Page 191 of Always Us

She laughs. “I’m sure I will.” She looks down at her baby. “But that’s okay. I wouldn’t mind another boy. When I’m in one of my girly moods, I always have your girls to spoil.”

“Are you done after four?”

“Probably.” She smiles. “But you never know. If we keep going, Sean and I will have our own sports team.” She looks out at the back yard where Sean and Garret are tossing a kid football to Charlie and Tanner. “I hope they don’t want to play for real someday. It’s so dangerous. Those high school guys always get concussions playing football. That can cause permanent damage.”

“You and Sean are huge sports fans. I’m sure your boys will want to play football.”

“Yeah, I know. And baseball. And soccer. And basketball.”

“They can’t play every sport.”

“Garret played all those sports in high school. And Sean played football and baseball.”

“Then I guess in a few years, you and Sean will be spending all your time at games.”

“We’re actually looking forward to that. I can’t wait to see them play. Any sport but football.”

Her oldest son catches the ball just as she says it, then runs for a touchdown.

“I think Charlie’s going to play football, Harper.”

She sighs. “Then I’m getting him a double-reinforced helmet and wrapping his head in bubble wrap.”

As I watch Garret playing with Harper’s boys, it makes me wonder if he wishes we had a boy. I told him we were done after two kids, but I know he’d like one more. He always wanted three kids.

Lilly comes back out with Abigail, who goes over to Hannah and kisses her cheek. She does this all the time. It’s too cute.

“Come see your Aunt Harper,” Harper says to her.

Abigail toddles over and kisses Harper on the cheek. She loves to give kisses.

“You want to sit on my lap?” Harper shifts the baby to her other arm and sets Abigail on her lap.

Abigail leans over and kisses the baby a little too hard. He wakes up and fusses, which scares her.

“It’s okay,” Harper tells her. “His big brothers knock him around all the time.”

Harper is such a relaxed mom. Her boys are always running around, getting hurt, and she just fixes them up and sends them back out to play. She doesn’t overreact to stuff. Sean’s laid back, too, so they work well together. I used to overreact all the time with Abigail. If she got a tiny scrape or the slightest fever I wanted to take her to the doctor. I’m way better now. Part of that is because of Garret, who is laid back like Sean. But also watching Harper has helped me calm down and enjoy being a mom instead of worrying about every little thing.

“Look what Uncle Garret gave me!” Charlie runs up to Harper with a plastic baseball and bat.

Harper’s kids use the aunt and uncle titles for us since Abigail uses them for her and Sean.

“In case he gets bored with football,” Garret says.

Sean’s right behind him, and says to me, “I told him if Charlie breaks a window, you guys are paying for it.”

Harper laughs and playfully hits Sean’s shin with her foot. “Stop it. We would never do that.”

“I’m just kidding.” Sean picks up Tanner. “I’m going to get the grill going. These guys are hungry and so am I.”

“I’ll get the meat.” I get up from my chair.

Lilly takes my spot. “I’ll watch Hannah for you.”

Lilly’s a huge help with the girls. She loves taking care of them and playing with them. And the girls both love their Aunt Lilly.

Garret follows me into the kitchen, grabbing me around the waist and kissing my bare shoulder as I open the fridge.

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