things out at great length.” I made sure Mikey heard this too. “We realized how much we missed each other and that all this work stress and bitching ain’t good for us. It only made us unhappy.”
Mikey nodded firmly. “Bitching ain’t good.”
I grinned, loving it when he took after me. Sue me—even when it was cursing and slang, it was flattering when kids became mini-mes running around.
“Fighting is also a suitable word,” Nathan said mildly.
“Bitching or fighting—we’re done with both,” I said. “At least the kind that makes us miserable. And… Drumroll, Daddy—our work paid off, didn’t it?”
He smiled indulgently and faced Mikey. “The main reason we’re staying close by this summer—Dad found our dream house. We’re moving soon.”
“Whoa!” Lily stiffened and put up her hand like a traffic cop. “We’re moving to another house? Can I keep my room? Paws is coming, right? Does the other house have grapes?”
I rumbled a laugh and dragged a nacho through the guacamole.
“It will be a new room,” Nate reasoned. “Grapes exist there too, thankfully. And I know this because I’m the one who buys them for you.”
I put my arm around her shoulders and squeezed her to me. “We’re not moving until you’re comfortable, princess.”
Dylan groaned. “That’s gonna take forever.”
I threw the chip into my mouth and held up a finger to him, because I wasn’t done.
“I will say this, though,” I told Lily. “The new house has a big pool, and your room will be almost twice the size of your old room.”
“There’s a pool?!” Mikey exclaimed, suddenly thrilled.
We really needed to get the pool relined.
Lily knitted her brows, thinking hard. “I wanna look at the house.”
“How full are you on a scale from ten to comatose?” Nate chuckled quietly.
I puffed out a breath and slowed down at a stoplight. “Let’s just say if you press a hand on my stomach, this minivan will look like the time half the kids at Hallie’s day care came down with the flu.”
He winced and laughed at the memory.
Dylan might be more full than I was, though. He’d declined driving for the first time ever.
“I’m first in line to go to the bathroom upstairs,” he said from the back. “For the record, that’s another bonus with the new house. Three bathrooms, if you count the one in the garage.”
“How do you know?” Mikey asked.
Shit.
Dylan met my stare in the rearview, and I took over, having already thought of an excuse since we’d decided to bring the kids over there tomorrow after school.
“Dylan and Hallie have been there,” I replied. “They’ve even started decorating their rooms. The reason we didn’t tell you and Lily was because we wanted to finish renovating your rooms first. They didn’t look great before.”
They bought my excuse. Which wasn’t technically very far from the truth.
“In fact, Dad’s been doing a lot of renovations over there,” Nathan added. “So that it would be perfect for us before we moved in.”
“I will let you know if it’s perfect, Daddy,” Lily said frankly.
I chuckled and put my foot on the gas again. “That’s great, princess. I hope you approve.”
“So do I…” She lifted her brows and looked out the window. “What’s wrong with our old house?”
“Daddy and I miss having our own bedroom, for starters,” I offered. “I’d also like to have a big backyard and a nice patio where we can host barbecues and have friends and family over.”
“And the pool,” Mikey whispered to her. “We can go swimming every day.”
She nodded thoughtfully.
I cleared my throat and rested a hand on Nate’s leg. “By the way, I was thinking of asking James and Jordan to come over tomorrow when we show the kids the house. Just for a few minutes to say hello.”