Cooper and Farah decided four cuties were enough for their family when they welcomed their final daughter only weeks before I had Butch. Audrey reminded me of Sawyer as a baby. Quiet, devious with a hint of evil, they were both prettier than angels.
I never regretted not having a daughter. I liked being the queen of an all male family. As much as love soothed me, I never quite got over my need to be the center of the whole fucking universe. For Nick and my boys, I was just that.
The summer after Buzz’s first birthday, we drove to the Grand Canyon to appease Cooper who humped the place even more than he did Farah. Aaron and Lark came along with their three rugrats. The tattoo artist claimed Cooper wanted the Grand Canyon on his ass, but my brother never took the plunge. Instead, I heard he wanted his butt spotless for Farah’s hickeys.
On the trip, Raven was pregnant with Vaughn’s seventh kid and I figured child birth at that point would be her farting and the kid falling out. How they dealt with so many wild kids I’d never understand. Hell, I couldn’t even tell all of their blond offspring apart.
Tawny and Judd were especially silly that summer as a result of their water pistol obsession. They were forever chasing each other around with their kids toddling after them. Protective of her big brother, Heidi was known to shoot anyone in the face who gave him less than complete adoration. One day, Heidi and Audrey would likely rule or ruin the world. Evil geniuses the both of them, I suspected they would con Bubba and Butch to be their henchmen. Yep, keep the world domination plans in the family.
During that trip, Maddy and Tucker celebrated nearly ten years together. We all celebrated since no one figured they’d last. Love made fools of logic, I guess. Scarlet was still a wild beauty while their son Jack might have been the dumbest smart kid I’d ever met. He was reading before kindergarten, yet struggled with push/pull doors. Common sense was never going to be his friend.
Sawyer and I stopped hating each other when she turned ten. I never knew why she didn’t seem so awful anymore, but we often talked for hours. Mostly about my life since it was my favorite subject. When she was a teen, we’d talk about boys which were her favorite subjects by then.
During those road trips, Pop and Mom watched over us all like the protective parents they never stopped being. We grew up and they backed off, but I never forgot they had my back. Nick’s too. My parents still babied him, giving him the love he never had growing up. Pop introduced him as one of his boys and Mom was always feeding him. Nick looked at them in the same way as our boys looked at us.
Love wasn’t something Nick knew growing up and he struggled with it when we first dated. Eventually, he was a man in love with his life. His wife and sons. His extended family and friends. His school and teaching. He even loved riding the lawnmower shirtless while I watched and thought about how I might reward all that sexiness.
Nick no longer feared his shitty past or how it might taint his future. He was mine and I gave him peace. I was his and he gave me confidence. Nick no longer hid behind Dragon. He wasn’t the scared kid versus the brave fighter. Everything good and bad about Nick was rolled into one amazing man and our happy lives together were just beginning.