April 7th 2022
Chapter 97
Our Growth Into Family
The number of days they had left before summer's end was drawing shorter and shorter. As of that morning as they woke up, both Maya and Lucas remembered that the number had reached two. They had today, and tomorrow, and then it was back to high school, to preschool, to the afterschool program…
"I'm calling it," Lucas mumbled, holding on to his little spoon and pressing kisses to the flowers at her shoulder. "Family day. No running around, no doing any kind of errand, or chore, or anything like that. Just you and me and the girls."
"Read my mind," Maya hummed, letting herself take in the quiet of morning, the early sun, the nearness, and the touch of his lips at her skin. "Might just go back to sleep if this keeps up," she pointed out, waiting to see what he would do with that notion. Would he let her go back to sleep or compel her to stay awake? His response was expressed as his kisses began to travel from her shoulder and along the curve leading to her neck, and her throat, until she was encouraged to tilt from her side on to her back with a low laugh. How his hands could do so little but immediately go from feeling tender and caring to curious and enticing, she didn't know, but she enjoyed the result immensely. She smiled as his kiss finally reached her lips, let her hands do some exploration of their own, until…
"Mama!"
"Dada!"
It was impossible for them to hear these calls and not be drawn to listen. Everything stalled, save for their breathing, which had been running away from them. Lucas was better placed to get a look at the monitor and, when he did, he blinked in surprise, which made Maya frown and crane her neck to see.
"How the…"
"Can you go, I…" Lucas moved back on to his side of the bed.
"Yeah, take your time," Maya was briefly drawn back to the broken moment, and she chuckled, patting his arm before rolling to rise.
She did her best to pull herself together as she walked around the bed, out one door and through another, there to find the live version of what they had seen on the monitor, mainly all three of the one-year-olds out of their cribs and standing together, holding to the bars of Lucy's crib, there in the middle.
"Hey… good morning… what did you do?" Maya asked, unable to sound anything but awed as she crouched and knelt in front of her daughters. They all looked as though this was the most natural thing, even though to their mother's knowledge they had never done anything like this before. They'd just climbed out, all of them, even Lucy, who might have felt least likely to do so. She couldn't even be mad, and what would it have accomplished if she could?
"Mama!" Remy reached her hand to her, and Maya reflexively reached back, taking the offered hand which in turn allowed the girl to take a couple steps forward, enough to reach her. At the same time, as she was already holding her twin's hand, it made Kacey do the same thing. She was holding Lucy's hand, and Maya reached to take her littlest one's other hand, the better to secure her enough to take those two steps along with her sisters.
"You wanted to show me what you could do, huh, is that it?" Maya laughed, looking from one little blonde to the next. "Love the teamwork, good job! Are you three going to be running around by the end of the week, is that it?" She got some babbling from the twins, while Lucy tipped herself into her mother's hold and was gladly received.
The great crib escape was the big topic of conversation at breakfast soon after. Marianne was so bewildered and just a bit disappointed that she had missed the whole thing. The disappointment didn't last long, to no surprise, as she soon took this in stride and became determined to get her sisters walking some more as soon as possible.
"What else do you want to do today?" Lucas asked her. "Ella and Tori will be here soon." The mention of her big sister inspired Marianne.
"Can we go see Turtle?" she asked, sitting up at once. She got to go and see him plenty of times with her father, sometimes with her mother, too, even her aunts or her grandparents. Sometimes one of the Sandersons would come and get her and bring her to their farm for a visit, or Cole Dixon would stop over to collect the small girl on his way to visit his girlfriend, Missy. She got to see Turtle a whole lot. But she loved it the best when she got to go with her big sister, and she'd said as much to her parents and to Ella.
"When you say 'we,' does that include us or just you and Ella?" Maya quietly asked, and Marianne pressed her lips together until they nearly disappeared, like she was trying with all her might not to smile or give herself away to any degree. She did sort of envision heading up the road with her sister only, but she didn't want to say it and end up upsetting her parents. "If there's something you want, you can tell us," Maya reminded her with a nod. Marianne nodded back. "Breathe," Maya added, and Marianne unlocked her smile. "You want to go with just Ella?"
"Uh huh," Marianne confirmed.
"That's fine, you do that," Maya smiled. Marianne looked to Lucas, and he nodded.
"Only for a little while," the girl specified, and her parents agreed.
By the time Ella and Tori arrived, Marianne was all set to go see Turtle, and she was not kept waiting. Tori would go with them, too, of course. She may not have been 'baby sissy' anymore, but she wasn't about to be excluded. The trio marched up the road together, the little girls hand in hand just ahead of Ella, who always kept an eye out in case any vehicles came up from behind them.
They would be gone for an hour. In that time, Maya and Lucas took the triplets and the dogs outside. It was a beautiful late summer day, and it really wouldn't have felt right to stay inside. For that whole hour, it was constant, wonderful madness. All three of the girls could stand up with ease by now, and even take a few steps, and that change, that development, seemed to have indicated to the dogs that their smaller play pals could do more things with them. They had several of their soft dog toys at hand, and the girls would grab one and toss it as far as they could, immediately sending one or more of the dogs sprinting to find it and retrieve it. They'd bring the toy back to the one who'd tossed it, and they would receive an appreciative tap on the head in thanks. If they weren't playing catch, they would sometimes just sit on the ground for a bit of petting and cuddling. Oh, it was about as ridiculously cute as anyone could imagine, not that any of the girls or dogs were aware of this. To them, it was just some fun playing around outside.
When Ella and the girls returned from their visit with Turtle, it was nearly lunch time, so they stayed outside and played some more. Marianne had already told her sister and niece all about the crib escape, and her plan to help her sisters walk some more, so that was what they did with the rest of their morning. They'd already decided to follow their day's natural progression and have a picnic outside for lunch. And because it was their special day, they decided to call in an order from Ma Maggie's. The addition of some of their favorite food immediately ranked this as Marianne's favorite picnic ever.
"What should we do now?" Ella asked as they were picking everything up after their meal.
"I don't know, what do you think?" Lucas turned to Marianne and Tori. Ultimately, it would be up to them, wouldn't it? They'd all have the impulse to follow the small girls' lead.
"Wanna go in the pool?" Marianne turned to her niece, and she brightened at once. That sounded good!
So, they got all five of the small girls into their swimsuits while Lucas got the pool filled up and ready for them. After a bit more 'walk practice' on the lawn, where the triplets mostly regaled in the feeling of the grass under their bare feet, they were taken into the water. There wasn't so much of it, but Ella still climbed in with them, standing the whole while, in case someone needed a 'rescue.' The triplets had been getting swimming lessons from Keith Reyes, as their big sister had done a few summers back, and there was hardly any worry as to how they'd do in the smaller pool. Oh, they were so happy in there, Lucy especially… They could have stayed in there all afternoon and evening, too. At one point, Marianne had asked if they could put music, and rather than putting something on one of their phones, Maya had made her way over to the Hex and grabbed a guitar. She brought it back, sat down again, and she started to play and sing, taking requests as they came.
Finally, they had to leave the pool and get changed again. It felt only right that after eating from one of their favorite places in the area at lunch, they would eat from the other for dinner. They could have ordered it in again, maybe settled for another picnic or at least eat in the backyard, but instead they decided to get in the minivan and drive out to eat at Nando's diner directly. It was a very well received choice, maybe most of all by Nando Garcia himself, as he was thrilled to see the family whenever they stopped by.
Ella and Tori left after dinner. Much as they would have loved to stay, they had another two-hour drive ahead of them before they'd be home, out in Houston. And Ella had texts to read, for her classes. She'd started already, and so had Lea, and the routine may have been new, but she really needed to stick to it if it was going to work out. So, it was down to Lucas, Maya, Marianne, the triplets, and the dogs, back home for the evening, closing out family day. The question was turned again to Marianne: what should they do? She wanted to watch a movie, so they did that. Once it was done, the sleeping triplets were taken upstairs to their cribs – whether they would still be in them in the morning would have to be seen – and it was down to three on the couch. Marianne would be headed to bed very soon, and as her last choice of the evening, she asked for them to 'watch Nana,' so they put on an episode of Katy's series. Marianne spent about half of it just standing as she watched the screen before climbing on to the couch and squeezing herself between her parents for the latter half. They didn't know exactly when she'd fallen asleep, but when the credits rolled, she had her eyes closed and was breathing evenly.
"Are we staying down here or…" Lucas asked after getting up and pulling the sleeping pumpkin into his arms.
"No, I should really make it an early night, get back on schedule," Maya sighed as she stood, too, and turned the television off. "I'll close things up down here and meet you upstairs."
"Got it," Lucas nodded as he gently rubbed Marianne's back and moved to the stairs. The day had been everything they could have wanted it to be. The next one, their last one before the return to school, would close their summer, they hoped, with some more of what they'd had today.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
