Page 30 of Irons

His cheeks turned pink as he lifted the ice to look at my ankle, then he put it back down. “I wish I could just live here all the time. You make it feel like home.” He glanced up at me. He knew how much we all loved him, but me especially.

Present Day

Heather came home as I was working on my resignation letter. Heather was an amazing step mother, but she was also beautiful, kind, and always the biggest cheerleader. Literally, she was a cheerleader. I wasn’t sure why she and Tony didn’t work out in college, but it was my dad that benefitted. She was a cheerleader for the Cowboys when I was a kid and that was why she was never around. After that she became a flight attendant and has been doing international travel ever since. She made very good money, so when they had my brother it made more sense for my dad to go part time with the department. Sometimes I would laugh about it, because one day my dad was a single cop living like a true bachelor with his best friend next door, then the next he was a single dad of a six year old daughter he didn’t know existed. He became an amazing dad and later a wonderful husband. I loved Heather right away, but she wasn’t around for all the hardest times.

She came home specifically for Tony’s funeral and that was when she swooped in and saved us. My dad was having a really hard time with Tony’s death and with what happened to Travis. The morning after Tony died, I found my dad drunk and crying on Tony’s doorstep. Then when Travis got into trouble he tried everything to help him. He hired a really good lawyer and even tried to get custody of Travis. Robert and Paula wereeven willing to sign Travis away, but the state had custody of him and things didn’t work out the way we hoped. Travis didn’t want us, he never wanted to return to our little town. I knew my dad still struggled with it and felt like he let Tony down. Heather supported everything my dad tried to do for Travis and eventually she became my mom. I absolutely adored her from the moment we met. After they got married we traveled all over the world every summer, even with Jacob being a little baby. Then of course I got pregnant, and the family vacations stopped.

After dinner, I took Jacob out to a movie and then to get ice cream so dad and Heather could spend time together. I was trying to build a relationship with him, but there was such a huge age difference that I was more like an aunt that came to town every now and again.

If my son would have lived, he would only have been a year younger than my brother. I knew that was something that would always haunt me every time I saw my brother. I would imagine my son would somewhat look like Jacob, but have Matt’s eyes and dark hair. Maybe they would have been best of friends and would have grown up together. I even watched all of his mannerisms and memorized his laugh. Would they have been into the same things? Maybe my son would have played football and already be on a pee wee team. It was all my fault, and I couldn’t shake the guilt and grief. Being home was never easy, and it somewhat helped me understand Travis a little better.

Family Dinner

Travis

After a long day of sitting behind my desk, I was finally able to go to Creed’s and see my girls. “Uncle Twavis!” Addie flew into my arms, and I was on cloud nine to see she was holding the kangaroo stuffed animal I brought back from Australia.

“It’s been a long day, and an Addie hug was exactly what I needed.” I squeezed her back, and she giggled.

“It was a wong day for me too!”

She pulled back and was sitting on my arm when she looked at me and pushed her purple glasses up the bridge of her nose.

“What did you learn today?” I asked.

“Dat Spwace Force guys are dumber dan a stupid Maween. Day keep dem in the basement of da Cowoonity center.”

I chuckled. “Who told you that?”

“Dillon.” She answered.

“Those guys really aren’t dumb, Addie. They help us communicate through satellite and they’re really good at organizing missions.” I explained. I sure didn’t want to go intohow they protect our ability to go into space and all that jazz. It’s confusing enough for adults to understand.

“Otay. Whatever uncle Twavis.” She rolled her eyes, and it was the cutest damn thing ever.

“Where’s your mom?”

She frowned. “In da kitchen making suppah”

Damn, I tried to tell her last night that I’d take care of it. She really needed to stay off her feet. “Okay, let’s go help mom then maybe after dinner you can play with the other kids.”

Her eyes lit up. “Otay.” She hopped down and ran to the kitchen. I followed and found Morgan behind the stove.

“Uncle Twavis is here!” Addie slid down on her knees to play with Nico.

Morgan looked over and smiled at me. “Hey, I wasn’t expecting you for another half hour.” She looked like she was having a hard time standing. There was one thing I knew about Morgan and that was how much she loved taking care of us.

“What are you doing? I told you last night we could just go to the mess hall or I could order us something. You look miserable. How about you take a seat, and I’ll finish up here.” She taught all day then came home and started cooking. It was ridiculous and I told her last night it was time she cut back. She was seven months pregnant with twins and she looked uncomfortable as hell. I guided her into a chair and went to the stove to finish making the spaghetti and meatballs. She made that recipe before and I helped, so I knew how to finish up. Creed was still gone because his mother contracted pneumonia and was in intensive care. I had my doubts that he would even be out there if it weren’t for his brothers.

“How was your day?” I asked.

Morgan groaned. “The twins are moving nonstop, my back started hurting before my first class was over, and Melissa was being a total…” She looked down at Addie. “She was in a sour mood. We met with the contractor for the school and Drakos was there, so I’m sure you can guess the rest of the issue.”

I chuckled. “Melissa gave him hell because he’s annoying and not happy with the whole Club X thing?” I put the meatballs in the oven.

Drakos was pissed that all the Originals out voted him on the whole Creed’s Lake girls issue. He blamed it on the domestic violence program. They were taking up the jobs Felicity’s girls usually held, so there would be no new available girls for a while. We were building the vocational and educational center to accommodate the educational needs of our new clients. We were able to secure a grant rather quickly, which was a shock. We also had some donations from Morgan’s friends out in California. It was going to be named after her best friend and Addie’s biological mom.

“They argue like cats and dogs. It’s funny at first but gets old after a while. He needs to get out of Creed’s Lake more often.” She said.

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