“For real?”
“Sure. You guys deserve it. You never got a honeymoon, and since you’ve done nothing but pop out babies during this pandemic, I’d say you’ve both earned a break.”
I thumbed through the brochure. There were pictures of ocean views and gorgeous food I wouldn’t have to prepare or cut into bite-size pieces for small people. “Okay. This almost makes up for Dumpy.”
“I’m glad you said that since those t-shirts will definitely be making a reappearance.”
I snapped my head up and slitted my eyes at my supposed best friend, until Teddy finally put an arm between us, smiling fondly at his husband. “Leave her alone, Zach. We all know you’re hilarious.” He turned to me. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure we burn the shirts.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem…Dumpy.” I startled for a moment before bursting out a laugh. Teddy’s humor was sharp, but rarely seen.
“Hey, Baba!” Kit was no longer content to be quiet. “Don’t call Suro dumpy! That’s not nice!”
I bent down toward Kit and held my arms out. She came over and made a show of nosing her way in next to Harper. Now that she was four, her dads had explained the lightened-up version of our unconventional family ties. We weren’t totally clear on how much she understood, but one thing that came out of it was that she started calling me Suro. I preferred it to Aunt Sadie, and the guys liked it too, so it stuck. “It’s okay, sweet buns. Daddy and Baba were just teasing me. Sometimes friends do that.”
Kit gave me a hug as she cast one more suspicious glare at her parents. Harper sort of petted Kit on her head and then squirmed for me to release them both. Hand-in-hand, they wandered into the living room to investigate the contents of the toy basket. I sighed when I realized how much time I’d spent collecting all the toys from some very unusual places around the house—how the hell did Mega Blocks always end up in the shoes?—and every single one of them would be strewn about the floor in thirty seconds.
I knew Zach and Teddy were thinking the same thing as they helped me put out chips and salsa and pop some pre-made apps in the oven. Renn had requested we keep things low-key. Apparently, his idea of the perfect birthday was cheering me on at a run in the morning and then going on a mysterious errand all afternoon.
“Where is the birthday boy?” Zach asked.
“He should be here soon with Robbie and Archie. Said he had a surprise but had to stop by the studio to get it. He was super vague.”
The baby monitor crackled, and I heard the telltale signs the twins had woken up. They generally kept each other entertained for a few minutes and I smiled at their happy babbling.
“They are so good with their naps,” Teddy commented. “Charlotte was such a beast to get down, and we always had to pick her up immediately when she got up.”
“It’s because there’s two of them. Built-in playmates.”
I hadn’t always been so sanguine about the twins. Renn and I had gotten married only two months after getting back together, just a courthouse affair with a backyard party. I finished out a year of pumping for Charlotte, which made it difficult for me to get pregnant, but we were both eager to try. After Harper was born in August 2019, we were on the fence about having another. At the time, I’d really wanted to get back in the classroom since I’d never been able to do more than work as a long-term substitute. But then the pandemic broke out. It seemed like the universe was trying to tell us something. Since the world was going to be shut down for a while, Renn and I decided to just go for it and have one more baby to complete our family. Except one baby ended up being twins—because when the universe speaks to you, sometimes she is sarcastic—and in December 2020 I gave birth to Simone and Sawyer. Harper and her sisters were only fourteen months apart, and we had our hands full for a while, but sanity had been making a slow return to our lives.
Gage went to see what Harper and Kit were up to and quickly found himself dressed in a tiger costume with a firefighter’s helmet on top. Pete had moved into his downtown apartment full-time after Harper arrived, and at first, Gage shuffled between our two places, but he’d been spending more time with us lately. It wasn’t surprising since he’d grown up here and was close with the girls. He patiently indulged his cousins, whom the world thought were his nieces, whom he thought of as sisters. I knew it made Pete sad, but he let his son be the arbiter of his time and did everything he could to stay close.
I was debating going to get the twins out of the bedroom when Renn came in—Pete, Archie, and Robbie on his heels. Shouts of “Happy birthday” came from our friends, even though they’d already said it that morning. I figured everyone wanted to celebrate after a long period of barely-managed chaos. For Renn’sthirtieth last year, we’d not even acknowledged the occasion. No one had been vaccinated yet, so it hadn’t been feasible to have people over. Our household had included two teenagers and three children under the age of two. Between the boys’ online classes, managing the babies, and trying to keep Studio Obscurum afloat through the shutdown, most days had ended with me and Renn in a puddle on the floor.
Everything was easier now. I finally had a permanent job at a high school within reasonable driving distance. My career had solidified a few years later than expected, but I found it just as fulfilling as I’d imagined. Childcare had been a worry, but we’d ended up doing a nanny share with Zach and Teddy. They’d been adamant that all four girls grow up together, and we agreed.
It was important to me that Kit get to know Robbie and Gage, especially now that Robbie was grown and flown. After a pandemic-inspired gap year, he had started at Cal State Long Beach and was living in student housing. As proud as we were, we missed him terribly. At least he was apprenticing at the studio.
Renn came in and gave me a kiss, looking at his phone.
“Something up?” I asked.
“Just a happy birthday text from my mom.” He shrugged. “Meh—at least she remembered.” If there was one gray cloud in our lives, it was that Sheryl’s drinking seemed to keep getting worse. Renn had put some firm boundaries in place so she had only the barest interaction with her granddaughters. It wasn’t a simple situation. Maybe it would change, maybe it wouldn’t, but we could only do so much.
“Thanks for giving me the afternoon,” he continued, swiping his finger through the top of a cupcake. “I’m really excited to show you the surprise.”
“I think it’s funny that it’s your birthday, but I’m getting a surprise.”
“Trust me, this was mostly for me.”
With that vague pronouncement, he glanced at the baby monitor and unleashed the soft smile he reserved exclusively for his daughters. “I’ll go get them.”
Everyone else found their way into the living room and I noticed Robbie seemed especially amped up. “You okay?”
“Yeah. It’s just been a good day.” He was grinning, and I wrapped my arm around his shoulders. Robbie leaned into my hug and reminded me we had a date to go running later that week.
