Page 24 of Safe at Home

Molly laughed. “We’ll see. No promises.”

“What are we not promising?” Cooper asked as he came over to us.

“Naming the baby after him,” I told him, honestly.

“Cooper would be an awesome name!”

Molly and Ivan both just rolled their eyes.

“Hey, guys!” Penelope said as she came back over to us. “The community room at my apartment is reserved for us. I talked to the diner I used to work at. Luckily, they weren’t affected by the storm, so they can cater our dinner tonight.”

“That’s awesome. Thanks for setting that up, Pen! Do they realize how big of a group we’re going to have?” Molly asked and gave her friend a big hug.

“Yeah, they know. I’m going to ask if anyone is able to bring a side dish, drinks, or a dessert. I know some people don’t have homes, and I wouldn’t expect them to bring anything.”

“I can bring some drinks,” Cooper said a little too eagerly before looking over at Pen. “Hey, Penelope. I have to tell you how happy I am that you and your kids are okay.”

Penelope shifted on her feet like she wasn’t sure how to respond. “Thanks. Sorry for scaring you guys.”

“Mommy! Mommy! CJ found his letter!” Peyton said as she came running over to us. “Can you believe it?!”

Penelope just shook her head and smiled down at her daughter. “I can’t believe it.”

“You’ve got great kids,” Cooper said, with an unusual seriousness to his voice.

“Thanks,” Penelope replied. “Oh, guys, this is my sister, Shiloh.”

I knew Molly had met Shiloh a few times, but this was my first time meeting her. She was about the same height as Penelope, and you could definitely see their sisterly resemblance. Penelope’s hair was a bit darker, and Shiloh had dirty blonde hair, but they shared their beautiful brown eyes.

“Pen, what time is dinner?” Molly asked. “And what can we bring?”

Penelope looked at her watch and said, “Probably in a few hours, around 6. If you want, you can bring a dessert, since that is your specialty. Crap, you don’t have a way to make anything. You can always borrow my kitchen, if you want to.”

Molly just waved her off. “We’ll figure something out. Ty, baby, I have an idea. We have to go over to Springville anyway so we’ll get something to bring from there.” Springville was a few towns over and had the big box stores, an actual mall, and a lot more than we had in Riverbend.

“Why don’t we check into our motel room first, and then we’ll go over to Springville,” I suggested. “I have an idea, too.”

“Sounds good to me,” my girl said, and we asked around to see if anyone needed anything before getting into Molly’s car, which miraculously survived without a scratch, to head the twenty-seven minutes to Springville.

As soon as we got into the car, we turned to each other, and I said, “We need to make shirts to announce that we got married and are having twins.” At the same time, Molly said, “We can buy stuff to make personalized shirts about being married and about the twins!” We both began to laugh, and I leaned over the console of the car and kissed her lips. “Baby, you were put on this earth for me.”

“We are super corny, but I don’t care,” Molly said with a laugh. “We really are meant to be together.”

As we walked hand in hand through the big box store, I marveled at how much fun we had just shopping together. There were stolen kisses in empty aisles, throwing crazy things like handcuffs and whipped cream into the cart, and getting all the supplies we would need to make our shirts. Molly also got a tray of premade cookies, frosting, and sprinkles and said she was going to make fancy store-bought cookies in our hotel room. It killed her to have to buy pre-made items, but at the moment, we didn’t have many options. I told her we would all love whatever she brought.

Soon, we found ourselves in the baby aisle, and I watched my wife glide her hands over the double stroller and cribs that were on display. “Oh, Ty! Look!” she called out with excitement.

I grinned as she held up a box with a baby mobile that had baseballs and bats on it and played, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”

“And holy shit, look! They are ‘buy one get one free’ right now, too. How perfect is that?”

Molly nodded but then brought the mobile to her chest as her eyes got watery. “Where will we store it until our home above the bakery is rebuilt? I can’t even think about buying any baby items until we have a place to keep them. What are we going to do if our place isn’t rebuilt by the time they are born?”

“Shhhh, baby, one day at a time, remember?” I said as I soothed her while pulling her against me and rubbing her back. “We’ll figure out where to store everything.”

I knew I sounded a lot more confident than I felt. Molly had a valid point. The guys I had lived with had a tiny apartment with no extra space to store baby items. Penelope lived in about the same size apartment with her sister and two kids, so we couldn’t ask her either.

“You know what? We’re getting the mobiles. I’m gonna rent a storage unit close to our home, and if we want to buy something for our children, we’re gonna do it. And the insurance will pay for a place for you to stay if everything isn’t rebuilt when our babies are born. We might not bring our babies home above Batter Up!, but we’ll bring our babies somewhere safe and warm.”

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