Looking down the hallway to see who they were talking about, I frowned when no one was there. “Who is?”
“Vaughan,” she snapped. “He poops his pants, Dad. Do you even realize how disgusting that is?”
“You were obsessed with poop once upon a time,” I pointed out. “We had to ban you from talking about it because it got that bad.”
She eyed me, her expression showing how furious she was. “You’re lying.”
I was saved from digging myself deeper by the arrival of her uncle.
“Uncle Jeremy, can you take Vaughan with you? Please?”
Uncle Jeremy was prone to giving his nieces anything they wanted but removing their baby brother from the family was a whole new issue.
Being the awesome brother-in-law I was, I wished him luck and walked quickly away. Not long after we’d found out Naomi was pregnant with Willow, we’d sold my house and found one with enough space for our ever expanding family. This meant I had a man cave I regularly hid in, given that the ratio of female to male wasn’t in my favor, which meant bad things for my sanity.
Now that Vaughan was around, the testosterone levels were going up, but they still weren’t in our favor.
Hearing the squeaking of wheels spinning over the wooden floors, I waited for Melba and Toast to reach me.
“Okay, you know the drill.”
See, the dogs could sense the insanity in the air, so every time it happened, they’d come and hide with me. Toast could get down the stairs by himself, but Melba needed a hand. Our thing was for her to stop with her behind facing me, meaning I could pick her up without freaking out she was going to pop out of the contraption we strapped her into each morning. Trust me, it’d happened, and I swear I’d die still feeling the guilt.
My household might be insane, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Each day was an adventure.
Hitting the screen on my phone that activated all the lights in the man cave, I shouted, “Alexa, play Bright Side of the Road, by Van Morrison.”
This was my new soundtrack, along with Someone Like You, which was the song we’d danced to at our wedding. I think the lyrics in both about said it all where my life was at now.
Life was good.
And in the middle of the wall, with nothing around it, sat the framed Blow Pop from all of those years ago.
Three hours later…
As always, once the dramatics had calmed down, I’d come out of my safe place to harmony. Vaughan was in his swing, dreaming of milk and pooping. Willow was watching a cartoon, her thumb in her mouth and the speed of her lids opening and closing almost down to nonexistent, as she fought and lost against sleep.
Gesturing at Shanti, I crept out to the garage and lifted the cover off my dad’s 1969 Mustang Boss. This was our time, something only the two of us enjoyed and found solace in doing.
Wiping her hands off on the rag once we were done, my little shadow, covered in grease just like I was, asked, “Are we going to take her out today, Dad?”
“You know what to do.”
Shanti rolled her eyes and walked over to the wall where her crash helmet was. So, sue me, I was still paranoid about taking the kids out in vehicles that didn’t have a shit ton of airbags and modern safety features in them, but I figured this was a good compromise.
Once we were in, she reached over and turned the radio on, filling the inside one of the most awesome vehicles in existence with Under The Bridge. The song had been one that’d been played repeatedly while Callum had taught us how to play basketball like a pro—no offense to Jeremiah—and it was our song while we were driving.
“Tell me another story about Daddy.”
This was also our thing. I could tell her stories Naomi couldn’t, and vice versa. We made sure she knew every detail we could remember about Callum, down to what socks he preferred to wear.
Today I had a surprise for her. We didn’t have many stories about Chastity, and I’d felt guilty because we couldn’t fill Shanti’s world with her mom like we could with her dad.
On a whim, I’d looked up the school she’d gone to and had found a group on Facebook I’d reached out to. Once I’d explained the situation, people had come forward, old friends and classmates of hers, with stories and photos. While we were out, Naomi was hanging a new multi-frame with photos of Chastity in it.
“Today, we’re going to try something new. If you reach into the glove compartment, you’ll find some photos of your mom when she was your age. Her friends have been sending me stories and photos so you can learn all about her.”