Creed

This was what family felt like.

This was what friends and family felt like.

This was what it felt like to be surrounded by people you loved who loved you (mostly, Kara and Brand probably weren’t there yet but I hoped they someday would be).

Outside of having Creed, this was the best feeling in the world.

And when he and I made our babies and Kara and Brand got to know me, it would only get better.

I’d had eleven great birthdays, the ones I spent with Creed growing up.

Those were great, but this one was better.

Further, it was official. Creed’s kids were good kids. Maybe Creed gave them a head’s up and some instruction but they didn’t even blink when they met Adam. They also didn’t treat him any differently.

Kara, especially.

I was surprised, considering her age, but she seemed to have a natural ability both to look out for Adam without making it seem like she was while at the same time she included him.

It was pretty awesome.

It had been Creed’s idea to bring the kids up to Denver. He said it would be a before going back to school mini-vacation for them because they’d never been here before. We were going to Elitch Gardens amusement park the next day and the Butterfly Pavilions on Sunday before he had to put them back on a plane.

He said that he also wanted to them to come up because even kids absorb things, witnessing people in their element and meeting the people who meant something to them. So it would be an opportunity for them to get to know me better.

It was my decree that they were staying in a hotel. Firstly, my second bedroom was still a pit and I hadn’t had the chance to clean it out. I also thought it was way too soon to introduce them to the kind of intimacy Creed and I sleeping together would communicate.

Creed agreed but only with the stipulation that I join him in his room (he and the kids had adjoining rooms) when he called to tell me they were asleep.

But the whole weekend, outside of the nights, would be spent together.

I was looking forward to it. Not only because I fucking loved roller coasters and they had tarantulas you could hold at the Butterfly Pavilion and tarantulas weighed about an ounce, they were furry, cool and I thought they were the shit. But also because I got a birthday weekend like I’d never had before.

Filled with family.

I heard dishes clanking in the kitchen while I watched Creed roll to his back, grab Theo and toss him in air repeatedly, making Theo giggle. I hoped like all hell all the unprotected sex we were having meant I’d soon see him again doing just that.

But with our baby.

I was so focused on this, when Brand threw himself into the grass beside me, my body jerked and my head whipped around.

“Hide and seek is for babies,” he declared and my gaze moved into the yard to see, with difficulty but also patience, Kara organizing the game with Adam and Leslie.

“I don’t know,” I replied to Brand. “Seems like it’d be fun to me.”

He grinned at me. “A squirt gun fight would be fun.”

I grinned back. “Yeah,” I agreed. “Little too late for that, though. Charlene and the kids’ll be heading home soon.”

He looked into the yard. “Bummer.” Then his eyes came back to me and he suggested, “We could do it when they leave.”

“I don’t have any squirt guns,” I informed him, making a mental note to put that on my shopping list and stock up.

“Does Denver have stores?” he asked cheekily.

“Uh… yeah,” I answered.

“Then I get to ride with you in your ‘Vette when we go get ‘em.”

My grin became a smile. “It’s a plan.”

He looked back at the yard and stated, “It’ll be so cool when you move in with Dad and we move in with you guys. Squirt gun fights all the time.”

I stared at his profile, forgetting how to breathe.

I forced myself to remember and asked a wheezy, “What?”

He looked back at me with another grin. “Kara says you’re gonna move in and when you do, we’re gonna move to Dad’s. He has a better pool and he likes football, so we can watch it on the big screen. Not like at home where Mom makes me and Van watch it outside on the smaller TV.” He paused then finished, “Oh, and you have a ‘Vette which is way cooler than any of Dad’s or Mom’s or Van’s cars.”

I blinked at him before I cautiously asked, “You’re, uh… moving in with your Dad?”

He nodded and looked back at the yard. “Yup. Kara says you’re Sylvie and we know what that means.”

Holy shit!

“What does that, um… mean?” I asked and his eyes came to me.

“You’re on Dad’s back.”

God, Creed was right. His kids were far from dumb.

“Brand –” I started but he interrupted me, not that I knew what I was going to say.

“Kara says you’re, like, the one. She says Dad’s been waitin’ for you to come back for, like, ever. She says that now you’re back, Dad will be happy and he’ll want us all together. She says Mom couldn’t hold onto him because she wasn’t you. Now he has you and we can be a family again. Least that’s what Kara says.”

He looked back to the yard as I mentally scrambled to figure out what to say, what to do at the same time sending vibes to Creed in an effort to get him to come over and rescue me from this crazy, landmine filled conversation.

Even as I scrambled, Brand, being Brand, kept talking and when he did, he gave me the remaining puzzle pieces as to why Kara and her Mom didn’t get on and why Kara attached herself to his hip when she was around Creed.

“Kara says Dad’s the best guy on earth and I agree. Totally. Only the best girl for the best guy, she says. She says she wasn’t surprised when she met you because you’re like Dad, cool and pretty but fun.” He shot another grin at me. “Dad can be kinda strict.”

“Uh…” I mumbled.

Brand kept talking.

“Mom’s cool too, I think. Kara and her, though…” he shrugged and looked away. “I like Van but Kara says he’s no Dad. He isn’t but he’s okay. I like him but I think he tries too hard with Kara and that’s kinda lame. I mean, he should be with her like he is with me, you know, natural-like.” He shook his head. “But he isn’t.”

Van, obviously Chelle’s husband, wasn’t with Kara like he was with Brand, I suspected, because Brand liked him and he didn’t have to try.

Brand continued blabbing.

“Kara says a woman like Mom gets a man like Van and a woman like you catches the eye of a man like Dad. She says it’s going to be totally awesome when we move in with you guys because we’ll be cool just like you. I love her but Mom and Van aren’t cool. Mom and Van are, like, totally normal.”

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

Brand wasn’t done.

“Kara blames Mom for Dad leaving. She always did, you know. I didn’t get it but after we met you and she explained it, I did. Mom couldn’t hold him because Mom wasn’t you. I miss him but Kara, she like, really misses him. She’s a pain but she’s my sister and it kinda hurts to watch.”

And there it was.

Kara blamed Chelle for Creed leaving.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit!

“She’s a whole lot better now,” Brand finished.

Shit.

Well, I guessed I couldn’t ease my way into being a part of the family. Not with these people. They were sucking me into the big stuff right away. All of them.

Crap.

“Brand,” I called.

“Yeah,” he answered.

“Look at me, would you?”

He looked at me.