Here's chapter six I'm having a lot of fun writing this story so I hope everyone is enjoying it as well. As always I love to hear what you think. And unfortunately I still own nothing.
"Time to wake up." I heard Jane call, but ignored it. "What do you think girls?" I felt him sit on the edge of the bed next to me, "Maybe she's sleeping beauty how do we wake her up?"
"You have to kiss her." Alyssa giggled.
"Yeah kiss her." Emily agreed.
"Well if you say so." Jane sighed, I could feel him leaning in.
"Don't you even think about it." I warned opening my eyes, he was hovering just over me with a smug grin on his face.
"To late, it's been thought about." He chuckled standing up and moving out of the way so I could get up.
"What are we doing today?" I yawned digging through my suitcase and realizing I was running out of clean clothes to wear I had packed for a couple days not a week.
"Patrick said he'd take us shopping." Alyssa grinned jumping on the bed.
"Shopping?" I questioned.
"Well we can't do something educational every day." He chuckled lifting the jumping girl off the bed. "And you are putting tennis shoes on today, you broke your promise yesterday."
"But Patrick." Alyssa pouted.
"Nope, you broke the promise." He shook his head.
"I told you she would." Emily reminded.
"Well both of you put your tennis shoes on." I cut in, "And I'll be ready in a couple minutes and Patrick and I will discuss this shopping over breakfast."
I don't know why I was surprised an hour later when we were walking down Michigan Ave. "There are two places we must go." Jane announced holding Cassandra in one arm and holding Emily's hand on the other side, while I carried William and held Alyssa's hand.
"And where would that be?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Well first we have the American Girl Doll store." He steered us through the doors. "You two pick out what you want."
"Do we get a doll?" Alyssa turned.
"How about a doll and three outfits each." Jane smiled at the excitement on the twins face.
"What about me?" William spoke up.
"You get the next stop." Jane promised.
"Jane you can't just buy all this stuff for them." I complained watching the girls run from one doll to the next.
"Of course I can." He argued, "You won't let me spoil you why can't I spoil them even for one day?"
"Because I know you and it won't be one day." I tried to protest.
"Did somebody not get the dolly they wanted when they were little?" He teased.
"You're right I didn't but what does that have to do with anything?" I snapped.
"Patrick can I get this doll?" Emily ran forward and pulled us toward the shelf.
"If that's the one you want go for it." Jane nodded, helping her get the box off the shelf.
"Aren't they a little young for these dolls?" I worried reading the recommended ages on the box. Jane looked at me for a second then shook his head without saying anything, which was very unlike him.
"I'm getting the blond one with short hair." Alyssa came running down the isle toward us. "Hey that one looks like mommy." She stopped and pointed at the one in her sister's hands.
"That's why I picked it." Emily nodded, carrying the box after her sister to look at clothes.
"Are you okay?" I followed Jane after the girls.
"Yeah I'm fine." He lied resituating Cass in his arms so he could take the boxes from Emily and Alyssa.
"Liar." I tried.
"You can't tell." He answered.
"This time I can." I returned, "I made the comment about the girls being to young and you got quiet. You're never quiet."
"You don't need to worry about it, it's nothing." He continued to brush me off.
"I'm going to continue to worry." I readjusted William so I could see Jane better.
"You want to know." He turned, and I nodded, "Every year Charlie wanted an American Girl Doll for Christmas because one of her friends had one, and every year Angie and I told her she was to young. Then the year we had agreed she was old enough… well she didn't make it to Christmas." He explained and then turned his attentions back to the twins before I could respond.
Was that what all this buying the girls whatever they wanted was about, did he just want to make up for his past. "Teresa look at this she's going to be a soccer player." Emily showed me one of the outfits.
"And mine's going to play softball." Alyssa added showing off one outfit, "And she has this pretty dress, and a pink long sweater to wear with jeans."
"Those look very pretty," I smiled, "And what about you Em?"
"I got a hoodie outfit with Jeans and then I got a stripe shirt with capris." She answered showing me the outfits as Jane led us to the check out.
"How about lunch and then we let Liam have his choice of toys." Jane offered, carrying all of the girl's bags in his free hand.
"Jane I'm sorry about earlier." I offered during lunch.
"You didn't do anything." He shrugged, "You didn't know."
"Didn't know what?" Emily questioned.
"We were just talking about my daughter." Jane admitted and I almost spit out my drink, I didn't expect him to tell them the truth, when I had to beg him to tell me. "And how much she wanted a doll, but didn't get one."
"That's sad." Alyssa frowned putting down her chicken strip.
"It's okay." Jane stated and I knew he was talking to me, "There's nothing to be sad about."
When lunch was over William got to choose from anything in the Lego store. "I want this one."
"Well isn't that ironic." I laughed, "Jane which one is you?"
"That is a circus Lisbon." He smiled with me.
"You mean you didn't have a tiger?" I teased.
"No, no tiger." He laughed.
"But I know for a fact you had an elephant, and you were the clown." I continued to tease him.
"Oh you think you're funny don't you." He grinned, and then turned to William, "but what about this one Liam." Jane pulled one off the shelf.
"Police officer!" William shrieked, and I couldn't help but smile.
"Hey Teresa, where's your motorcycle, this police officer has a motorcycle." He turned.
"Oh funny, well played." I laughed with him.
"I thought so." He smiled, "You can get both." He nodded to William, "Go ahead and pick out two more things, that way each of you get four." And in the end William got the circus, the police officer, a construction site, and a fire station.
"Now where to?" I wondered holding William in one arm and all of his new Legos in the other.
"Well I was thinking you could take the kids on a walk along the river, while I go pick something up." He shrugged pausing to sit on a park bench.
"Jane you're not wandering off on your own and leaving me with the four kids." I warned, sitting next to him and letting the girls hop up on my other side.
"Of course not, I know how you feel about holding Cass so I can watch her unless you want to of course." He smiled, bouncing the baby girl in his lap.
"Jane you are not wandering off with a baby, I don't know what kind of trouble you're planning." I snapped.
"Honestly Lisbon what do you think I'm going to do?" He chuckled, but I didn't grin, he had a bad habit of finding trouble. "I saw a store back there that the kids wouldn't be interested in, I was hoping you could take them for twenty minutes while I look around."
I looked down the block and then back to him, "fine twenty minutes not a second longer." I gave in.
"Can we take our dolls out of the box? They want to see the river to." Emily wondered looking at the bags at Jane's feet.
"I think that's a great idea." I nodded letting Jane hand me the bags to help them open up their dolls.
"Now remember these are very nice dolls so you want to be good to them." Jane warned, taking the empty boxes back to put in the bag. "Now you three be good for Teresa, I'll be back soon."
They all nodded, and he took the diaper bag off my shoulder just in case. As I was walking along the river watching the girls play with their new dolls something started to dawn on me. These past two days I had been acting more like a witness sitting on the sideline and letting Jane take care of the kids if something needed to be done. I had stepped in occasionally, but in the end it was still Jane who did most of the parenting so far. These were my kids now weren't they, well as soon as I get home and get the last of the paperwork sent in and have a couple scheduled visits with a social service worker they were mine. That's when I stopped in my tracks these are my kids.
"Teresa are you okay?" Emily turned back to look at me, noticing that I had stopped.
"You look kinda funny." Alyssa agreed.
"No I'm fine, I was just thinking about something." I admitted readjusting William on my hip and hurrying to catch up.
"Were you thinking about us?" Emily asked.
"Sort of, I was thinking about how I don't think I can let Patrick buy you a whole bunch of toys anymore." I announced.
"Why not?" Alyssa pouted, "I like my new doll."
"I'm not going to make you give back the doll, I just think that if you get everything now what are you going to get for Christmas." I decided that sounded like a good enough argument.
"Is Patrick going to live with us when we go back to your home?" Emily wondered.
"Maybe at first to help us get settled, but my house isn't very big, in fact it's just an apartment." I frowned realizing that once we got home I only had one spare bed and the sleeping arrangements would be the same as here. I should probably look into getting a house, where was I going to find the money?
"If you live in apartment are we all going to fit, where does he live is it bigger?" Alyssa questioned.
"I don't really live anywhere." Jane answered walking up behind me, he didn't appear to have any extra bags on him, but he had exceeded his twenty-minute time limit. "Sorry I had to change a diaper." He shrugged.
"Likely story." I retorted but figured it was probably the truth.
"What do you mean you don't live anywhere?" Emily frowned, "You have to live somewhere."
"Well sometimes I sleep at a motel, but most the time I just sleep at work." He explained.
"Why?" William spoke up twisting in my arms to see Jane.
"I don't know because it was always easiest just to sleep there." He attempted.
"Patrick was punishing himself for bad things he did when he was younger." I added.
"What bad things?" Alyssa questioned.
"I lied to people a lot." Jane explained, and I realized I had probably put him in an uncomfortable situation how do you tell five years about the mistakes you made. "But we all know that is a very bad things right." He added.
"How about some dinner and then maybe we can go swimming at the hotel." I stopped the conversation.
"I wanna walk." William squirmed in my arms.
"Alright but hold your sisters hand." I set him down on the ground, I was going to take some initiative, I could do this, "Jane can I hold Cassandra?"
"All you had to do was ask." He grinned, handing me Cass. I took the girl, she was so small I pulled her in close to me keeping my hand behind her little head. "Look no tears." He chuckled, taking the bags from the Lego store off my arm.
"She's sleeping." I whispered, I didn't realize I was whispering until after I had said it, but the little girl was so peaceful in my arms that I didn't want to do anything to wake her.
"I was actually talking about you." He teased, my first instinct was to slap him, but with Cass in my arms I couldn't.
"Come on you three Patrick is going to pay for dinner." I announced and he just grinned