“But he also said she’s not allowed to get married until she’s forty,” Dillan adds, walking into the kitchen with an empty frosting bowl. “Seriously Mum, I’m starved. Where are the crisps?”
“It’s not fair! Dillan gets to go where he wants, when he wants!” Emily cries, storming into the kitchen, her face bright red and her anger evident.
Nathan follows, looking up at the ceiling with his hands clasped beneath his chin.
“Dillan has a curfew for ten at night and he sticks to it.” Nathan says and he has a point; Emily did come home two hours late a few weeks ago. I thought Nathan was going to have a heart attack. I’ve never seen him as frightened as he was the day she was born and she got stuck. I had to have forceps to get her out. It wasn’t a pleasant experience and it lasted almost two days.
Ashlyn was a lot easier and a lot quicker. Just like Dillan.
“Yes, but I do all of my chores, I keep my room tidy and I get the best grades in my entire year! Dillan only just passes, his bedroom is a sty and he pays his six year old sister to do his chores!”
She has a point.
Dillan tries to sneak by the both of them, but Nathan snags him by the back of his collar, effectively stopping him in his tracks.
“Have you been paying your baby sister to do your chores?” Nathan grumbles, his jaw clenched.
“Umm…” Dillan looks frantically around the room for a way to escape. He doesn’t find it.
Nathan pulls him in further and stands him next to his sister, who he sticks his tongue out at before giving his dad that easy smile that we both know so well.
“I’m preparing her for the real world?” He tries to use, but Nathan’s glare doesn’t flicker at all. He is not amused. Unlike me. I’m finding this entire thing quite funny. So is Ashlyn, who is still mixing away but watching the scene with avid interest.
“Fine, I’ll make you a deal,” Nathan says to Emily and I’m shocked that he’s relenting. Then again, it is Emily and she is his little girl through and through. “If I can drop you off and pick you up, then you can go into the concert to watch whatever boy band it is you’re obsessed with this month.”
“Thank you, Daddy!” She squeals, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tight. I see him sigh and melt. She gets him… every single time. “Go to your room. You’re grounded until the concert and then you’re grounded until you’re eighteen.”
“What?”
Why? Why must he torment her?
“For giving me a headache.” She rolls her eyes, still smiling and kisses his cheek. “Love you.” Dillan steps forward, his arms spread wide, and goes to embrace his father the same way Emily did.
Nathan, used to Dillan’s jokester ways, flicks his nose and snaps, “Stop paying your sister to do your chores! She’s six.”
“And a half!” Ashlyn adds grumpily. “Stop forgetting the half!”
Nathan grabs Dillan in a headlock and scrubs his knuckles on his scalp, before practically throwing him into the hallway. “And tidy your bloody room!” He turns to me, his frown still in place. “Why do you never help me?”
“You had it handled,” Ashlyn answers for me, her chin raised defiantly. Nathan takes the bowl from her and places it on the side, then he lifts her over his shoulder and vanishes into the hallway. I hear the cupboard door open and close along with a sigh that belongs to my daughter.
He comes back without Ashlyn.
“I’m pretty sure that’s not legal.” I scowl, slapping his arm playfully.
“She likes it.” He’s right; she definitely does. When she started crawling, we used to find her in there sleeping all of the time. It’s where she’d go for a nap. So Nathan padded out the inside and gave it a clean. He even installed a butterfly light that comes on when you open the door.
It’s probably not a good thing to show to other people; they wouldn’t understand.
“Besides, everyone’s gone. We can snog now,” he chuckles, sucking my bottom lip into his mouth.
I cringe at the word snog but say nothing, because he’s right; it’s rare that we get to do this when the kids are home. They would probably think that it’s gross and Nathan isn’t a fan of public displays of affection. Not unless it’s in front of a man who, he is convinced, wants me.
I think it’s definitely not gross. I think it’s the best thing in the world.
“I have to make these cakes. Sasha will kill me if they aren’t ready in time.” Sasha and Tommy’s little boy turns nine tomorrow.
He’s an amazing little man and just like his father, but he looks just like Sasha.
“We have a few minutes,” he mutters, his bare hand squeezing my breast as my fingers travel up his arms. My lips travel from his mouth to his neck and settle over the burn scar that peeks out from above the collar of his shirt. “We’re opening another G and N store in Seattle next week. The Forever Connected charms have really hit it off,” Nathan whispers against my mouth, his hands gripping my arse and pulling me against him.
I beam, or try to because he takes my mouth again. “That is fantastic.” I try to say. “You’re a jewellery making genius.”
He pulls back and we both look at the bracelet on my wrist. At least twenty three tiny charms sit around the gold and silver entwined chain. Each charm tells a story, signifying a big event in our lives. The one that affects me the most is the tiny, dangling, orange crystal shaped as a single flame. It reminds me every day that the man by my side would run through fire to be with me, because that’s exactly what he did. The love is requited. One hundred percent.
Smiling at the man of my dreams, I pull his head down to mine and let him lift me onto the counter whilst massaging my tongue with his own.
Is it bed time yet?
Sigh.
“I didn’t see a thing,” Ashlyn announces, walking into the kitchen. She covers her eyes and walks back out again, almost slamming into her brother on her way past.
“No, but we did and it is so going on Facebook!” Dillan roars with laughter, his phone aimed our way from the doorway. Emily is crouched down, filming us through the gap in his legs.
“That is so wrong,” Emily adds, giggling hysterically.
I close my eyes, because I know what’s coming. I also cover my ears and I do it just in time to protect my ear drums from the kids’ screams of fear induced glee and their heavy footsteps carrying them away. When I open my eyes and uncover my ears, the kitchen is vacant save for the ginger cat that adopted us two years ago.
I scratch him behind the ears and touch the tiny yellow crystal on my bracelet shaped like a cat, which sits directly beside a blue dummy, a pink bottle and a lilac heart.
One for each of my kids.
Our entire lives on one bracelet.
Keeping us forever connected.
“Do you remember the time we were worried we’d never be normal?” I ask Nathan when he re-enters the kitchen looking dishevelled and out of breath.
He’s so handsome, even more so than the first time I met him. Age suits him and the hair above his ears that’s starting to grey only makes him more enticing. God, I love this man.
His smile is wide and full of love and his hands immediately pull me to him. “I don’t think we have anything to worry about anymore.”