Page 60 of Situationship
Not wanting to seem unprofessional to Delores, Teagan had put her phone on silent for the duration of the meeting. What kind of mom does that? If anything had happened to one of her girls, she’d never forgive herself.
Maddison assured her that everything was okay, Lily was fine, but Teagan needed to see her babies with her own eyes before her mind could stop envisioning every worst-case scenario.
When she pulled up at her house, her heart rate kicked into overdrive, bordering on hypertension when she saw Colin’s car parked crooked in her driveway, as if he’d been in too much of a rush to park—the kind of rush that implied more than a little cut.
She pulled in behind him. Grabbing her purse and sample bags, she ran up the walkway and burst into the house.
“Colin?” she called out. “Girls?”
She heard noise coming from the back of the house and followed it to the kitchen. This time her heart rate raced for a different reason all together.
Colin stood in her kitchen, in scrubs and socks, looking sexy and capable, like some modern-day knight in the pinkIS IT READY YET?IS IT READY YET?IS IT READY YET? apron that the girls had gifted her last Christmas.
Lily stood on her flower-shaped kiddie stool with a bandage on her chin, nibbling on her lower lip as she did when in deep concentration. Poppy was thrown over Colin’s shoulder in a fireman’s hold, squealing with delight. They were happy, content—and safe.
Remarkable, considering everything that had happened. Even more remarkable was Colin, handling her world in a way that she’d never achieved on even her best days. He was calm and capable, his lighthearted energy setting the tone for the others.
When she’d left earlier, her house, the kids, even the kitchen had been a disaster. Now, the floor was toy-free, the kitchen relatively clean, considering it was occupied by just-under-four-feet twins. As Teagan caught a glimpse of her reflection in the window, she couldn’t help but notice that she was the disaster in the room.
Her hair was frizzy, her top speckled with bread crumbs from clutching the sample bag to her chest. In fact, she was a hot mess. Then there was Colin, the prince of cool, keeping everything afloat in the middle of a shitstorm.
What was she doing wrong? Today only added to her greatest fear: that the amazing maternal genes possessed by her mom and Nonna had skipped a generation. Even her tumbleweed of a sister had a better connection with her kids. In a fun, carefree way that Teagan didn’t have the luxury of adopting.
They hadn’t noticed her yet, so she stood silently, watching as Colin set Poppy on the counter, something she’d never allow. But the girls’ excitement at assisting with dinner made her rethink her rules.
She blinked her eyes and tried to connect this precious picture to herPARENTS GET PARENTINGbinder and couldn’t. There was no room for this scene between those rigid, plastic covers.
Colin was handling the heavy lifting, Maddison was running the kitchen, and her kids were enlisted as sous-chefs.
This picture would forever be imprinted on her heart, but she wasn’t a part of it. Watching them work as a whole family unit, the girls happy and content, pulled at the core of her insecurities. She was out doing what she needed to do to pay the bills while someone else was living the best moments of her life.
“Drizzle the sauce over each one until they’re all moist,” Maddison instructed Lily, who carefully spooned enchilada sauce over the tortillas. “Good job. Can you do that for the rest of them?”
Lily nodded, an actual form of communication with someone other than family, and Teagan’s throat tightened with emotion and pride. Her little girl was coming back out of the safety shell she’d adopted during the divorce.
Lily, her gold-star student in the art of following instructions, methodically took care to ensure each dollop was the same size, while keeping her white-and-lavender-flowered sundress impeccably clean. Lily’s matching bows held back her baby-fine blond hair.
Next to her, kneeling on the counter was Poppy, the quality control expert. “Do I gets a ‘good jobs’ too?” Poppy asked, her sweet voice filled with giddy anticipation.
“You bet you do,” Colin said. “Good job for being so patient with your sister.”
Patience wasn’t a quality she’d usually attribute to Poppy, yet there she was, spoon in one hand, the other in a bag of cheese. She’d wait for Lily to finish with an enchilada, then dump a handful of shredded cheese on top of each one. Cheese spilled all over the counter and floor, but Colin praised her for being patient and doing a good job.
Teagan realized that, while she praised the girls all the time, she mainly praised them for their strengths.
As the working parent and responsible party in her marriage, she’d had to find a balance between establishing order, being the clean-up police, and savoring those tender moments and milestones most moms experience in spades.
But there Poppy knelt, her feet bare, her hair waging war with her bows, covered in a shirt-to-toe enchilada sauce stain—proud of her patience and hard work. What had Teagan’s heart rolling over was how the two girls worked together. Completely different approaches but somehow complementing each other. Her four-year-old daughters had figured out what Teagan and Harley still struggled to find.
Sisterhood.
The floor creaked under her feet and Garbage Disposal, who was passed out in his doggie bed, came alert and clambered to his feet. A “hello” bark echoed in the kitchen. Rearing up like a stallion, he galloped toward her as if going in for a tackle.
Colin put out one hand and simply said, “Sit.” Garbage Disposal sat.
His tail was still wagging, and he had that dopey grin that Teagan was coming to love, but he didn’t move from his spot, instead waiting for her to approach him. She gave him a pet just as the girls looked up.
“Mommy,” Poppy yelled, but it was Lily who ran around the island and hugged Teagan’s legs. Poppy couldn’t be bothered, too fascinated with her mountain of cheese.
