Page 4 of Hearts of Fairlake

The hand at her mouth had balled up, but the other raised as she waved with a smile on her chubby face. Adam’s shoulders sagged before he waved back and continued walking into the house. Unsurprisingly, the sight of him brought Colin from his current architectural endeavor and he flew across the room to meet his father in the hall.

“Typical,” Bri said, sounding grumpy.

“He is and probably forever will be a daddy’s boy,” I said with a chuckle.

“Bad enough, it already looks like all I did was carry his DNA for nine months,” she grumbled, but I didn’t take her seriously. She might have originally come to Fairlake to see if she and Adam could work things out and, admittedly, had been pretty pissed when he shot her down. Then again, hehadtold her that right after she’d given birth. Not the best timing in the world. But in the end, she stayed, finding herplace in the town and more than comfortable working with Adam and me to ensure Colin never went without a loving family.

“Hey, buddy,” I heard from the hall, Adam sounding pleased but tired. He emerged from the hallway, Colin on his hip. I was beginning to wonder how much longer before we had to stop picking him up as often. Bri complained endlessly that he grew like a weed and she should have had a kid with a shorter man, and I couldn’t blame her. Buying new clothes for Colin had become a noticeable expense, and he would probably end up as big as his father.

“Well, well, well,” Bri said, hands on her hips. “Did someone forget to mention something to me today?”

“Why are you here?” Adam asked, glancing at me furtively, trying to gauge my mood, which could be summed up as tired.

“Well, along with somethingelse,” she said, glancing toward me. “You also forgot to include the bathing suits, like I told you. I had one for Colin, but not Amber. So I stopped by to pick some up.”

Adam grimaced. “I forgot you were taking the kids to the beach today. Shit.”

“Adult word!” Colin proclaimed, pulling at Adam’s hair.

“That it is, buddy,” I said with a snort.

“I wanna be an adult,” he said with a nod.

“You might want to hold off on that for as long as possible,” Adam warned him.

“No way,” Colin told him with a shake of his head.

“Bri,” I said, seeing how Adam kept glancing my way and not being very good at hiding it. “It’s okay. He’s got a lot on his plate.”

“And you’ve barely had a chance to sleep,” she told me with a glare.

“And I have tomorrow off,” I told her softly. “And since you have the kids today and tonight?—”

“Tonight? Do I now?” she asked with a brow raised.

“Or we can take them back,” I said with a shrug. “I didn’t think to ask if it was just for the day.”

“It was but…Keith isn’t going to mind. Honestly, if it weren’t for Colin and Amber being around so frequently, I’d probably have to deal with the man wanting more kids,” she said with a wrinkle of her nose. “And absolutely not. I’ve birthed two, and that’s enough for me.”

I laughed. “Well, I’d appreciate it.”

“You’re lucky,” she said with a sigh. “Because I know they’re going to sleep well after today.”

That I didn't doubt. If the past five years of being a parent had taught me anything, it was that kids had absurd energy levels but onlyseemedinfinite. They would undoubtedly fight like hell later when Bri and Keith tried to get them to leave the beach but would pass out in the car on the way back.

"Well, here's hoping they don't end up sleeping too long before bedtime," I said, shifting Amber around on my hip and feeling a twinge in my chest as I realized how heavy she was getting. Every time we reached some new, difficult stage in their development, I prayed for it to be over as soon as possible. Then there were moments like this, realizing we might finally have won the thumb-sucking battle, only to realize that a few months had passed and she was only getting older.

"Alright," Bri said with a heavy sigh. "C'mon everyone. We still have stuff to do."

"But, Mommy," Colin whined, making her wince. The crying of babies had never bothered her, but Bri had never been a big fan of the whining that kicked off in the toddler years.

"Hey," Adam said softly, pulling his son's attention toward him. "Your mom wants to take you to the beach, remember?"To which Colin screwed up his face in thought and then turned to bury his face into Adam, muttering something that made Adam chuckle. "Papa Bennett and I have to do stuff today while you're out having fun, okay?" Colin muttered something else, and Adam's face went blank before looking up at Bri. "You'll have to take that up with Uncle Ethan."

Bri sighed. "Uncle Ethan will be coming too."

Colin immediately brightened and pulled away from Adam to grab his mom's hand. "Yes! He said I'm a little shit!"

His sheer confidence and pride made me choke on my drink, but thankfully, years of experience had taught me to school my face so none of the kids could see me fighting not to laugh. Adam's face was completely blank, while Bri just looked...exasperated. Whether that was at her son or her brother was the real question.

---