Page 20 of Broken Chorus

Okay, so when Aaron had decided to sit with Dani on his lap and Liam and Ella on either side of him, Hawk had expected immediate chaos to ensue, especially when three little handstried to roll dough in cinnamon at the same time or collided while placing their dough balls in the tin. The last thing Hawk ever expected was for Aaron to divide the cinnamon sugar mixture into three shallow dishes so they could all roll at the same time. Then all they had to do was drop them in the tin while Aaron created voices for the different doughballs, highlighting their reactions to being cut, dipped in butter, rolled and then dropped into the bundt cake tin.

Aaron was handing the dipping part, since they had to keep the butter warm, while Hawk had been relegated to cutting each biscuit round into fourths and laughing, because some of the voices…

“Ack….not a butter bath!” Aaron squealed, high pitched and mock terrified. He even waved the ball of dough around like it was struggling to get away.

“Get in that butter and roll!” Liam growled, finger pointed at the doughball while he snarled like he was in a death metal band.

Of the three kids, he was usually the quietest, and there were times when Hawk worried about him not getting enough attention. Today though, he’d lit up and was as engaged in the activity as the girls.

“Dude, you have got to do that on a song!” Aaron encouraged.

“Me?” Liam asked, all wide eyed and grinning.

“Hel…errr, yeah you,” Aaron encouraged.

“I wanna be on a song too!” Dani declared.

Of course she did, she always wanted to do what the bigger kids were doing. Hawk snipped apart another biscuit while waiting to see how Aaron would handle this little twist.

“Why don’t we all do a song together once we have the bread in the oven,” Aaron suggested.

“Yey!” Dani yelled, throwing her hands up and getting cinnamon and sugar all over Aaron who didn’t even blink. He just hugged her tighter with the arm he had around her, dippedthe doughball in the butter, then handed it to Ella before taking another off the plate. How he never messed up the rotation, despite the pauses and the voices, was another thing that had Hawk amazed.

Like at breakfast, when Aaron had devoured a slice of honeydew, despite how much Hawk knew he disliked melon. He’d done it to encourage Ella to try the pieces Hawk had cut up onto her plate, after she’d asked why she had to eat it if Aaron didn’t. It was telling, that he was learning to censor his language and set a good example for them, but how long before he got tired, or bored, or longed to smoke up and get shitfaced instead of coming home to them?

Being Unky Aaron he could come and go as he pleased right now, popping in and out of their lives after a week or a month, though to be fair, the only reason Aaron had let a month go by without visiting them was because Hawk had flat out told him not to come up. Still, Hawk didn’t have that same kind of luxury and eventually, he knew Aaron would figure it out. Right now, he still had his friend, even if that came with a ton of complex emotions he didn’t have the time to evaluate or even rationalize.

Their eyes met across the kitchen island and Aaron winked and flashed him one of those grins that had always sent a surge of heat through his lower belly, especially when they were up on stage. For that brief moment in time, it was like they were the only ones in the world, despite the screaming crowd just a few feet away.

“You know what that means, right kids?” Aaron said, while Hawk cut the final biscuit and slid the plate closer to him.

Aaron’s grin had turned devious. He licked his lip as he reached for one of the pieces, dunked it in butter and handed it to Liam.

“No, what?” Ella asked.

He leaned in, lowering his voice to a stage whisper as he spoke to the kids.

“That Uncle Hawk has to get his guitar out and play for us since I didn’t bring mine.”

“Awesome!” Liam declared.

“Actually, what it means is that I have to gettwoguitars out so Uncle Aaron can play with me since this was his idea,” Hawk amended, prompting a huge cheer, this time from all three kids.

“Fair enough,” Aaron said, angling his head in that way he had of acknowledging when Hawk had gotten the best of him.

Hawk watched as he finished dipping the last piece of dough, then handed it to Ella so she could roll it and add it to the tin.

“Alright guys, time to wash our hands while Uncle Hawk puts the bread in the oven,” Aaron announced as he set Dani on the floor and nudged her towards the sink. They lined up like ducks, shortest to tallest, with Aaron manning the sink, making sure neither the spray nozzle or the hand soap was misused in any way, Hawk was able to get the monkey bread in the oven, the counter wiped down and all the dishes rinsed and loaded in the microwave.

“Song, song, song,” Dani chanted as she skipped into the living room, Liam on her heels.

Ella paused for a moment and stared up at Hawk. “When can I learn to play an instrument?”

“Well, that depends,” Hawk explained. “Some instruments are too big for your hands right now.”

“Oh.”

“Did you have one in mind?”

---