“So Mom did you
go bankrupt or something?” Dax asked as he pulled the hand truck loaded with
boxes into the house.
Dunham and Aric
followed behind him carrying a few more. The girls were all working on setting
up the cribs since the nursery was the first room I wanted put together.
“No, sweetie.
Why?”
“Because I’m
pretty sure you could afford movers instead of breaking child labor laws by
making us do all the heavy lifting,” he answered while dramatically wiping
sweat from his brow. His siblings all laughed before agreeing.
“Well, since I
have thirteen children, nine of which are eighteen or over, I see no reason why
I should spend money when I have free labor,” I replied giving him a kiss on
the cheek before shoving him out the door to get more boxes.
I had planned on
hiring movers, but Elton and Edson had offered to help and that snowballed in
having all the kids helping out. Finley had gone with Marcus to help him with
the quads while I got things settled here. Since our last fight, Marcus and I
barely spoke. We managed to be civil for Finley’s graduation festivities. We
were both supposed to go with her to find her an apartment in Bridgeport, that
trip was coming up in a week and I’d tried to back out of it, but Finley was
insistent on the fact she wanted both of our inputs. Marcus and I had been
separated for nearly two months now and it still hurt like hell when he’d come
to pick up or drop off the babies. An entire weekend with him was going to be a
struggle, but I was going to do it make Finley happy.
“Hey Mom,” Bynni
called out. “Do you want the cribs arranged any special way?”
I smiled when I
saw her walk out to the hall. My one child that swore off children was
expecting her first child. TK had moved from the performing side of things into
producing so he didn’t travel as much. I remember laughing when she told me she
hoped she didn’t end up with a kid like her. They’d just found out the baby was
a boy, and she was relieved. I didn’t have it in my heart to tell her boys
could be just as troublesome. I’d let her find that out on her own.
“No, not really.
I guess two on one wall, two on the other, and the changing table against the
back,” I answered, walking towards her.
Ignoring her
shirt, I ran my hand across her expanding belly. I missed my babies and was
eager to get things situated so they could come home. Work had already been
done in their room, but there was more to do in the rest of the house and I
didn’t want them here while that went on. It would be noisy and messy so Marcus
was keeping them until all the redecorating was completed.
