Yep Easter chapter... only because I love you all would I ever be able to churn this out quite so fast. I'm so glad you all enjoyed the emotions of the last chapter - stronger in the broken places, my Haleb babies. I admit, I teared up a little too when I read some of it back.
After this we're heading right back to the land of life with Evvy.
This really took on a mind of it's own... Enjoy...
Next Year We're Just Going to Church
Logan Rivers was stressed. His Mommy and Daddy had been talking to him all week about Easter and going to the park for an Easter Egg hunt where he'd get to meet the Easter Bunny and now... now he didn't know where they were. His Mommy and Daddy were nowhere to be seen and they were all going be late and miss all the fun. But as he stood waiting for them to appear, he made a decision that under no circumstances, were they going to miss his chance with the chocolate delivering animal... that candy was too precious. "We need to hurry!" Logan yelled as loud as he could, prancing around at the bottom of the stairs.
"Why?" Caleb humoured him as he appeared with Mila at his feet, reaching into their downstairs closet to find Logan's converse for him to pull on.
"Cos of da Easter Bunny!" The little boy exclaimed like it was the most obvious thing in the world as Hanna descended down the stairs, looking slightly pale. "Daddy!" He moaned, throwing his head back in annoyance as neither him nor Hanna made a move towards the door.
"Hey," Caleb warned him, "Watch it." He'd been stressed with work for the past week and really wanted the weekend to be full of relaxing time with his family, but all Logan and Mila had managed to do so far that morning, was drive him up the wall.
"We won't miss him bubba," Hanna said, trying to calm him down and ease the tension.
"You okay?" Caleb asked her. She'd been fortunate to not really experience morning sickness throughout her pregnancy, but on the occasional day when it did hit, it would hit pretty hard.
"Yeah," Hanna nodded, blinking her eyes shut as Caleb leant over and pressed a kiss against the side of her face. "I think it's passed," She muttered as Logan started to tug unhappily on the belt of her coat.
"Mommeee," He whined, looking up at her worriedly.
"Lo," She warned him, "We're not going to miss him, so calm down," She ran a hand through his hair. "Where's Mimi?" She asked, looking around for their rambunctious daughter who was nowhere to be seen.
Caleb looked around, "She was just here," He muttered, as he spotted a pastel pink butt sticking up at the end of the hallway near the kitchen, "Mila Ashley Rivers," He called, only for that little butt to sit right back down as a head full of blonde hair stood straight up. She looked over her shoulder guiltily and that was when Caleb noticed the chocolate that was smudged around her lips. "Mila," He growled as the toddler clearly tried to assess the best way out of the situation.
Hanna let out a small laugh and held her hand to her mouth. Mila had managed to find the bag full of mini chocolate eggs she'd bought to take to the park and clearly, also a way to devour them relatively unnoticed. "Mila," She gasped as the little girl ran straight past Caleb's approaching legs towards her. "What have you been eating?" She asked her, picking her up and carrying her into their downstairs bathroom to wash her face.
"Choc!" She exclaimed, licking her finger.
Hanna grabbed the hand towel and decided that would have to do, wiping at Mila's mouth as she squirmed in her arms. "Shh," She tried to calm her, "Daddy's gonna lose it soon if you and Lo don't calm down."
"Mommy," Lo appeared in the doorway, clearly antsy as he hopped from one foot to the other.
"Logan Nathaniel," She pulled out the full name and he visibly shirked, "If you don't calm down, you're gonna get snapped at baby," She warned him, reaching out to stroke his cheek as he pouted up at her. "We're not going to miss him, I promise," She repeated.
"We have a quarter of the chocolate left," Caleb muttered as Hanna appeared back in the hallway with both their children.
"It's fine," Hanna tried to placate him, "Do you want to put them in the car, or George?" She asked him, pressing a kiss against Mila's forehead.
Caleb sighed, "George," He smiled at her gratefully before heading back towards the kitchen. Hanna rolled her eyes but nonetheless led Logan out to the car, opening the door for him to climb up before she walked round to the other side and strapped Mila in.
The little girl tried to fight her but one warning look from Hanna and she realized she had to pick her battles. She'd gotten away with having a lot of candy and she knew she was in trouble. "Mommy," Logan started again as Hanna checked his seat belt before climbing in the front.
"What?" She asked, just as Caleb slammed the boot shut and then jumped in the driver's seat.
"Does the Easter Bunny have a car?" He asked innocently. Every day was a new experience and he had so many questions he wanted answered.
Caleb shot Hanna a look as he reversed out of their driveway. If they were going to have to go through one of Logan's questioning sessions, the 10-minute journey to the park couldn't end soon enough. "He does," Hanna said, "He drives in a carrot car," She added.
"A carrot car?" Logan frowned as he processed the information. "Can I goed in the carrot car?"
"No," Hanna answered, pulling her phone out of her bag, "His carrot car is invisible otherwise all the other bunnies would eat it and he wouldn't be able to deliver his eggs." Sometimes she felt like all she did was lie to her kids...
Logan gasped and covered his mouth, "I don wanna go in the carrot car," He shook his head at the thought of not getting any candy.
"We'll let him know," Caleb said, "I'm sure he'll be really pleased," He remarked sarcastically, glancing in the rearview mirror to look at Logan.
"I love the Easter Bunny," Logan said casually, looking out the window as the streets passed by.
"Mimi, do you love him too?" Hanna asked as she quickly replied to a text from Spencer telling them where they'd set up camp for the day.
"Choc!" She squealed.
Hanna looked at Caleb who was shaking his head in slight disbelief. She couldn't tell if he was still annoyed about Mila eating all the chocolate earlier or the fact that both of them were obsessed with Easter just because of the candy. "Lo, why do you love the Easter Bunny?"
"Cos he's kind," He said sweetly, "And he's a bunny and bunny's are soft."
"That's a good reason," Hanna agreed.
"And he gives candy," Logan added nonchalantly.
"Not so good," She murmured, raising her eyebrows as she threw her phone back in her bag.
"Babe," Caleb shook his head as he indicated off and pulled into Rosewood Park. "You know I'm not religious," He started, "But even I think this is just some consumerisation of Jesus."
"What does the Easter Bunny and chocolate have to do with Jesus?" Hanna asked, confused.
"Exactly babe, exactly," Caleb muttered, still shaking his head as he parked the car before jumping out and heading to the back door to unstrap Mila.
"Daddy's grumpy," Logan drawled as Hanna pulled him out and put him down.
"He is," Hanna agreed, nodding solemnly, "So we need to be extra nice to him," She said, placing a hand on his shoulder to guide him to the back of the car where Caleb was pulling the stroller out.
"Mimi," He called, reaching for her to put her in as Hanna grabbed George from his cage and clipped his leash to his collar.
"No," Mila whined, wrestling against Caleb and twisting her body so that he couldn't strap her in. He took a deep breath as she started to cry in protest before Hanna realized what was going on and stepped in.
"Enough," She warned her little girl, picking her up and propping her on her hip before letting her continue to whimper in self-pity. "Logi do you want George?" She asked, handing the little boy the leash as he nodded vehemently. "Don't let him run away, okay?"
"Okay Mommy," Logan grinned, kneeling down to hug the puppy close.
"Babe," Hanna said to Caleb, reaching into the back for all the chocolate she'd packed. "Dump this in the seat," She said, passing it to him, "And can you grab my bag from the front?" She asked him.
"Sure," He muttered, letting Hanna make sure they had everything they needed before he reappeared and placed it in the empty seat of the stroller. "We seriously need some adult company," He murmured, slinging an arm around Hanna's neck and pressing a kiss against the side of her head as they started to move towards the center of the park.
"Am I not enough?" She asked him jokingly, patting Mila's butt as she started to finally breathe evenly and calm down. The chocolate she'd devoured earlier had clearly had a negative effect on her ability to control her emotions.
"You're always enough," He said, trailing his hand down to her lower back.
"Cute," She pouted up at him, before Mila stole her attention again as she wriggled to go down. "Go see Lo," She encouraged her, stroking down her dress before letting her run to catch up with Logan who was a few paces ahead of them with George.
"She's going to be the death of me," Caleb shook his head, his heart clenching as he took in the pretty picture of their blonde curly-haired toddler, dressed in the cutest pink dress, running across the grass with glee.
"Yep," Hanna agreed, patting his chest conciliatorily. "Lo, Aunty Spence is just over there near that tree," She called to their preschooler happily skipping along with George, who changed direction and headed straight for the mass of picnic blankets in plain sight.
Caleb was happy to see Toby when they found their friends and made a beeline for him for some 'normal guy-talk' whilst Hanna unpacked all their stuff and set up another picnic blanket. "Is Caleb alright?" Spencer asked Hanna as she helped her lay the blanket flat.
"He's in a bad mood," Hanna replied, squinting into the sun. "And the kids are driving him up the wall."
"Mama," Mila came over and pouted, toying with the ends of Hanna's hair as she knelt on the blanket.
"What?" Hanna pouted straight back, holding her waist gently as the toddler chewed on the end of her finger. "What's wrong?" She asked again, rubbing her leg soothingly. "Do you know you shouldn't have eaten all the chocolate earlier?" She said before the little girl looked down and avoided eye contact – she knew she'd been naughty.
"She ate it all?" Spencer asked, holding back a laugh.
"Pretty much," Hanna smiled, cradling the back of Mila's head as she somewhat fell against her chest. "All we saw was a little butt in the air before a face full of chocolate appeared," She shook her head, rubbing Mila's back soothingly.
"Babe, have we got any beer?" Toby asked, scooping Nori up from where she was playing contently with her toys to hold her close.
Spencer raised an eyebrow, "It's not even midday," She remarked, adjusting the little bow she'd put in Eleanor's hair.
"I know," He agreed, "But Caleb's stressed," He tried to justify.
"He doesn't look that stressed," She argued, both of them looking over at Caleb who was now play-wrestling with Logan on the ground.
"He's hiding it well."
"They're in the car," She shook her head, pulling the key out of her back pocket before plucking Eleanor from his grasp.
"Daddy no!" Logan shrieked on the other side of the blanket, completely on top of Caleb as he held his wrists. "I win, I win!" He squealed triumphantly.
"Okay," Caleb breathed heavily, "You win," He agreed, pressing a kiss against his head before Logan climbed off him and went back to playing with George again.
"Has he knocked the grumpiness out of you?" Hanna asked as Caleb rolled over and propped himself up on his side.
"No," He said, grinning at her, "But you can," He murmured, reaching for her.
"Or she can," Hanna agreed as Mila detached herself from her and instead moved over to Caleb to cuddle him close.
"Mimi, you know just how to test Daddy," He murmured, holding her against his chest and pressing kisses against her cheek as she settled on him.
"It makes it more rewarding though," Spencer smiled, rocking Eleanor back and forth.
"Tell me that when your child has the ability to vocally be defiant," Caleb replied, brushing Mila's hair back from her face.
"Look who I found," Toby grinned as he walked back over to them with Alison and Emily next to him, the latter of who had Bailey on her leash.
"Bailey!" Logan yelled with excitement, dragging George over to greet the dog.
"And what about me?" Emily asked, tickling him as he shrieked in her arms. She made him give her a kiss before she put him down and let him go back to playing with the dogs. "Where's Mimi?"
"Good luck," Hanna remarked, looking at Mila who was far too comfortable, sitting against Caleb, who had his arm hooked around her. "She's been in trouble and is trying to make it up to Daddy."
"What did she do?" Emily asked, a smile on her face as she leant down to give Mila a kiss.
"Ate all the chocolate for the egg hunt before we left the house," Caleb raised his eyebrows, grinning as Mila bashfully buried her head against his chest. "You did," He laughed, nuzzling his nose against her cheek. "You know you did."
"That is some serious making up," Alison agreed, sitting herself down next to Hanna and stretching out in the sun.
"She really hates when Daddy's mad at her," Hanna smiled, her grin growing as Caleb snuggled Mila close and then blew a raspberry against her neck, making her giggle with happiness.
"What time's the egg hunt?" Emily asked, happily moving to play with Logan when he kicked a soccer ball at her.
Hanna glanced at her watch and swore under her breath, "Very soon," She said, standing up, "Lo, you ready to go over and see Grandad and Grammy and get your basket for the Easter Egg hunt?"
"Yes!" Logan abandoned the game of soccer and raced over to Hanna, jumping up and down excitedly.
"Okay," She scrunched his hair as Caleb stood up and pulled Mila into his arms. "Let's go," She said, grabbing her purse and phone before they all headed over to see Ted and her Mom who were helping out the Church who'd organized the community event.
Logan practically screamed with happiness when he saw the Easter Bunny; rushing over to give him a hug and promise him he wasn't going to go in his carrot car. Caleb and Hanna both thought it was sweet and Hanna quickly took some photos before they both realized Logan was rather gleefully hogging the Easter Bunny all to himself and didn't want to let any of the other children have a hug, leading to some serious bribing on Hanna's part that he'd get candy if he let go.
"Ready?" Hanna held Logan back as he bounced around excitedly on the edge of the perimeter where the hunt was. He could see some of the eggs in the grass and was just itching to go and grab them.
"Ready Mommy!" He agreed, before the horn went and she let him rush forward to start picking up as many eggs as he could.
"Han," Caleb called, "Look at her," He grinned, nodding at Mila who had found the first egg she could see, sat herself down and started to try and eat it through the foil.
Hanna shook her head in disbelief and reached over to take the egg from her, unwrapping it before letting her munch on it happily. "Mimi, help Daddy get the eggs," She encouraged her, pointing at the other eggs that were dotted around the grass.
"Come help me," Caleb tried too, shaking her basket. "Come on," He laughed, pulling her close once she ran over to him, deciding hunting with Daddy was more fun than eating a chocolate egg on her own.
"Mommy," Logan whined as a bigger kid stole an egg right from underneath him.
"What?" Hanna asked as Logan stood up straight and began to cry. "Shh," She tried to soothe him, rubbing his back as everybody else around them carried on hunting for eggs. "Lo, there are lots more eggs left, but the more you cry the more other people will get them."
"Jesus would be disappointed to be seeing this," Caleb muttered, keeping his mouth shut when Hanna shot him a look.
"Lo, come on," Hanna tried, rolling her eyes as he continued to sniffle. "Look, there's more over near Daddy."
"Logi, there's a really big one right over here," Caleb agreed, semi-shielding a larger egg so that Logan could run over and pick it up to put in his basket.
"What about Mimi?" Logan asked, deciding he was over hunting for eggs for himself, instead wanting to make sure his sister had enough candy too.
"She's had enough chocolate," Hanna smiled, brushing the ends of Mila's curls with her fingers. "That's very nice though Lo," She reassured him as Caleb pressed a kiss against the side of his head.
"Can we give some to George?" He asked, holding up a handful of smaller eggs.
"No," Hanna shook her head, "We can't because it'll make George sick," She explained.
"Okay," Logan sighed, "I will just eated it all instead," He said, opening up the first wrapped egg before shoving it in his mouth.
"Not all at once, though," Caleb warned him, stealing an egg from his basket without him seeing.
"Mama," Mila started to cry unhappily, for seemingly no reason at all before both Hanna and Caleb watched as she threw up most of the chocolate she'd managed to eat, onto the grass… right in the middle for everyone to see.
"And that is why we don't eat it all at once," Caleb murmured, rushing forward to pick her up and carry her off to the car to let her calm down and then be cleaned up. "Hush," He whispered in her ear, rubbing her back soothingly and gently swaying from side to side as she limply hung over his shoulder.
"Is she done?" Hanna asked worriedly, opening up the boot and reaching for the spare blanket they had in there.
"Are you done?" Caleb repeated the question to Mila, stroking her hair back as she continued to meekly cry.
"No mo," Mila shook her head as the tears continued to fall.
"I know," He agreed softly, "No more chocolate."
Hanna reached up to undo the three buttons that were on the back of Mila's dress, before she tugged the thing over Mila's head to leave her only in her diaper and sandals. "Here," Hanna said, tucking the blanket around Mila's body before she moved around to the front of the car and searched for the bottle of water she knew was there.
"Mommy, is Mimi sick?" Logan asked quietly. He'd followed them over and abandoned the egg hunt to make sure his baby sister was okay. He couldn't remember seeing her sick before and it was scary how she'd just started crying.
"She is," Hanna agreed, stroking his hair, "She just ate too much chocolate and her body doesn't know what to do with it all."
Logan shook his head sadly, "Naughty," He muttered to himself.
Caleb swallowed a laugh, "She is naughty," He agreed, "But do you think Mila being sick is enough punishment?" He asked his little boy.
"Yes," Logan agreed solemnly, "I hate being sicky."
"I know you do," Caleb said sympathetically, "And if you only have a bit of chocolate each time, you won't be."
"Uh oh," He looked down at his basket, which was depleting rapidly. "Mommy," He immediately started to cry, "I don't wanna be sick."
"You won't be baby," She tried to comfort him, pulling him against her waist. "Take a deep breath," She attempted to get him to calm down, looking over at Caleb somewhat helplessly as Mila continued to whimper against his shoulder.
This was turning out to be some Easter.
Caleb and Hanna left not long after they were convinced neither Logan nor Mila were going to be sick in the car on the way home. Whilst Caleb had been looking forward to spending some time with his friends, really it had proved to be a pretty good excuse to go home and just spend some quality, uninterrupted time with his family.
Mila had moved into her adorable clingy phase and he was more than happy to cuddle with her on the sofa until she fell asleep for an afternoon nap. Hanna was convinced that it had just been too much chocolate in her system that had made her throw up, and once she woke up, they both knew she'd be back to being their excitable little girl.
Logan had spent the entire journey home crying, despite Hanna and Caleb asking him repeatedly if he thought he was going to throw up – to which the answer had been no. He was on a sugar high and when Hanna forced him to lie down for a bit, it was clear he was crashing and dozed off for a short nap.
"Wow," Hanna sighed as she slumped down into the sofa cushions. "We are never anything that involves the park and chocolate again."
Caleb laughed, "But it was so much fun," He said sarcastically, standing up and carrying Mila to the other sofa, where he gently placed her next to her brother and she carried on napping.
"They never fail to surprise me," Hanna murmured, rolling her eyes still in disbelief, until Caleb reached for her hand and pulled her towards their back garden. He sat himself down on one of their patio chairs and pulled Hanna onto his lap, allowing his hands to run up underneath her loose t-shirt to her ever-growing bump.
"If number three likes chocolate too," He started as his hand splayed over her skin, "We are screwed."
Hanna sighed happily and leant her head on his, "They will," She said, "It's a dominant Marin gene," She added, "Passed down through generations."
"Your Mom only likes dark chocolate," He argued.
"But she's not a Marin by blood," Hanna shrugged. "Look at Grandma," She spoke of Regina, "She's practically keeping Reese's in business!"
"She's not sick though."
"You've diluted the gene pool," She smiled at him, pressing a gentle kiss against his lips.
"Oh," Caleb rolled his eyes, "So it's my fault they're throwing up because of chocolate."
"Yep," Hanna laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck. "But I still love you."
"Mmm," Caleb murmured, encouraging her to give him a deeper kiss as he slanted his mouth over hers. They pulled apart as George trotted out onto the decking and barked unhappily.
"No," Hanna brought her hand to her mouth as the puppy stopped and began to make a funny noise. "No, he's not."
"He is," Caleb said in defeat as the blonde fur-ball began to throw up whatever disagreed with his tummy - 99.9 percent likely to be some type of chocolate. "Happy Easter babe."
Hanna buried her head against Caleb's shoulder, "You're right," She muttered, still in disbelief at what was happening. "This is just the consumerisation of Jesus and God is hating us for it."
"Yep," He replied in resignation. "He really is."
"Next year we're just going to Church."
Revieeeeeeeeew? x
