Page 209 of As The Shifter World Turns

“And mine has plants that can fall on his head or might poison him. It’s all so much. You never think when you set up a guardianship that you’re going to need it. I wondered if Archer and Micah and Ivor and Ryder had thought of that?

I’m sure Martin had. Toby had already lost one parent. Martin saw the real possibility of something unforeseen happening up close.

“I know people have babies all the time.” I rocked Charlie who was starting to stir. “But this was… I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“If you don’t, we’re about to drown. I look at you in awe. Charlie needs to eat and you see it before he’s a sobbing mess. He needs a change… you know before the place stinks or his diaper is huge. He’s tired… you can get him dozing peacefully. It’s so natural for you and I want an old school instruction manual.” He closed his eyes, tears welling in them. “We need to be good with this. There’s no choice. We only have one shot. What if we blow it?”

I didn’t have an answer for him, all of his fears mirroring my own.

Daire

It had been a week since Charlie came to live at Sunshine Manor. So far he had been staying at Neil’s. We felt it wasn’t right to have him be bopping around until we figured things out. The foster mother we picked him up from, who’d had him overnight, was kind and said he’d slept well without his dad. But this was just the beginning. Everything from here on was a new normal.

The problem with that plan being, we had no idea what that new normal would look like.

And that was why we were here, at Archer’s place for a meeting. It felt weird having a “meeting” to determine the life of a little one.

“I will watch Charlie so you guys can talk freely.” Archer made a sweet face at the baby who reached for his nose in response.

“We can…” Shit. I hadn’t thought about that. Of course he could or would soon be able to understand us. Guilt over all the things we talked about in front of him started to settle in. It wasn’t anything bad, per se, but it wasn’t things he should hear, including details of his father’s passing. There would be plenty of time for that when he was older. “I hadn’t thought of that,” I confessed.

Nate wrapped his arms around me. What a champ he’d been through all of this. Not once did he say it wasn’t his baby and not his problem. And really, in a way it was all of ours.

Archer left with Charlie and Toby and only the four of us remained: Nate and I, Martin and Neil.

“There’s a lot to go over and I asked Nate to make an agenda not to take over, but because he was good at that and I couldn’t think enough to get past what kind of schedule we should have.”

This would all have been easier if Neil and I were a couple, but that was never a thing.

“I’m just going to put this out there as someone who’s an outsider, but also not.” Martin spoke firmly and with confidence. Good. Someone needed to.

“Leaving a baby to you guys without truly discussing it with you was short-sighted. There were so many things that play into a decision like this and now we’re standing at the base of one of them: we’re two couples. We aren’t one family that can figure out how to add a new member. And yes, Sunshine Manor is family, but it’s not the same. And add to that you and Nate are newly mated.”

I didn’t know exactly what was going on between Martin and Neil. They weren’t living together, but they did love each other. My assumption had always been that it had something to do with Martin being a single father, but recently they’d seemed closer, and I thought they were close to mating. But now? Who knew?

Why was this all so complicated?

“Are you… are you part of this?” I blurted out and hated myself for it. “I mean do you plan to be around?” Great. Now I was the asshole.

“Forever.” He took Neil’s hand. “And as I see this, Charlie will have four parents.”

“That’s what I was thinking too.” Neil leaned into his side. “But I don’t know how to make that work. No offense, but I don’t want to live commune-style. I have a difficult time living in my own space.”

Shit. Of course that’s why he hadn’t moved in. Maybe I was better off just being quiet.

“Then Charlie will have three spaces; our place in 3B, Neil’s 2B apartment, and here for when Neil is with you, Martin, and Daire is working with Micah.” Nate was so good at this. I’d managed to pussyfoot around all of it and he just came out and made a decision with one statement.

We all agreed that was best. Lugging a pack and play around was not only a pain in the ass, but it didn’t feel permanent and Charlie needed that.

“I would like to not have him in daycare if at all possible,” Neil said, his voice shaking. “The last time he was dropped off there was the last time he ever saw his father.”

“Agreed. I bet with all of our work schedules we could make that happen,” I said.

We spent the next two hours trying to figure out just how. There was still a great deal to decide, but at least we’d made a start and that was something.

91

SLEEP? WHAT’S THAT?

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