Page 38 of Her Saviors

I lift my brother in my arms and move to my bike. Putting him on the seat, I climb on behind him as Jayce moves to the garage to open the door for us. Pulling out my keys, I start the engine and let Kyler rev it a few times. Jayce still takes pictures on his phone of the two of us as I put the bike in gear and place my hand over Kyler’s. Together, we get the bike in the garage before Jayce walks over and asks him to help put his bike in the garage too. This time I pull out my phone and take pictures of the two of them as they move the bike inside out of the weather and park it next to mine. Kyler’s smile is so damn wide I’m surprised his face isn’t hurting. This is a once in a lifetime moment and I’m glad I was able to have it with him.

Yesterday was so overwhelming for us all. We had a house full of people, got Mia and Kyler settled into their rooms for now, and were up way later than we anticipated. Mia didn’t sleep in and was up a few times during the night. Brooklyn was right there for her every single time she woke up crying. Jayce and I watched on as she changed and fed her, rocking her back to sleep in the nursery we started to set up. She’s a natural when it comes to these kids and I don’t know how she does it when she’s already so exhausted from the twins she carries. Whenever Jayce and I tried to tell her to stay in bed, our stubborn wife refused and got up immediately.

Today, we’ve been working on finishing putting everything together and making sure our home is in order. Brooklyn can’t stand to have a mess in the house and I have a feeling it’s because of her parents and how she grew up. She can’t stand to have things out of place and it’s something Jayce and I try to ensure doesn’t happen on a daily basis. Now that we have two kids in the house, it’s going to be a challenge, but we’re up for the task.

The only time we left the house was to attend church. I have a feeling Anguish called the meeting only to get a read on where we are with the kids and how things are going at the house. Other than going over the numbers for each business, nothing else was discussed but trying to figure out what we were doing at the house and how things were coming together. We tried to assure them the best we could that things are okay. That I’m okay because that’s what they really want to know.

“Guys, I appreciate everythin’ you’ve done over the last week or so while I was lost in my head. Wheels helped me see that I need to pull my head out of my ass. Yes, I can still mourn our loss and the possible relationship I could have had with my dad. Right now, Kyler and Mia need all of us and that’s what I’m gonna do. My brother and sister are more important than anythin’ else so I have to be there for them,” I tell the table as I look around the table at the guys and make sure they realize I’m okay and telling the truth.

“Okay. If any of you need anythin’, you come to us, Soul. Don’t let the grief suck you under and drain you of everythin’ good and pure. You’re a good man who’s been dealt a shit hand in life. Make sure your past doesn’t repeat itself with how you take care of Kyler and Mia. Bring them around the clubhouse too. They need to get used to us. I know it was a lot for Kyler last night and we don’t want him to be overwhelmed or anythin’ when it comes to us. We want him to know he can come to any of us at any time,” Anguish states as all the men surrounding me nod.

“We will. And I have to thank you all for last night. You really stepped up and helped us when you had your own things to do. Fetch, it was a good idea to bring Jethro over for Kyler. Can you bring him over after dinner so he can see him again? Theo, thank you for leavin’ the clubhouse to help pick out some toys for him. Rion, you’ve been a great help all the way around. All of you. I have no words to convey what it means to me and my family.

“Hell, also gotta say thanks for the fact that all of y’all pitched in to cover what we bought,” I admit. I was stunned last night when I went into our mobile banking app to make sure I didn’t need to transfer any money around to see that in the grand scheme of things, Brooklyn barely spent any at all. When I asked her, she said that Robynn pulled out a black American Express card and told her that the club was taking care of it as a welcome to the family gift,” I say, tears filling my eyes because not many others would have stepped up the way these men and women did last night and while we were back home for the funeral.

“You’ve always got us at your six,” Goliath states, his voice a low rumble as he looks at me and nods his head. “You’ve had our back when we needed you and it’s our turn to step up for you.”

“Why don’t we all get out of here. I want to go home to my wife and kids while you two get back to your home. We’ll meet back up next week when we need to,” Anguish says, slamming the gavel on the table in front of him.

All of us leave church and Jayce and I rush from the clubhouse after collecting our phones and weapons. We take Jayce’s truck to the house and leave it in the driveway. Walking in the house, I find Brooklyn, my gorgeous wife in the kitchen with Mia sitting in her bouncy chair on the counter next to Brooklyn. She doesn’t take her eyes off Mia as Kyler plays on the floor next to them. He’s never too far from Brooklyn and Mia for any reason.

Music is playing softly from Brooklyn’s phone. I can’t tell what song it is right now, but it doesn’t matter. We didn’t have a wedding reception and have never once danced with our wife. I don’t stop moving until I’m right next to Brooklyn. She squeals when I wrap my arms around her waist and hold her tight while leaning down to press a soft kiss against her lips. Her hips are still swaying as she moves fluidly to the music playing. I lower my arms and begin to slow dance with her as Kyler watches us and Jayce stands next to the counter where Mia is sitting in her chair.

We dance for a few minutes until the song changes. Jayce steps in and takes over while I move to stand next to Mia, pulling her in my arms from her seat and dancing by swaying side to side with her. Kyler stands and watches Jayce dance with Brooklyn as I stir the pot of soup Brooklyn’s making for dinner tonight. It’s chicken noodle and appears thicker and fuller than any soup I’ve had in the past. This is almost more like a stew than soup. I can’t wait to try it with the amazing smells filling the kitchen and our home.

“I dance?” Kyler asks Brooklyn and Jayce before the song ends.

“Of course, Kyler. It would be my honor to dance with you,” Brooklyn answers him, a large smile on her face as she looks down at him.

Jayce steps back and watches with me as our wife takes Kyler’s hands in hers and they slowly spin around in the middle of our kitchen. My brother is looking up at Brooklyn as if she hung the moon and stars just for him. Again, he’s wearing the largest smile on his face and laughs with Brooklyn as they spin and twirl together. Jayce is taking pictures of us all and I have a feeling we’ll all be doing the very same thing as we move forward because these are all moments in time we’ll never forget but want photographic evidence for ourselves. Pictures the kids can have when they get older and move away from home. This is the time we have to create these memories while they're still young and want to hang out with us. As they grow and get older, these moments will become less and less frequent. My heart breaks to realize this is such a fleeting time and I almost missed out on it because of my stubbornness to go back home and start to mend the rift between my dad and me.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Brooklyn

KYLER AND MIA have been with us for almost two weeks now. We’ve been working on getting them into some kind of routine that makes everything easier on them and us. I have them going to bed at the same time every single night and wake them up if they’re still sleeping earlier in the morning than what we’ve been getting up. Mia is eating more baby food to go with her formula after Doc assured us it would be okay to start adding it into her diet. Right now it's trial and error to discover what she does and doesn’t like. When Mia doesn’t like something, she’s not shy about letting us know. More often than not I’ve ended up covered in baby food that she spits out or because she hits the spoon away from her mouth. Jayce and Gavin always get a good laugh when I’m covered in baby food. So, today, they get to be the ones to feed her and I’m going to laugh my ass off when they end up looking the same as I usually do.

Theo picked out some books for Kyler and all of them are to help with various aspects of learning and have a ton of different activities in them we’ve been working on together while Mia has her early morning nap. This has gotten me thinking about things. Kyler is five years old and he should be enrolled in some type of school at his age. I know he just turned five and we have all the paperwork—birth certificate, immunization record, health insurance, and paperwork stating Gavin is his legal guardian now. This is something we’ll have to figure out now since the school year has already started. I don’t want to be away from Kyler, but we have to follow the law at the same time.

“Little Warrior, what’s got that look of concentration on your face?” Jayce asks me, walking into the kitchen and sitting at the table with Kyler and I as he works on coloring the page we chose for today.

“Well, I just realized that Kyler’s five and should be enrolled in school. I’m not sure if he’s ready for kindergarten at this point, but he should be going somewhere. He needs to socialize with kids his age and get in a structured learning environment. We can’t put it off just because of everything that’s happened recently,” I answer Jayce as Gavin enters the kitchen and listens to me answer Jayce.

“Shit. You’re right, Love. I’ll call our caseworker now and find out what we have to do to get him enrolled. I’m surprised she never mentioned it when she came out to the house yesterday,” Gavin says, pulling out his phone and heading for the living room to make the call.

Honestly, I’m surprised Mrs. Deville, our caseworker, didn’t say anything either. It’s not something any of us thought of until this moment. Kyler is the oldest kid here and none of the other ones are in school yet so there wasn’t someone right around us having to get their kids to school each day. This makes me feel horrible to realize we should’ve been doing this shit since we got back in Odin’s Gap. We’ve just been so focused on everything else and didn’t really think about the school thing. Everything here has been insane and Mrs. Deville got to see a little bit of that yesterday.

When Mrs. Deville showed up for an unscheduled visit to our home yesterday, we were in the middle of lunch. I had Mia in the high chair and Kyler was sitting next to me at the table. Kyler was eating his peanut butter and jelly sandwich before moving on to his string cheese and the apple slices I cut up for him. He’s got a cup of milk to drink with his meal. While I keep an eye on him eating, I feed Mia her baby food. We tried a new one and I was covered in a bright orange mess when Mrs. Deville was led into the kitchen by Jayce and Gavin. She started laughing at me when Mia hit another spoonful of food away from her mouth and it ended up all over my face and in my hair. I’m going to be dreaming of bright orange stuff covering me from head to toe at night.

Mrs. Deville laughed and told me that no one would expect any different when feeding a baby new food they may not like. She told us she often looked the same way as she was raising her children who are now parents themselves and going through the same thing. Gavin and Jayce led her through our home and showed her the kids’ bedrooms as I finished up lunch with the kids. Mrs. Deville talked to Kyler for a few minutes in the living room while we waited in the kitchen with Mia. I wrote out the schedule I’m trying to get them on for her to look over and make any suggestions she might have. Our caseworker told me she likes the schedule if I can pull it off considering we really don’t know what Gavin’s dad and stepmom did before the accident. She wasn’t discouraging at all, but was trying to keep things realistic for us. She reminded me that a lot of parenting is learning to be flexible, which makes sense. I honestly appreciate that more than her trying to feed me what I want to hear.

“I hungry,” Kyler says, making me look at my phone to see it’s time for lunch.

“I’ve got him. You get Mia and we’ll have them eatin’ while Gavin figures out what’s goin’ on with the school thing. I’m glad you thought of it, Brooklyn, because I sure as hell didn’t think of it,” Jayce tells me as he starts to pick up the crayons and books in front of Kyler while I get up and head for the nursery and Mia.

Walking into the room, I find her already awake in her crib. She’s laying under the mobile and looking up at it while jabbering away in her baby talk. Mia can say mama and baba but everything else is nothing but gibberish no one can understand. We all talk to her as if we’re having conversations so she’s used to hearing our voices and us talking to her. I lift her into my arms and hold her close while moving to the changing table. Quickly changing her diaper, I put her in a little dress and pair of tights we picked out while shopping. Instead of sitting in the rocking chair with Mia as normal, I carry her back downstairs so we can feed her lunch before listening to what we have to do to get Kyler enrolled into school.

“I’ve got her, Love,” Gavin says, taking Mia from my arms and putting her in the high chair before sitting down in front of her. He’s already got her baby food sitting in front of him and one of the spoons I bought and washed for her.

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