Page 114 of Heartless
Parker
Four Years Later
I stood off to the side, watching my wife’s interaction with her siblings. The three of them huddled together, whispering and giggling much like their children usually were.
Madison looked at their mother, the blushing bride, with a mischievous glint in her eyes. She said something to Tyler and Clem, who burst into laughter. Clementine tried to lean in closer, but her nine months’ pregnant belly got in everyone’s way lately. We expected their baby boy to make an appearance any day now. The only one that didn’t seem happy about the babywas Daphne.
Being the oldest of the cousins, she had become a self proclaimed boss of the entire group. Oliver was the only one to disobey her many rules, but his brother James, and my little gems Charlotte and Evelyn, looked at her as if she hung the moon and the sun.
All of them had been mysteriously quiet for the past few minutes, all sitting in a circle on the grass in their grandmother’s backyard. I tuned out Lucas and Hannah and focused on Daphne’s voice, trying to figure out what she was telling the others.
“…and then the giant lifted the house—all of it, up into the sky! But Spiderman saw it, and he swung in with his webs, climbed inside, and saved the family!” Daphne waved her arms around, her face lit up as she described Spiderman’s rescue. “He got them out just before the giant could eat the whole house!”
The little ones were mesmerized, but I was worried about the potential nightmares that story would evoke in Charlotte. She was three and didn’t quite enjoy scary things just yet.
I shook my head. “How does Daphne come up with this stuff?”
Lucas' expression softened just by the mention of his daughter’s name, which I suspected happened to me whenever someone mentioned Charlotte or Evelyn. Or their mother for that matter.
“Just be glad this one doesn’t have any blood, vampires, or broken limbs and roll with it, man.”
“She’s imaginative,” Hannah, forever the defender, added. “That’s a good thing.”
Up front, Sylvia stood under the twinkling garden lights, her hand in Mike’s, looking more radiant than I’d ever seen her. She glanced at her kids with a smile that said she knew exactly what they were up to. Richard, her ex-husband, stood nearby, arms crossed, smirking at the whole scene.
“She’s all yours now, Mike. Good luck!” he shouted and lifted his glass up. Sylvia sent him a death glare then tried to cover it up with a nervous laugh that didn’t fool anyone.
Mike laughed, that easy kind of laugh that showed he knew what he was in for. He squeezed Sylvia’s hand, and I could tell by the look on his face that he was ready for it.
“Can you believe them?” I asked.
Hannah chuckled. “They act like ten-year-old kids at the playground.”
Lucas added in a sigh. “And we’re married to their offspring.”
The three of us burst out laughing and just as if they knew we were talking about them, the Hartley siblings came over to us with curious looks on their faces.
“What’s so funny?” Clem asked in a tone that suggested she might decapitate someone if she didn’t like the answer to her question.
I couldn’t blame her. I would probably be moody if I couldn’t put my shoes on and my belly arrived everywhere a few seconds before my feet did.
“Your father’s toast,” I was quick to save Lucas from his wife’s certain wrath if she heard his comment.
As usual, Tyler pulled Hannah into a tight embrace and kissed her as if they were alone in the world and not at a public event with children present.
My wife walked slowly behind her younger siblings, her eyes scanning the kids for a moment. A small smile appeared on her lips, then she lifted her gaze to meet mine right before she stopped in front of me.
I still sometimes feared that all this happiness might be taken away from me in a blink of an eye, but Madison’s touch grounded me everytime. When she was next to me, I knew that no matter what life threw at us, we’d face it together.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
“Just thinking how lucky I am to have you.”
Her smile grew bigger and she circled my neck with her arms. “You’re such a sap,” she teased.
I placed my hands on her waist. “You love it.”
“I loveyou,” she leaned closer, offering her lips for a kiss.
