Chapter 9
RACHEL
Rachel marched back to her friends. Not that she was very far from them, but sometimes a girl just felt better after a good march. Control and the confident stride gave a subtle reassurance.
As Rachel approached the blanket, April, Sadie, and Molly all stared at her with large, round eyes.
Rachel plopped onto the fabric and crossed her legs, crisscross-applesauce.
“Rachel.” Sadie laid her hand on Rachel’s shoulder.
Rachel picked at the pilling of the blanket, not able to meet Sadie’s gaze. Even a whole bottle of lavender cleanser wouldn’t make her feel better.
Sadie sucked in a breath as the only crack in her typical lawyer-inspired neutrality.
“Not that I heard anything, because I’m really good at not hearing anything.
Most days. That point is definitely arguable, but I stand by it.
But if I had heard something, I’d say maybe you and I should talk about the parenting agreements you have in place with Gavin.
Because I’m wondering if he might be violating a few of them? ”
Ugh.
Technically, he was. Not with the dog thing, but with the constant working thing and how often he wasn’t able to fulfill the timelines he’d agreed to.
He worked a lot, though, and he did provide for the boys, so Rachel shook her head. No, she wasn’t going there.
A shuddering breath escaped from her lungs. Get yourself together, Rachel.
Gavin didn’t intend to violate the orders and, honestly, most of the time it was easier this way. Rachel was more in control when Gavin wasn’t around so much. That control allowed her to prevent everything in their lives from going totally sideways. They all just tilted a little with the chaos.
“I don’t want to do that; everything’s fine.” Rachel replied, because it was always fine. She just, sometimes, wished that things could be easy for a minute. Even a few seconds.
The baby Sadie was watching that morning got a little too close to the edge of the blanket, so Sadie reached for him and pulled him back into the center. He immediately went to work at edging toward the grass again.
Sadie patted him on the back as he started past her, then pulled him to the middle of the blanket. “If everything stops being fine, you know where to find me.”
April’s one-year-old was unloading a package of Goldfish crackers onto the blanket. “You did a great job of taking a deep breath over there.”
Rachel sighed. She had a sinking feeling down to her toes that the dogs were not going to be going to Gavin’s anymore because Dakota decreed it.
“You know your boys are going to rule the world someday, right?” Molly asked Rachel, pulling her glasses down to the tip of her nose as she glanced in the direction of the sounds of children.
Rachel had no doubt that this world domination was what they plotted late at night in their room. She’d overheard enough of their breakfast conversations to know her boys had the potential to either lead the free world or find themselves in deep, deep trouble with their shenanigans.
“They’ll figure out how to be co-presidents or something. My munchkin will be their vice-president,” Molly announced brightly.
Rachel allowed her gaze to trail to the field next to the playground where the twins had begun to coordinate a soccer game with several of the other kids from the playground area.
They’d incorporated the dogs but kept them on their leashes.
At least they were being responsible dog owners. Unlike their dad.
This version of the game didn’t seem to follow any of the traditional rules, but the other kids all looked to be fine with the scenario, if she were to judge by the enthusiasm with which they shouted new regulations to one another and Kellan and Brady approved or vetoed those ideas.
Her boys were tough; she gave them that. They always bounced back whenever disappointment hit. Heck, they didn’t even seem to register it most times. They just roared into the world with rose-colored glasses.
Dad can’t make the game? No worries, they got to see their uncles.
Mom burned dinner? It’s fine, they preferred cold cereal, anyway.
Her parents didn’t have a substantial relationship with them? Eh, who needed two sets of grandparents?
She blew out a breath and gnawed at her lip, hoping they’d hang on to this kind of resilience. Hoping she could be enough for them.
The children ran back and forth between two small orange cones—she had no idea where they’d found the cones and did a quick scan of the street to ensure there weren’t any missing from a construction project.
There weren’t.
“Where’d they get the cones?” Rachel asked.
“There’s a stack by the bathrooms.” Sadie gave a pointed look to the aforementioned stack. “They asked first.”
“I said it was okay,” April added.
The children began kicking and spiking, yes, spiking the balls.
Yes, balls. This version of the game came with four balls. A soccer ball, of course. A volleyball because, why not, and two tennis balls.
God help her if her children did decide to become politicians.
“I’ll be their campaign manager when they run for co-presidents.” Sadie said, offhandedly. “That way they don’t wind up in prison.”
“Can we go back to talking about the margaritas?” April scooped up a handful of Goldfish crackers and placed most of them back in the single-serve package so her daughter could dump them again. “The Travis margaritas.”
She kept a few and tossed them into her mouth.
Rachel shrugged. “He read my welcome sign. It’s not a big deal.”
Though it was the nicest thing anyone had done for her in a while.
“Except he makes you blush,” Molly replied. “All the brothers are handsome—even Gavin, though I hate him and wish tonsil scabs on his throat.”
“Why do you hate him so much?” April asked. “I mean, aside from the whole buying the dogs and then refusing to let them come to his house, he doesn’t seem that bad on the big scale of jerkwad.”
“Honestly?” Molly looked at the women. “He doesn’t treat Rachel with the respect she deserves. She does the work. He reaps the rewards. She keeps doing the work and he’s still over there reaping. That pisses me right off.”
“And Travis and Dane don’t piss you off?” Sadie picked up the baby and did the sniff test on his bottom like a pro. Yeah, she fit right in with their group.
“Travis and Dane step up for Rachel and the twins whenever she asks. Even when she doesn’t ask.” Molly stared pointedly at Rachel. “She should ask more often. Especially when it comes to all things Travis.”
Baby still in her arms, Sadie turned to Rachel. “I don’t think she’s going to let up about him.”
No, Rachel didn’t expect she would.
“Maybe you’re right,” Rachel said, falling back onto the blanket to study the sky, thinking of the game she and her mother used to play when they’d search for shapes in the clouds.
“Of course I’m right,” Molly said, perky as ever.
Sadie snickered before blowing a raspberry against baby Luke’s tummy.
“Maybe I need to meet someone. Have someone to look forward to seeing.” There. That cloud right there looked like a lopsided version of Chris Pine with an extremely long…right…yeah…she was a mother and should not be evaluating the cloud version of Chris Pine’s… ahem…
“I recommend it,” Sadie said, giving the baby’s neck kisses that made him laugh like an unhinged hyena. “Roman’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“You think you two will have kids?” Rachel asked, checking out another cloud that looked like Blippi…again, with the third leg thing, which she was heretofore going to pretend was simply an extraneous cloud that Bob Ross had painted in the sky and accidentally placed in an unfortunate locale.
“I hope so,” Sadie said. “Roman wants kids and so do I, but we’re also really happy just being us.”
Rachel closed her eyes. Happy just being us…
She wasn’t even happy right now just being her. How could she be happy as an us?
“That’s the key, I think,” Molly said from Rachel’s left. “The being happy when it’s just the two of you thing.”
“Then Kent and I are screwed; we hit our stride as a couple once we had kids.” April winked at Rachel. “But everyone’s different.”
Rachel turned her head and opened her eyes to see her best friend lying beside her, also studying the clouds.
“Don’t you want to meet someone?” Sadie asked, directing her query to Molly.
“Of course I do. I’m just waiting for perfection in a male specimen,” Molly said.
“In other words, she’ll be waiting for-eva,” Rachel said, refusing to acknowledge the cloud that had an uncanny resemblance to the Blue Wiggle…with that damn Bob Ross extraneous cloud.
“Maybe you can fix me up with one of your male divorcees, Sadie?” Rachel asked, closing her eyes and letting the wind whisper over her skin instead of searching the sky. “Someone with a really awful ex-wife, so he’ll fully appreciate how nice I am to him.”
“You don’t want my divorcees,” Sadie hummed lightly after she spoke. “These days they’re all being charged with one crime or another. You know, since I started working in criminal law, too.”
Rachel cracked an eyelid, watching Sadie as she held baby Luke close to her chest and made the low rolling noise in her throat.
Sadie was so going to let her fiancé knock her up. And soon, by the look of it.
“I’m glad my practice is moving away from family law and into the realm of defense.
” Sadie pressed a kiss to Luke’s temple.
“Do you know how much easier it is to defend a serial arsonist than an unfaithful husband who will not give up dibs on the VHS player his brother bought in 1987 and left in the attic of the home where he and his ex lived?”
“I literally have no idea, so I’ll have to take you on your word,” Rachel said, crossing her eyes when Luke looked at her. She stayed that way until he laughed.
“Does the VHS guy need me to find him a match?” Molly asked, suddenly serious. “I think I may have a viewer who would be perfect for him.”
“Molly.” Rachel tsked. “No.”