Spring, Year 2017
Kids are a pain in the ass and any one to tell you otherwise is a big fat liar.
I mean I should know, I have five. The second eldest is the problem.
Paco was such a wonderful and sweet child, maybe a little bit cocky but then his terrible sister came and turned him into a terror.
I'm not kidding, my second eldest is a challenge. I love her I do but I dread having to look after her alone. Thankfully she likes my youngest brother Luis but that's only because of what the reckless little thing did when she was three.
It was snowing and he took her sledging down a pretty steep hill.
I had never been so angry at my brother in my life. Catalina, who I call Cata loved it, she didn't shut up about how amazing her uncle Luis was for a month after. It was going to kill him when she discovered boys and motorbikes, I was hoping that she'll fall for a nice guy who will change her (yeah right!).
My oldest is my baby. He was my first-born and the one who I worried about more than anything else.
The middle child Luke is the moodiest and cheekiest child I've ever come across and he's only three, god help me.
The youngest are only babies and just the perfect children compared to their older siblings.
"Hey Alex" Brittany kisses my cheek and leans into my body.
"What's with the kiss on the cheek?" I ask brushing my lips against hers.
"I don't know" Brittany parts her lips letting me in until we hear the patter of heavy feet.
"I want to do that" Catalina states, pointing at us.
"Me too" Luke joins in as he almost always does with his older siblings. "Dada" Luke held up his hands. "Dada, dada to me, to me"
I sigh out loud. Damn kids. "Catalina you're too young too" I say to my daughter and then turn to Luke. "And just no"
"Alex" Brittany thumps me in my chest.
Catalina snorts and runs off but Luke starts crying. "Dada, up, now!"
I turn to Brittany but she just shakes her head and carries Luke out the room. "No dada, dada" Luke yells crying at his hardest.
I brace my hands on the table top and breathe in and out. Luke has become attached to me, not wanting to leave my side and having me all to himself. It's heart-breaking for me but I have to distance myself from him, which is so hard.
The older siblings are fine with each other and the younger two are twins so they have their twin bond and now I can't have Luke. It's heart-breaking, I tell you.
Luke is the king of throwing tantrums and can go on forever it seems. He's still yelling his head off now. This is so hard.
"Okay papa look" Catalina climbs up onto the kitchen island and sitting down, thrusting paper in front of me. "That's Pepper" Her best friend. "And that's me" She's a good drawer but when I take a proper look at it I let out a high-pitched scream.
"What's wrong papa?" Catalina blinks her eyes innocently. "We just wanted to see what it was like"
"Yeah" I give the paper back. "Just lovely"
"Thanks Papa" She kisses my cheek, jumps down and leaves.
The two of them were kissing. Jesus, I swear I'm not homophobic it's just when you're five-year olds you don't know what you want. They were just experimenting; yep she admitted it was that. Besides if she did end up being gay then Kiara, who has a gay friend, will know what to do.
Although at the moment she wasn't too happy at all with my brother. The first few years when Carlos was in the army were okay until she got pregnant. I couldn't look after the kids without Brittany and she couldn't do it without me.
If we couldn't manage five kids and our careers together I really felt for Kiara with three kids and a job. Kiara was a mechanic at her local garage that was all she wanted to do was to fix cars.
I offered her money to get a nanny like me and Brit do when were at work together (although that rarely happens, the university we work at is very good at understanding we have to look after our kids that they rarely make us pull the same hours) but she refused.
Carlos loves the military and loves fighting for his country. However I am on Kiara's side, they have three kids, most in the army have one but he was three. There's also the fact that I can't stand seeing my brothers in danger, every time Carlos goes off into the army I just want to drag him back home.
Kiara lives all the way out in Colorado though so we can't be much help to them.
And damn Luke is still screaming. This needs to stop. "Alex don't" Brittany wards me off as I enter the living room where they are.
"But he needs me" I turn my pleading face onto Brittany but she's mean and won't back down but then her pager buzz's.
"Oh no" She looks down resigned.
"Oh yes" I exclaim. "Come to dada" I say to Luke as Brit leaves to get ready. Luke comes rushing over and I swing him up into my arms, he stops crying.
"You do have to stop this" Brittany says to me coming in a bit later to say bye.
"I know but I can't"
Brittany just shakes her heads and leaves without a kiss. How great, now she's in a mood.
I can't remember the last time we slept together. I knew we slept together 15 months ago because that was when the twins were conceived. 15 months? Surely we did when she was pregnant but then she was on maternity leave so I had to work double shifts. She's only been back at work.
I blame the kids at stopping my sex drive from going on the run. I swear, it's not like I'm horny or anything.
Our friends said that once we had kids, our relationship will be over. Hell it seems like the general public stop being in love once kids come along. But it won't be like that for us, me and Brittany have made it so far that there's nothing going to stop us now.
So what if we couldn't have sex, we still love each other.
I sit on the sofa with Luke on my lap, pulling at my hair when I notice the house is quiet. We have five kids, the house is not supposed to be quiet.
"No dada" Luke complains as I set him down.
I grit my teeth and take him with me. I can't find the kids if he is screaming his head off. Where are my wonderful, nope scratch that, where are my beautiful kids? They are beautiful because I and Brittany are beautiful.
Paco has his mother's nose but my skin and hair. Cata looks exactly like my mama when she was a kid. Luke is the mixture of both of us, his mother's white skin with an easy tan and her hair with my features. The twins skin is a tad lighter or two from mine but they look nothing like us. They were all utterly beautiful and I'm not just saying that because I'm their father, they are.
Out of all of my brothers I have the best looking kids, theirs are more slightly average. Apart from Carlos's middle child Sammi who has unique good looks that came across rarely.
When Luke was only one year old, me and Brit became Epidemiologists. We earn each $64,500 a year and as we get further were earn more. So making $129 thousand a year we have a pretty big house. Which means the kids could be anywhere.
"Papa, what you worried about?" Catalina asks sitting on top of the stairs, appearing out of nowhere and startling me. I swear this kid scares me.
"Where are your brothers and sister Cata?" I ask her. Cata is never afraid to say anything to anybody. Me and Brittany were so hoping it was just a kid thing.
"Paco's watching over them" She says dreamily. "Paco's good"
"You are too darling"
"No I bad" Cata grins then jumps up. "Come"
I don't correct her, I tried telling her she was good and she didn't believe me. We will all leave it at that.
She is right I see as I step into the baby's room where the twins are curled around one another, so cute and Paco's just watching over them. Like a angel, it's so cute.
"Hey Pac" I say drawing near him.
"Hey Papa"
"What you doing little man?"
"Well mom went work and you was with Luke. We all know no one trusts Li so someone had to" I just look at my son in wonder. He will make a good father one day. I look across at Cata but she's not upset in any way, she's smiling, she's scary. I hope she don't have children, if I'm scared their be terrified. Of course I could never imagine my children having their own kids because that means they have to have sex first, no father wants to think about that when it comes to his kids.
I look back at Paco, my sweet little boy who is so protective of his siblings and I feel my cheeks get wet. I hug Paco to my side, kissing the top of his head. "You're a good boy Pac"
I set Luke down to go and play with his sister and sit next to Paco. "How about we do a deal, you deal with Li and I'll look after the baby's"
"No Papa" Paco punches me in the stomach. "That's mean, Li's a nightmare. The babies are easier to look after"
I can't help but laugh. He's exactly right. "How about Luke?"
Paco shakes his head. "He prefers you Papa"
"Brit tells me he shouldn't" I tell Paco and only think after that really he doesn't need to hear this.
"Mama's right. There's this boy called Roger at my school and he's Li's age but he screams when his parents leave him there. But then Li kisses him and he's all okay again"
"Li kisses him?" I say slowly thinking how many kids is my girl kissing? She's five and she's already kissed a girl and a boy. God help us.
"Well yeah it shuts Roger up"
"How many people does Li kiss?" I ask him with closed eyes.
"No one Papa, she only kissed him the once but that was a week ago. But if it shuts him up why is so bad?"
"Maybe because you're both too young" I say to him. At five/six I wasn't running around kissing girls, I think at that age I still thought girls were yucky. No I'm sure.
"Oh" Paco looks down. "Shall I stop it next time then?"
"No, she'll kill you. I'll talk to her"
"Good luck"
"Thanks man"
I stay with Paco a little longer not really wanting to have that conversation with my daughter. But it's getting near dinnertime so I have to go find her.
Her and Luke are watching TV, well she is, Luke's playing with his blocks.
"Cata" I sit on the sofa beside her. She's watching the news, I swear this child. "Don't you find boys yucky?"
Cata shakes her head. "Roger's yummy" Dear god. "Papa, isn't this what uncle Carly doing?" She called Carlos Carly all the time; it's hilarious because he hates it.
I turn to the news. 5 dead in house fire, suspect in custody.
"Not exactly" I hold my arms open for Cata and she rests her head on my chest, I place my one arm around her.
"But he saves people yes?"
"He saves all of us"
"All of us don't deserve saving"
"What do you mean?" I ask.
Cata sighs. "The person that killed these five people, they don't deserve saving"
"No they don't honey. Now about Roger"
"I like him. I mean he can be whingey but he just misses his family but when I'm there he's okay"
"He is?"
"Yep. I like him papa, he tastes good too"
I lift her chin up to look me in the eyes. "You and Roger can carry on as you please. But promise me, do not kiss anybody else, okay?"
"Okay I promise papa" Well I can't say I was happy, really. At least my daughter was only kissing one boy. Nope still did not like it.
I was just going to forget that Roger existed.
It was like Paco, when my littlest brother used him to get girls my son was grabbing out for the girls then when he was a baby.
My two oldest were going to be the death of me.
"You should get a dog" Luis says to me half an hour later when he walks through the door, Cata runs straight up to him. I wish she'd do that with me but I have Luke. Paco's more of a mommy's boy and the twins are too young to know.
"That's random, what do you want?"
"You mean I can't visit my favourite niece?" Luis said.
"You didn't even knock"
"Were brothers, we don't have to"
I arch an eyebrow. "Come again?"
Luis looks at me and blanches on seeing my serious face. "Okay fine Alex, I'll ring the bell"
"Good boy"
"Don't patronize me"
"Now why should I get a dog?"
"Because I want one and Nikki won't let me"
"Ah, knew there was a double agenda"
"Sit" Cata drags Luis to the sofa and then sits on the arm and plays with Luis's hair. He let her.
"Cata don't sit on the sides"
"It's not hurting them" She says to me with the roll of the eyes. Luis laughs. "Now there's my girl" Luis high-fived her.
"Fine it's just you're not supposed to, I never knew why"
"Gee Alex, what a way to say you're basically reading the manual of how to be a good father"
"Shut it you. So you came over here to ask if we could keep a dog here for you?"
"That's the gust of it"
"Why won't Nikki let you have a dog?"
"Because she says that she has to deal with me and Junior, why add another to the mix? Oh and that it's stress that ruins her looks not childbirth. I swear she never used to care about her looks until she became a model"
"That's what you pick up on? Not the fact she said a dog would be like dealing with you all over?"
"I don't know why she said that, there is nothing wrong about me"
"Right, how's Junior?"
"A screaming mess, I'm glad to go to work to avoid him"
"I'm pretty sure in the how to be a dad book that is not there"
"Oh come on, do you want him?"
"He's your son"
Luis leans back against the seat. "He threw a plate against the wall because Enrique nearly destroyed his precious hockey skates and decided to tell him at dinner. Nikki walked out the room. It was a disaster"
"What did you do?"
Luis sighs. "I had to punish Junior for that but he just yelled that he shouldn't be in the wrong. He just needs to control his temper"
"You should ask ma for help, she dealt with Carlos"
"Hmm probably. How's your kids?"
"Do not ask"
"Cata wants dog"
"You are not getting a dog" I groan and turn to Luis. "See what you've done?"
Luis just shrugs. "I really want a dog"
"Me too!"
"I'm going to kill you" I hiss at Luis who bits his lip. "But it's what I want" He whines.
"No wonder Nikki said that about you"
"Hey!"
I stand up. "I'm going to make dinner now, you staying Lu?"
"You sure you want me to?"
"Where's Nikki and the kids?"
"The kids are staying with their grandparents, Nikki is at a modelling shoot so I was all alone and came over here"
"Poor you"
"Don't be mean papa" Cata scolds me stroking Luis's hair, oh dear god.
"I'll be in the kitchen; I will cook for you Luis, why not?"
I go into the kitchen and begin to cook. Brittany cannot cook at all, she baked a cake once and it's never to be mentioned ever again. I cook and do the gardening (I love sawing hedges) and she cleans which I cannot do well. It works. When the kids are older and able to do chores we'll do less.
I do Spaghetti Bolognese which everybody likes and which there be enough to go around, my three kids eat a lot. The twins start crying when I start to make it. "Luis can you?"
"Sure bro!" He calls back and then pounds up the stairs.
I leave the mince and get their bottles to warm up out the fridge. The annoying thing about twins was that you had to look after them at the same time and it was hard juggling them with four hands, let alone two. Luis had it worst though; he had three at the same time.
I'm stirring in the spices when Luis comes into the kitchen. He has one screaming baby and I see Paco on the sofa with the other screaming baby. I point to the bottles which he picks up. "It smells nice" Luis sniffs the air. "Bolognese?"
"Go feed my baby's" I tell him. "Let me worry about what the dinner is"
I turn the heat down to let it simmer and move onto the spaghetti. By the time it's done the twins are fed and placed in the portable cot downstairs and I'm dishing the food up. Me and Brittany have a six seated table that can be pulled out to a ten seated table.
Cata has three pillows on her seat as she always does; in the car she puts pillows under the booster seat. She always has to be as tall as everybody else.
And then Paco not wanting to be outdone copies her and then Luke not wanting to be left out would copy too. Basically Cata is definitely the leader of her siblings.
"Dada me sit with you" Luke says.
"No Luke, now sit down in your place"
"No, I sit with you"
"No you don't"
"No!" Luke yells.
I pinch the top of my nose. "Luke sit down in your own seat and eat your dinner"
"I said no"
"Luke sit down or go into timeout and miss dinner, you're choice"
Luke does sit down with a pout. I ignore it. He probably would have played up more if Brittany was home, he didn't seem to like any female adult, at all. He was scared of Carlos and didn't like to show himself up in front of Luis. Luke was a funny child.
"Do a swap" Luis whispers into my ear. "I rather take a spoilt brat then Carlos's double trouble"
"No, I like Luke when he's sweet, besides I have Cata, the devil's double"
"Your funeral"
"No I think it's yours"
A/N: I know this is a small category but I would really appreciate the few that do read this to let me know if you enjoy my story.
I'm really excited for this series that I have. I know where I'm going with the stories, like the plot and everything for each one.
Family Tree: Alex and Brittany- Paco (6), Catalina (5) Luke (3) Bruno and Katelyn (5 months)
Kiara and Carlos- Cecilia (5), Sammi (2), Kae (1)
Luis and Nikki- Junior, Enrique, Juan (5)