Page 25 of Reclaiming Kendall

I nod again, and his lips fall against my cheek, capturing one of the tears on its way down.

“I know that we didn’t want kids right now, but I figured one day you might,” I whisper loud enough for them all to hear. “I might be defective and not be able to give any of you that. You should be allowed to trade me back in.”

I’m wallowing in self-pity, and it’s so unlike me. I know it’s just the hormones, but it happens, anyway.

What I don’t expect is a full boisterous laugh from Teagan to echo around the kitchen, “Goddamn, sweets. You’ve got us wrapped around your pinky finger. None of us would trade you for anything in the world no matter what.”

Lucas flexes his hand inside mine, “I’m pretty sure if you tried to leave Teagan or Mav, one would tie you up in the basement.”

I feel the corner of my lips pull up in amusement, then Grant adds, “Yeah, and I’ll make you watch really shitty movies while never giving you caffeine ever again.”

This has my head falling back with my chuckle, “That’s just cruel, unjustifiable punishment right there.”

“We’ll do what we have to do,” Teagan teases.

“Well, as long as I’m still getting cock then I make no promises. That’s my only deal breaker,” I say stunning them into silence.

It’s a second or two before they’re all chuckling, pulling me into it with them.

“Besides,” Mav offers, “Could you imagine the hellion of a baby Teagan?”

Teagan’s jaw drops open in mock surprise, “Me? What about Goose? You’re not getting out of that one without at least a twelve pounder.”

I giggle as Grant cuffs him on the back of the head, and Teagan’s responding grin to the sound says the punishment was well worth it.

“Asking for a friend, did this doctor say it was bad for your health to practice?” Lucas inquires, pulling my attention to him.

“Nope. She said I didn’t have to change any of my current...habits. It’ll all balance back out with time and the birth control I’m on,” I note with a wink in his direction.

“That’s all I needed to hear,” Grant says, pulling me off of the counter. He swings my legs up as he hooks a hand behind my knees.

My protests fall on deaf ears, “But wait, I’ve got to finish cleaning up the kitchen.”

“It can wait,” Mav grunts at the same time Lucas vows to come back down to take care of it in a little while. At that, I allow them to cart me upstairs where they waste no time at all proving all of their vowed words to me.

***

“Come on now, you knuckleheads,” Selena fusses at two workers who accidentally dropped one of her boxes in the middle of the floor.

With the guys having made me feel better the other day about the kid thing, I decided to refocus myself, especially considering work is kind of slow. It doesn’t hurt to take a few days here and there to help with the group home as much as I can. I’d dropped by unannounced earlier to see if Selena needed help with anything only to find movers bringing all of her stuff in from a huge van. She’d put me to work immediately, making me glad I stopped by.

I’ve been unpacking stacks of books and lining them up on the built-in shelves on the wall. I’m sure Selena has about a hundred other things to be doing, so if it helps for me to finish this one small task, then that’s what I’m going to do.

It takes a few hours for the movers to finish unloading all of her things. She’s been bouncing off the walls, telling them where to place things. I finished the books a little while ago and moved into the kitchen to start unpacking some of her dishes and loading them into the dishwasher.

A deep sigh follows Selena into the room where she collapses into a chair at the little breakfast table, “Now I remember why I hate moving.”

I snort, “Yeah, that’s something I do well not to forget.”

“You moved around a lot, I’m guessing,” she chats.

Shrugging I set her a glass of iced tea that I made earlier on the table in front of her, “Not really. Just several times that are connected to important times in my life.”

She takes a pull from her glass before setting it down with a nod, “Were you in the system? That’s why you volunteer now, eh?”

Taking the chair across from her, I look her in the eye when I answer, “My mom and dad are shit people and went to prison when I was younger. If it wasn’t for my grandparents, then yeah, I would’ve ended up in the system.”

“You seem to be in a pretty good place now,” she returns, taking another sip of tea. “There’s always the option of fostering, yourself, instead of doing all this grunt work. If you have your life as together as it seems.”

A bitter laugh falls from my lips, because I thought of this the other day when Lucas mentioned adopting. There’s no way we’d ever be able to adopt or foster with our unique situation at home. It wouldn’t pass the first inspection of having a healthy home environment considering we aren’t the standard variety plain vanilla family.

Unashamed, I explain this to Selena. Other than the initial shock and widening of her eyes, there’s no judgment, but she agrees, “I never found it in myself to compromise with any man. Girl, I don’t see how you do it with four.”

She chuckles, “Though, I’d say the benefits outweigh all that negative stuff. If you're serious about fostering or even adopting, though, don't be intimidated. I assure you, there have been more extenuating circumstances than yours that have been approved through the state. Besides, the worst thing they can say is no, so it doesn't hurt to ask, eh?"

Her attitude reminds me so much of the guys, and I know they’d love her. Taking a glance around the kitchen at most of her cookware still boxed up before I ask, “Not to be presumptuous about your plans for later, would you like to come over for dinner?”

“Honey, you presume all you want. I’d love to come to dinner and meet those men of yours,” she replies with a toothy grin.

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