Chapter 10 #3
He thought for sure that it wouldn’t last long; he’d been working all his life, but he was going to enjoy it while he could.
With the new baby coming along, he did worry about money, but then corrected himself.
They had plenty of money to last their lifetimes together, and he had to keep telling himself that.
He wondered if his brothers had the same thoughts about money and was sure that they did.
They’d worked hard all their lives, and he didn’t see them, him included, stopping doing that in the near future.
Waking up alone in the bed, he could hear the shower running.
However, when he got up to join her in the stall, she was sitting in front of the toilet, throwing up.
Getting a wet wash rag for her, he held her hair back while she vomited again.
She looked up at him when she looked to be finished and smiled.
“ I’ve never had morning sickness before. That’s why I’m thinking it’s a girl.” He told her that her timing was a little off, but he helped her to stand. “ I’m just going to take a quick shower and go back to bed. I don’t feel well.”
“ I’ll take care of the boys.” Taking a shower with her, he was surprised when she was so weak.
Holding her up while she washed her hair, he helped her get to bed and cover up.
He was worried about her and decided that if she wasn’t any better by the time he got the boys to preschool, he was going to call Locke.
He might anyway. He was worried about her.
“ Congratulations on the baby, and she should feel better in a couple of hours. If it lasts more than a day, bring her over, and I’ll make sure she’s all right.
But it sounds like she has morning sickness and that’s all.
” He thanked him. “ No worries. I have been dealing with morning sickness with Alex. She’s had it with all three of our daughters. ”
“ Olivia thinks that we’re having a girl and that’s why she’s so sick.” He said that the odds were against them, but he hoped that they had a daughter. “ I do too. I think after having the boys, she wants to even things out a bit.”
“ Alex is hoping for a son, too. I mean, instead of daughter. Not that we won’t be happy with another daughter, but I think she wants one for me.
To carry on my name. I don’t care one way or the other, but I want her to be happy.
Does that make me sound sappy?” Zander said that it did, but it was a good kind of sappy.
“ Whatever that means. She’ll be all right.
But if you’re that worried, bring her over, and I’ll have a look at her.
It’s more than likely nothing but what I said. ”
After getting the boys off to preschool, he was ready to face the day with nothing to do.
He did have a couple of things that he hadn’t finished yet, but they weren’t due for a while now, and he wasn’t going to rush right out and do them.
Looking over the list of things that Olivia had on her list, he decided to get started on the lawn.
It was a mess from the storm, and he wanted it to be nice when full summer came around.
The pool was going to be used a great deal this year, and he was looking forward to having the time off to be there with his family.
Thinking about his family while he was on hold with the lawn service, he wondered what would have happened to them had they not won the lottery when they had.
They’d still be in Ohio, he had no doubt, and more than likely taking menial jobs to help them get by.
None of them would have gone to college to become something more, as money would have been too tight to even think about enrolling.
To him, they were just normal people who just happened to have a great deal of money.
They did things that people did, like take their kids to preschool, and worried about money.
Not that they had to, but he knew that his brothers, like him, wouldn’t just spend their money like they had it.
Worried about when the next check was coming in was something that he did daily, and he didn’t know why.
After setting up a time for the lawn crew that his brother owned to come out and assess their yard, he went to check on Olivia.
She was still sleeping, but she had a bit more color in her cheeks, so he wasn’t as worried as he’d been earlier.
So long as she was sleeping, he knew that she’d feel better when she woke up.
Otherwise, he was going to take her to his brother’s home and have him run some tests.
By noon, Olivia was up and her usual self.
He was glad; he’d been worried that she was sleeping so late.
When she joined him in the kitchen, he went over the list of things that he’d gotten done, and she said she was proud of him.
Embarrassed about that, he told her that it was his pleasure to get her list finished up, and she laughed.
He joined her when she told him that she was still proud of him.
For most of the afternoon, the two of them did nothing but laze around the house.
Erickson Lawn Service showed up around the time he was going to pick up the boys, and he let Olivia deal with them.
She’d know better than he did what she wanted done.
He thought just cleaning up the yard would be easy, but as he was leaving, he heard her say something about getting the pool landscaping redone as well.
Whatever she wanted, he was fine with that.
The boys were happy to see him picking them up.
He hugged them tightly several times and wondered if they wanted to get ice cream on the way home.
Excited about having something that was usually forbidden to do, he took them to the burger place around the corner from their school and got them dinner too.
He knew they’d be hungry again by dinner, so he wasn’t worried about them spoiling their dinner.
The ice creams were a big hit for him, too.
“ Daddy, will we have to go to the poor house because you quit your job?” He laughed but then realized that his son was serious. “ I like my room the way it is, and some of the kids at school said I’d not be able to keep my things because the mean orphanage would take them away.”
“ You don’t have to worry about us going to the poor house, nor you going to an orphanage.
” He then had to explain to them both what those two places meant.
“ Daddy has been saving money all his life so that we never have to worry about money again. And since both your mom and I are going to be around for a long time, you don’t have to worry about us leaving you at the orphanage. ”
He could tell they were worried and decided to take them to the store and get them something that they’d been wanting for a long time.
It was then that they were relieved that they didn’t have to worry about money today, but did wonder how it had gotten around so quickly that he’d quit his job.
Kids knew more than anyone thought they did.
He’d heard and believed that more than ever.
Olivia was still in the kitchen with the construction boss when he decided to help the boys with their homework.
He decided that practicing their letters was doing him some good, too, and had fun with the letter ‘d’.
He rarely wrote things down when he had his phone with him, so he was amazed at how hard it was to get letters to be perfect.
They expected no less from him when he was helping them.
“ How about we go out to dinner tonight?” The kids were all for that and wanted to go somewhere that had chicken nuggets.
“ I think we can do better than that. How about we go someplace that has a salad with our meal, and you can have two plates of it?” They were all for that.
“ Also, I know one place that has white milk too.”
Olivia kissed him on the cheek just to make the boys gag, and it was going to be a good night for all of them.
She told him that she felt better than she had, and he believed her.
She looked just like she did before she’d gone to bed last night, and he was glad.
He hated seeing her sick like she’d been.
After dinner, the boys were exhausted and were easy to put to bed.
He read them a couple of lines of their books, and they were asleep.
Going to the living room to be with Olivia, he wondered what the next twenty years would bring and decided that he was going to take it one day at a time.
It was the only way to live, he told himself, and he was happy to have his family right here with him.