Pail laid in his bed staring at the ceiling when he heard Madison start to cry from Stephanie's room. Stephanie was in the shower so he got up and slowly went into her room, "hi Maddy, what are you crying for huh? Are you hungry?" He took her out to the kitchen where Steph usually had milk in the fridge. There was one little bottle left so he put it in the microwave and gently bounced Madison in his other arm.
He was sitting in his chair feeding her when Stephanie came running out, "oh, you have her. I heard her crying and I was trying to shower as fast as I could."
"I heard her so I thought I could help you out while you were busy." He looked up and saw she was wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around her, "uh," he stuttered, "you could get dressed and all that, I've got her. It's fine." He tried not to stare at her.
"Okay." She smiled at the sight of him holding her, and from the look if it, he seemed to enjoy it just as much, "thanks Paul." She turned around and went towards her bedroom.
"No problem." He stared down at Madison, happily. He had always told himself he didn't want kids, because he just didn't have the time for them, and it would be unfair for them to be raised like that. But there were times like this, or when he held his sister's kids, where he wished he did have the time, a long time ago.
After she finished her bottle, Paul stood up and reached for a towel on the couch, he put Madison on his shoulder and gently rubbed her back, slightly patting it. He glanced up to see Stephanie standing in the entranceway, watching him, "Paul, you're great with kids." She sat across from him.
"I've been told that plenty of times." He smiled and held Madison out to her, "she's actually a pretty calm one. You're lucky."
She held Maddy over her shoulder, "don't think I can't tell you want to be a daddy." She eyed him, "you're only what, 39? In about five years, you'll be 45, you still have time to meet someone and have a family."
"And If I had a baby at 46, by the time its 18 and graduated high school, I would be 64." He sat back, "its too late Stephanie, I waited like, way too long."
"For you being a guy, its not too late, you make a lot of money and I'm sure there's some younger girl out there who would love an older guy with money to have babies with."
He gave her a horrified glare, "that just came out sounding really creepy."
"You could adopt you know, you could adopt a kid that's like five, and then you'll be 59 when he or she graduates." She patted Madison's back, "or adopt a ten-year old."
"Why are we having this conversation?" He got up, "I'm walking away from this." He started towards the kitchen when the phone rang. He looked at the caller ID screen, then Stephanie, before answering it, "hi Laurie."
"Paul, what are you guys doing today? How's Stephanie?" She sounded as if she'd drank two Red Bulls, "the kids want to come see you."
"Today?" he looked at the clock, I'm not even dressed right now," he thought, "yeah, we have nothing planned for today, so I guess you guys could come over." He heard her yell out to the kids, then he heard his youngest nephew scream back, "wow, they must be excited."
"Yeah," she laughed, "so, how's marriage treating you? Must be nice." She sighed, "I miss being married, I wish Jim and I could've worked things out. But hey, things happen."
"Hmm." Paul just stayed quiet. Laurie and Jim separated a year after their youngest, Lily, was born. They were married for 13 years. Laurie was just 20 when they married and had their first daughter, Samantha, a year later. Followed by Trevor and Joey, "well, have you gone out with anyone yet?"
"A few guys, but not any that can handle four kids. Maybe when they're older and can entertain themselves, I'll find someone."
"Yeah," he nodded, "well I guess I'll go get in the shower and put everything breakable away. What time do you think you'll be getting here?"
"Probably in about two hours. I'm gonna get dressed and get everyone else ready to go. See you then."
"Okay, see you then." He pulled the phone away and hung up, "the kids are coming, if you have anything laying around anywhere, put it away. Cause they'll find it. And they show no compassion to belongings. They will destroy anything. The computer's fairly new because of them."
"Can't I just close the door?" She saw he looked a little irritated, "what's wrong? Are you not happy they're coming? You could have just said no, right?"
"Yeah, I cold have, but I haven't gotten to spend a lot of time with them, and I didn't think before I answered her." He rubbed his eyes and sighed, "just make sure there's nothing on the floor in your room, they'll probably open the doors, but as long as nothing is on the ground for them to play with, its fine," he started to think, "oh, put all your stuff either away out of sight or in my room, and put the bed away, fold it back into the couch, and we'll make it look like its Madison's room."
"Oh, alright," she got up, "can you help me? I can't do it by myself." She followed him to her room, "is that all that's bothering you?"
He shrugged, "well, yeah, pretty much." He pointed at the bed, "just put all the blankets on my bed and I'll fold this up for you."
She picked up her blankets and her pillow and went to his bedroom. When she opened the door, she looked around. It was the first time she'd been in there. This room had to have been half the house, and it was just as masculine as the rest, maybe a little more with the smell of his cologne lingering in the air. She snapped out of her thoughts and quickly threw everything on his messy, unmade bed.
"Took you long enough." He was standing in her doorway waiting for her to come back out, "what were you doing in there?"
"Nothing." She gave him a weird look, "actually, your bed was so messy I was contemplating making it, but then I decided not to because I know how you get about me touching your things." She started to shove all of Madison's baby stuff into her diaper bag.
"You could've, if it bothered you that bad." He turned around and disappeared down the hallway, "I'm gonna clean my living room. I have to put all the breakable things away, like pictures, the remote, I'm gonna close the TV cabinet too."
"Are they really that bad? I mean, do you have to hide they car keys too? You make it seem like they're psycho."
"Wait until Madison gets a little older. You'll see, they are psycho," he sat in his chair, "I haven't left the keys out yet, I don't know about that. But I do know that the remote has been jumped on, pillow fights have broken out, resulting in shattered picture frames and the flat screen falling forward, right out of the cabinet. How many more examples of crazy do you need?"
"I get it." She nodded, watching Madison play in the portable crib, "don't you have to take a shower?"
"Yes I do, thanks for reminding me." He quickly got up and walked to his room, shutting the door behind him.
They were eating breakfast at the dining table when car doors shut outside, followed by the sound of a sliding door being shut, then kids whining, "you put everything away right? They're gonna hit like a tornado at first, just letting you know."
"My room is clean, so is the hallway bathroom." She took a bite of pancakes just as the doorbell rang, "I can get the door if you want."
"Okay, sure," he sat back down in relief and started to eat again, "thanks."
Stephanie opened the door and smiled, "hi Laurie, hi kids." She patted Joey's head as he passed right by, "come in, please, Paul and I were just eating breakfast actually." She hugged Laurie and Samantha, "how are you guys?"
"We're just fine. The main thing is how are you?" She was grinning from ear to ear, "let Paul have the kids for awhile, he'll be fine." She pulled Stephanie to the couch, "if you don't mind me asking, who's Madison's father? It's not my brother right?"
Steph shook her head, "no, she's my ex-fiancé's. He died in a car accident when I was six months along." She held back tears, "I wish she was Paul's, it so cute to watch him hold her," she couldn't believe what had just come out of her mouth, "and it would save us the trouble of having to tell her the truth when she sees her birth certificate one day."
"Yeah, I don't think my brother wants kids really, he's never wanted to talk about it though. It makes my mom crazy, she really wants grandchildren from him, which I don't see why its so important, since she has four from me. I would say that's enough, but I guess its not for her." Laurie sighed, "I don't know why it was so hard for him to meet someone, but he kinda said it was because of you."
"Me?" Stephanie's heart sunk a little, she knew what that meant. Paul didn't have a life outside of work because of her, he'd even told her that. The problem was that he did meet people, but she always called him at the wrong time, like when he was out on a date. Everyone he dated left him at the restaurant because they thought he was married to her, "what do you mean me?"
"Well, you know, he said you're very, um," she sighed and tried to come up with something nice, "uh, see, I only know his side of the story, but he always said you needed him all the time, more than normal. And you're always yelling at him about stuff. Most people would see that as you being, a little bit…"
"A bitch, I know." Stephanie smiled, "he told me," she cleared her throat, "so, um, what else has he said about me? Besides the fact that I've been a bitch to him for a long time."
"Nothing more really." Laurie nodded, "you guys are so in love, I can just see it! I can see it when I look at him though, he looks happy."
Stephanie looked up at him, not noticing anything new in his facial expressions. Maybe around her, he was always happy, or maybe she just couldn't see it through her gloominess, "I know right?" She bit her lip and stared at him as he smiled, playing with niece Lily.