Chapter Four

An hour and a half later everyone has been fed. The older kids went back to playing while you cleaned up the toddlers. They got spaghetti EVERYWHERE. Wyatt volunteered to clean the kitchen up, which you gratefully accepted after a half-hearted protest. I left the baby on a pallet of blankets in the floor and she plays on her tummy, chewing some toys I found in her diaper bag. Wyatt is sitting on the couch holding her when I lead the two freshly bathed toddlers into the room.

“Movie time?” Val asks.

“Sure.” I agree. It's after seven thirty, time for the kids to start settling down anyways.

“With snacks?” Van and Adam ask at the same time, as if we didn't just eat supper a little while ago. 

“Why not?” I go into the kitchen and microwave some popcorn. I have a package of off brand cookies in the cabinet that I was saving as a treat for the kids. I also splurged and got a twelve pack of store brand soda. I bring out the drinks, two bags of popcorn and the cookies to find that Ricky and Levi grabbed the pillows from Van, Val and Ricky's beds, piling them all on the floor in front of the couch. Van, Adam, Val, Stacy, Levi and Ricky all lay down there beneath the small tv.

Wyatt sits on the small couch, the baby still cradled in his arms and a little girl on each side of him. Ricky must have set the movie up already because it's on the title screen. I hand a soda to each kid, then hand down the popcorn and the cookies, which they sit between them. Then I join Wyatt on the couch.

Lucy immediately crawls into my lap, snuggling into chest. Macy crawls over Wyatt like a little monkey to join Luce in my lap. The little girl steps on his stomach and he oofs, causing me to chuckle. But when she plops into my lap, the back of her head slamming into my left boob, it's me that oofs this time, while he gives me a 'see... it freaking hurts' look. I just roll my eyes at him and smile.

I settle both girls against me, their backs to my chest. Wyatt moves around a sleeping Rebecca in his arms until she's resting on his shoulder. Then he slides his free arm around my shoulders, pulling me against his side. I rest my side against his, snuggling into his embrace. If I would have ever imagined myself in this situation, I would have imagined myself as a bundle of nerves, yet this feels so natural that I can't imagine feeling uncomfortable. I just feel.. content. Like I'm exactly where I should be.

By the time the movie is over it's going on nine o'clock and Lucy and Macy are asleep in my lap, curled into each other. Val, Van and Stacy are asleep in the floor. Adam, Ricky and Levi decide that they want to watch a superhero movie.

“Oooh! Captain America!” I suggest, excited. I am in love with Chris Evans.

“No.” Ricky tells me with a grin. “Wilder said that you are cut off. I shouldn't enable your Chris Evans addiction.” I open my mouth but he cuts me off. “No. Before you ask, we aren't watching The Amazing Spider-Man either. No Andrew Garfield for you!”

“No fair!” I groan. My brother just laughs. If they take away those two movies, I'll have nothing to watch. For one month I watched The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to go to sleep. 

“So, Chris Evans and Andrew Garfield, huh? That's what I'm up against?” Wyatt murmurs in my ear, his breath fanning my sensitive skin, causing goosebumps to prickle my skin. Is he flirting with me? Acting as if he's in some kind of battle for my affections, as if he actually wants them.

“Oh, it's no competition.” I joke with him, trying to keep it light. 

“You're right. They aren't here to do this.” Wyatt whispers, just before his lips brush my neck, peppering soft kisses along the slope. He nibbles my ear and I have to fight back a moan. Shit. He's right. No competition at all. Chris and Andrew can give me good dreams, but they don't set me on fire by giving me teasing little kisses. Hell. I would take Wyatt over them any day of the week.

“Oh my..”

Wyatt pulls back, looking into my eyes. When his lips turn up into a crooked grin, my insides melt. I want to kiss him so bad, but I don't want the nine, ten and eleven year old children watching us. “To be continued..” He whispers, apparently thinking the same thing as me.

The boys decide to watch the Avengers and I grin. I love this movie. It's one of my favorites. “Ha. Great choice!”

“I know! Just please. Don't do that whole thing you do when you see Loki.” Ricky begs.

“No promises. Tom Hiddleston is so freaking gorgeous!” I tell him. I close my eyes, picturing him looking so gorgeous.

“Hey.” Wyatt says, pulling me closer to him. “No ogling other men.” He dips his head and kisses me quickly on the lips. It feels for all the world as if we are a couple right now and I feel a thrill. We aren't, I know that. Actually, I have no idea what we are or aren't but I do know that I am happy in this moment.

All the lights are off in the room and I lay in Wyatt's arms with all three babies on top of the two of us. The boys talk among themselves through out the movie, while I try to concentrate. It's hard to do with his hand stroking lightly over my bare arm, teasing me into a frenzy of hormones. “Whew.” I lift my hand do fan myself when it shows Loki and Wyatt grins down at me. His fingers dig into my side just under my boob and I squirm and laugh. “Ahh!!”

“You done?” He asks, tickling me more. I try not to squirm and laugh too much so that I don't wake the babies.

“Yes! Yes!” I say, laughing up at him.

“Good.” He looks at the boys, who are ignoring us. He turns back to me and dips his head. His lips meet mine and all the laughter leaves me. I lean into him as much as I can with a lap full of children. Before the kiss can go too far, he pulls back. He shifts, handing me Rebecca and then lifting Macy into his arms. He lays her on a pillow in his lap. The he lifts Lucy, cradling her in his arm above Macy.

With his free hand he pulls me to him, shifting me until my head is on his chest and my legs stretched out on the couch. He shifted us until I'm laying half on top of him, the sleeping baby is tucked into my arms and his hand is resting on my butt. Whenever the screen showed a hot guy he would warningly squeeze my butt, causing me to smile and look up at him.

Eventually the parents start arriving to pick up their kids. Wyatt carries Stacy out to Maggie's car as she carries Macy. Then Mr. Johnson comes to get Levi. He pays me, a good bit more than his wife offered. “Um, this is way too much.” He must have made a small mistake, but I can't let him overpay me. 

“No, trust me, you deserve it. This many kids.. you're my hero.” He laughingly tells me.

I laugh as well. “If you're sure.. Thank you so much.”

“No problem. You take care.” He gives me a kind smile and leaves with Levi.

I am still holding Rebecca, so I put the money in the waist band of my underwear. The same place that I put the money Maggie Shaw gave me. I carefully step over the sleeping children in the floor to get back to the couch, sitting down with the baby. I hear my phone and remember that I left it in the kitchen. “Crap, that's my phone! I left it on the table.” I'm pushing up from the couch, trying not to wake the baby.

“I've got it.” Wyatt say, coming into the living room. He too steps over children to get to the kitchen. He's back within a minute with my phone. “Lots of texts.” He comments off-hand, passing the phone to me.

I open my phone, clicking into the eight missed messages I have. Just then my phone rings and I see it's Mrs. Calver. “Hello?”

“Callie, dear. I am running so late. I hate to do this to you. I know you have so much on your plate but if you can watch her until midnight, I will double your pay.” Before I can answer, she continues. “For the whole night.”

“Of course I will.” I say, kindly. Double the pay. With what Mr. Johnson gave me it makes almost three hundred and fifty dollars for one night. I'm so excited I could shout.

“Good. You're amazing. Truly!” She says. “See you later, hun!”

“Bye.” I end the call. Wyatt is watching me so I explain. “Mrs. Calver." I say, lifting the phone a bit. "I'm watching Rebecca until midnight.”

“Okay.” Wyatt says. He sits beside me on the couch and waits as I check my phone. I have two texts from Wilder, so I open them first. The first is asking me how I'm doing with all the kids. The second text is him saying that his boss offered him a few more hours working the midnight shift. He'd be covering for a co-worker, staying until two in the morning. Would I be okay?

I send him my reply.  I'll be fine. If you want to work it, work it.

“Wilder is working until two.” I say to Wyatt next. I'm not really sure why I'm announcing everything to him.. maybe to fill the silence? I don't know, but it's what I'm doing.

“I know.” He says, sounding odd. I look at him, confused. Both by who he already know and by his weird tone of voice.

“Oh?” I ask him.

“Yeah, he text me a while ago, right after supper. He asked if I would stay the night, help you out. I figured when you didn't mention it that you didn't want me to.” Wyatt says.

“I don't care if you stay. That's up to you.” I say, trying to sound casual about it, as if it doesn't affect me either way.

“Do you want me to or not?” He asks me bluntly and I begin to feel a little put on the spot.

“I-” I stutter, unsure. “I, um, if you want to stay, then that would be good but I don't want you to feel like you have to.” It's the best I can come up with to say.

“Fine. I'm staying then.” He says, almost sounding annoyed with me, although I am not really sure why he would be.

“Fine. Then stay.” I say in the same tone.

I look at my phone at my other texts. Two from Katie and one from Lena. Then there are two from Kyle and one from Jacob. I respond to both telling them that I had lost my phone but to text me in the morning. Kyle and Jacob are both guys from my school that were kind of in our group. We all use to hang out together some. But Kyle has asked me out a few times. It's not that I don't like him I just have no time for dating. It's not feasible. Jacob flirts a bit and I feel like he's going to ask me out soon as well, then I'll have to have the same “I can't, I have no time' speech with him, that just sounds like a lame cop-out.

I look at the time on my phone, seeing that it's just barely ten thirty. “Here, if you'll hold the baby, I've got to get the twins in bed.”

“I'll carry them.” Wyatt says. He stands and lifts Van into his arms. He starts up the stairs with him. Then he returns for Val, carrying her up the stairs to her bed. I tell Ricky goodnight and send him to bed. When Wyatt returns, I stand up. “Here” I say, handing Rebecca over to him. "Follow me."

I pick up Lucy and head up the stairs to my room. I walk through the door, laying her in her crib gently. I sit on my bed on one side, leaving the other side for Wyatt. Thankfully, I have a full bed. Grandpa gave me his and grandma's old bed. Wilder has a full bed too. The kids all have twin beds, because that's all we could afford. Wilder and I saved up and bought them from a consignment shop. That's how we got all of our furniture. At yard sales, goodwill stores, hand-me-downs from grandpa or his friends. The kitchen table that I love so much was built by Wyatt and Wilder one summer day with pieces of wood they found in Wyatt's dad's shed. Wyatt's mom is also very sweet about sending us things when she buys new. Plates, pots and pans, lamps and so on. She even gave us a tv when her husband bought a new one.

It was a forty inch, which we put in the living room. Wilder took the twenty-two inch tv that he bought on black Friday to his room. I got the twins a tiny box tv for Christmas last year to share. I'm the only one that doesn't have a tv in my room, but I don't really care. I have a bunch of old romance books that use to belong to my grandma that entertain me. 

Wyatt sits beside me on the bed, quietly. I look at him, then suddenly I have a thought. “Do you not have to work tomorrow?”

He works at the local veterinarian's office while he attends school to become a vet. He usually works evenings during weekdays and day shifts on weekends. “Not in the morning. He has a surgery tomorrow afternoon and I am on shift to stay all night and all day Sunday. I'll get my hours, plus some. I will also get class credits for watching the surgery.”

“That's really cool.” I say. I love how excited he gets when he talks about the animals he works with. He's twenty-three, a little older than Wilder, but he's already graduated from college with a Bachelors of Science minoring in Animal Biology. He is one year into his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree and only had three more left until he's a vet.

“You sound so sincere.” He teases you, making you give him a sharp look.

“I mean it. I think it's really great that you found a passion and are so close to achieving your dream. I'm really proud of you.” I say. Then I immediately flush with embarrassment. 'I'm proud of you'? What am I, his grandmother? I have no right to say I'm 'proud' of him. That implies that I have some kind of investment in his life.

“Anyways. I'm going to sit up here so I can hear the kids. I'll go down closer to midnight when Mrs. Calver should be here.” I say, trying to change the subject. I yawn, feeling exhausted. I'd give anything to get to lay down and go to sleep.

“Sounds good.” Wyatt yawns as well. He moves around until he is laying on his back in my bed, head propped up on my throw pillows. The baby lays asleep on his chest. “Come here.” He tells me, holding out an arm in invitation. Snuggling on the couch with him is one thing, but cuddling on my bed seems different. Way more intimate. “Don't chicken out on me now.” Wyatt teases. “Believe it or not, I can control myself.”

“It's not that- I wasn't worried- I..” I stop talking, too flustered to formulate a proper sentence.

“Just come here, Calista Annalisse Harlow.” Wyatt says.