Well, well, well... this is the end, guys... it's come in 2 parts, because it was too long for just one chapter. I hope sincerely you've enjoyed reading this story. I am going to be now working on New York Evening for a little while. Please leave me some feedback and tell me if you've enjoyed this one as much as I've enjoyed writing a little semi A/U fan fic and thank you all so much for reading! Lots of love to you all.
"Come on guys, I need you to please pay attention, we only have a little while left and then we are going to all get to go home to our brothers and sisters and Moms and Dads…"
"Are you going to see your Mommy and Daddy?," one of Trevor's youngest students asked.
"Yes, Colton, I actually am going to see my Mommy and Daddy this weekend. I am taking my three children and little miss Ruby and Mrs. Langson and we are going to stay at my parents house."
"What will you do there?," another girl asked.
"Remember," he reminded them, "raising hands to talk," he gave them a demonstration before turning back to the little girl, Layla, "I'm going to see my sister and we are going to have a party. So, let's keep our voices down and I think I'm going to set the timer for five minutes and you can put your counting blocks away and then we'll do something fun and relaxing for the rest of the afternoon."
He was exhausted. He had been up all night with Luca and Olivia had been nursing Lexi who was dealing with a head cold. Once the kids finally went to sleep, he was awoken constantly with the toddler kicking and punching both of them in her sleep.
He couldn't wait to be at his parents house because he knew it was where he could at least get one or two decent night's of sleep or at least a very good day nap.
"Mr Langan!" Priya, a small girl in the back rose her hand eagerly. "Mr Langan!," she called out. He felt frustrated that they struggled to learn to raise their hand.
"Priya, raise your hand and I will get to you," he told her gently. "You need to be patient."
"It's an emergency!," she told him out loud as some of the other children laughed.
The boy next to her began to giggle, "Mr Langan Priya is pee-peeing!," he threw his head back and giggled as the little girl sat wide-eyed in shock at her own accident.
He felt a pang of guilt hit him hard. He knew better, it was entirely his fault. "Okay, everyone up from their desks and go and take a book from the library and look at those books quietly. I don't want to hear a word from anyone. If there aren't enough books you'll need to share. Do I make myself clear?"
The children got the point that he wasnt messing around. "Priya you can sit there for just a moment," he told her softly. He watched all the children follow his instructions. "We are reading silently, if I hear any words I will be very cross. That includes you Liam," he told the little boy who was sitting by Priya, still snickering away to himself.
He made his way over to the small girl. "Priya," he spoke very quietly, not wanting the other children to hear. "I am very sorry that I didn't listen to you when you told me you had an emergency. Have you had an accident?"
Tears streamed down her face as she nodded.
"Its okay," he smiled, "accidents happen and you don't have to be embarrassed. Do you know if Mommy packed you some spare clothes?"
She nodded. "Okay, would you like me to go and get Mrs. Belmont to help you or do you think that we can just go to the bathroom and you can get changed? I will give you a bag for your other clothes."
The little girl sniffled and sobbed and he couldn't convey just how bad he felt. "I can do it," she said softly. "Okay," he gave her a little smile. "I'm very sorry Priya, this isn't your fault, this is my fault. If you'd like to wait here I can get your change of clothes, is it in your bag?"
She nodded again. He glanced out over toward the children who were busying themselves chatting quietly. Some caught his eye and quickly looked back down. He went to the back of the room and came across Priya's clearly labeled backpack. He rifled around until he found a small bag that had a spare pair of under pants and jeans.
"I am going to leave the room for just one moment and if I hear anyone raising their voices or getting silly, I will be very upset, is that clear?," he asked his class.
They all nodded. He knew he was using his stern voice, but he needed to keep them in line for just a moment. "Priya, would you like to come with me?"
She was reluctant to get up. "Its okay," he said with an encouraging smile. He held his hand out, "dont worry, it can be cleaned."
Trevor heard giggling behind him. He whirled around, his eyes darting at the boy who had laughed when she'd had her accident. "Liam, get up and go and sit in time-out. Hit the stop clock on your way past and you are to face the wall until that buzzer goes off."
He glowered at Trevor and reluctantly got up and hit the stop watch and went to sit in the designated time out seat that faced the window. "We do not laugh at our friends. We show them love and compassion. I will be back in a few minutes."
Priya took his hand and Trevor guided her to the small shared bathroom between Mrs Belmont's room and his own. He asked Priya to wait a moment before he knocked on the door that separated the bathroom from the other teacher's room. Mrs. Belmont looked up and smiled at Trevor. She halted her class for a moment as she waved him in. He just opened the door ajar. "Hi Mrs. Belmont," he greeted her, "could I speak to you for a moment?"
"Of course," she smiled when she realised he was holding a spare pair of clothes and the hand of the little girl.
"We dont want to make a big deal of this, but Priya had a little accident," he said in a hushed voice. "She's very upset and embarrassed but it's my mistake, I wasn't listening properly. I'm just wondering if you wouldn't mind helping her and making sure she doesn't require anything?"
"Of course," Amy Belmont smiled at him.
Trevor felt relief. "Thank you."
"It's no problem." She turned to Priya, "honey, why don't you go in to the bathroom and remove your wet clothes and I'll be one second and I'll bring you a bag for your things and Mr Langan can call the janitor so that she can quickly clean up your desk and it'll be as good as new!"
Priya nodded, shuddering from her sobs.
"Thanks Priya. I might give Mommy a call too and see if she wants to come and see you a little earlier today," he told her, resting his hand on her shoulder.
"Thank Mrs. Belmont."
"I'll bring Priya back in just a moment," she promised.
/
Trevor went back to his class and took and made a phone call to the janitor's office and then to Priya's mother who was on her way to pick her up anyway. She didn't seem too concerned.
"Mr Langan did Priya tinkle in her pants?!" Daniel asked him, causing other kids to giggle.
"Guys, we need to have a serious talk," he told them, getting on to his knees on the rug. "We are all friends in this class room. I don't want anyone to make fun of anyone else for any reason. Sometimes when we are five or six, accidents still happen. Sometimes we have bathroom emergencies and we don't always get there on time and you know what? It's nobody's fault. How do you think you might feel if you had an accident?" Trevor asked, looking the children in the eye. "You'd feel sad and embarrassed right?"
The kids nodded.
"Right, so when someone has an accident whether it be a bathroom accident or a different accident, we aren't going to make our friends feel embarrassed, and we're not going to laugh at our friends are we?"
They shook their heads.
"What are we going to do instead?," he asked. "Raising hands please…"
One of the girl's shot her hand in the air. "Astrid, what are we going to do instead?"
"We are going to tell our friend it's okay and make her feel better."
"Great! We are gonna say, hey, its okay, sometimes things happen, I understand." He coached them, "that's what we're gonna say."
He smiled at the kids, "You have to be nice to everyone, you have to treat other people like you would like to be treated. Is that understood?"
The children nodded. "If I hear of anyone being mean or laughing at Priya or telling other kids about her accident, I will be very upset and we will be having a very serious talk."
"Is she okay?," one of his favourites, despite knowing he shouldn't have them, Lily asked, forgetting her hand. Before he had the chance to remind her, she shot her hand up and apologised. He couldn't help but to smile.
"Yes, Priya is fine, she's a little sad so I want you all to be extra kind to her this afternoon."
He looked up to see the janitor and waved her inside. He got up and asked the kids to carry on with their reading for a few more minutes. He quietly explained the situation to the janitor and thanked her profusely for her help.
Amy Belmont appeared in the doorway so Trevor made his way over. He could have benefitted from a big dinosaur coffee. "We're all fixed up, right Priya?," she looked up at the teacher and nodded.
"Great, I'm glad to hear that. Mrs. Belmont handed her a plastic bag with her other clothes in it. "I'd like you to go and put these on the hanger next to your bag or beneath your bag, sweetheart and then you can go and join the other children on the rug."
"Thank you Mrs. Belmont for your help, I appreciate it."
She smiled at him, "No problem Trevor," she replied as the little girl did as she was told. "If you need anything else, let me know."
"I'm sorry I bothered you, I just had one of my students get removed because parents were funny about me being a male teacher and I just…"
"No, it's fine. I understand. But you know, fuck," she whispered the swear word, "what people say, this is your job and you went through a vetting process. You also have three children, you know what you're doing."
"I just need a little confidence, I guess," he agreed. "Thanks again."
"I don't mind, always feel free to come and grab me if you need. I do mean that."
"Thanks," he flashed her a smile and let her get back to it.
"Okay guys, I think everyone can put their books away and we're gonna sit on the rug and do you think maybe I should get my special guitar out?"
The kids got excited, loving his the sound of his mandolin. He went to grab it and found a space on the rug. "What song are we gonna sing today?," he asked them with a big grin. "No call outs, I'm gonna give you kiddos some options, so we'll work on the songs that I taught you last week…"
Trevor had taught them the first verse and and the second verse of All You Need Is Love by The Beatles — one of the songs that he played the best and a Bob Marley song that the kids loved because it was mostly simple — Three Little Birds
"Hands up in the air if you want to sing Three Little Birds?," he asked. Over half of the kids hands shot up. Trevor laughed. "Okay, that's most of you, let's sing that one."
He got comfortable and began to play the mandolin slowly, easing in to the song. "Now, I'll sing a line and if you remember you can sing with me, otherwise, I'll sing a line and you guys repeat it, okay? And then we'll sing it all together."
He loved the smiles on their little faces, fascinated to watch him play the instrument.
Don't worry about a thing… he sang. He remembered feeling a little self-conscious about singing when he was an early grad teacher, but he knew it was something he had to get over because children weren't trained pop singers either and had no sense of tone, key or pitch, but over the years he recognised that he wasn't overly terrible and could somewhat carry a tune.
The kids repeated the line after him. He smiled and nodded encouragingly
"Cause everything is gonna be alright…"
They continued through the song until they were more familiar with it. They sang through the whole song together as a class as the parents began to arrive to pick up their children. He always invited them to come in to the class and wait at the back.
He looked up to see Priya's mother arrive with her tiny baby brother. He nodded at her with a smile as they drew their song to an end. "Very good, you guys, you sounded great… some of your Mommy's and Daddy's have arrived and we have a few more minutes so we're going to sing one more song and show our visitors our lovely singing voices…" he looked at Priya, "Priya, honey, would you like to go and see Mommy now?"
She nodded slowly, her lower lip wobbling. "Off you go."
She got up and ran to her Mom who held her arms open. She swept up her daughter and gave her a hug as she burst in to sobs again.
They sang their second song and the parents waiting gave the kids a some polite claps. "Guys, if your Mommy or Daddy or caregiver is here, you are welcome to go and say hello and get ready to go home, but if not, they'll be very close so find an activity to do but remember that you'll need to clean up any mess before you go home."
He got up and placed his Mandolin back in to the case and locked it away from little hands before going to see Priya's Mom and the small student. "Hi Mrs. Dasilva," he greeted her.
"Hi Trevor, tough day, huh?," she smiled at the teacher who towered over her, much-less her smaller daughter.
"It actually was a pleasure as usual. It always a pleasure to come and teach these guys after teaching the big kids at the high school."
Mrs. Dasilva laughed. Trevor turned his attention to Priya, "are you feeling better now that Mommy's here?"
She nodded and buried her head in to her shoulder. "Mrs. Belmont from next door helped Priya with her change of clothes and we got everything cleaned up and all our friends understood that accidents sometimes happen and that its no problem."
"Thanks Trevor and thanks for letting me know. I appreciate it. Little miss just loves your class." She leaned over quietly and conspiratorially, "and she likes Hilary just fine but she asks me every day if it's Mr. Langan's day…"
Trevor chuckled. "Well that's such lovely news to hear." He reached out and gently put his hand on Priya's small shoulder. "It's my favourite thing to see your faces on the days I get to come and teach."
Priya smiled shyly. "Okay, I think Mr. Langan probably has to finish saying goodbye to everyone so say goodbye until Tuesday."
Priya looked at her teacher and put her arms out to give him a hug. He grinned at her and put his arms out, Priya's mother letting go of her daughter. It was his first hug from a student and he relished it. He held her in his arms for a moment before setting her down on to the ground. "Thank you for that wonderful hug, Priya. Did you have a good day?"
She nodded.
"That's great to hear. I'll see you on Tuesday, okay?"
"Bye Trevor!," she waved.
"No, no, it's Mr. Langan," her mother corrected her.
"It's okay," Trevor replied, "I don't mind if they call me Trevor. I've been called a lot worse," he chuckled.
He continued to speak to parents until he realised there was just one child left without a parent waiting. "Hey Stevie, looks like Mom is running a bit late. Do you think we should give her a call?"
He looked up and nodded, adorning his mouth. "Daddy said Mommy is always late."
"That's okay," Trevor smiled. "We'll find out where Mom is." he found his cell phone and went through the class directory and called the dizzy mother who apologised profusely and remarked that she just hadn't noticed the time. He couldn't help feeling irate as he needed to leave as soon as possible to pick up Kaci for gym.
"Mom's not too far away, kiddo, do you want to help me do some special jobs while we wait?"
"Uhuh!" He got up and nodded, his interest piqued.
Trevor opened a text message, "Hi Kace, I'm going to be ten minutes late, don't worry, I'll get you to training on time. Please don't worry. I'll message as soon as I'm waiting out front of the precinct." He put the phone down and turned to the student, "Okay, let's walk around and see if there's anything on the floor that needs to be picked up like pencils or crayons or a toy that hasn't been put away…"
Trevor smiled as the little boy whipped around doing one of his jobs for him. "Finished!" He called out, holding up two pencils and a sharpener.
"Great job, thank you!" He saw the mother rushing in just as Trevor was about to check the cubby's to make sure no one left any food behind.
"I'm sooo sorry!," she apologised, busting through the door. "Stevie, I'm so sorry, please don't tell your father okay?"
"Its okay, Stevie was just helping me with some jobs," he informed her. He grabbed his own bag pointedly and put his cell phone in his pocket.
She grabbed her son's bag. "Say thank you to Mr. Langan, Stevie."
"Bye Mr. Langan!"
"Bye guys. Have a good weekend."
The mother gave him a sheepish smile as they left as quickly as she had arrived.
/
"Walk it off, Kace, it's okay…" Trevor told Kaci after she fell forward from the vault, just not getting enough height. He could see she was exhausted. "Take some deep breaths," he told her gently. He passed her his water bottle. She looked irritated but he was at least impressed by her focus. She had no plans of giving up and that's the kind of drive he loved to see in an athlete.
She handed him the bottle back. "I don't think you need me to start spotting you again, I think you're letting self doubt creep in," he suggested.
Kaci said nothing but nodded. "Do you need me to shut up?," he asked with a little smile, "am I making you mad?"
"No. The vault is making me mad because I know I can do it," she told him finally meeting his eye.
"I think you might be jumping a tiny step short of your mark so you're hitting it a tiny second too late so it's when your hands hit the vault, you're already propelling forward so you're falling forward and not sticking it."
Kaci nodded in agreement. "Yeah…"
"Do you want me to tell you the second you're about to hit the mark?," he offered.
Kaci shook her head, "no thanks. I need to get a feel for it myself or else I'll never work it out."
Trevor smiled. "Okay give it another shot. I know you can do it, you know you can do it so give it your best.
He watched her make her way slowly to the end of the aisle as the coach came to stand beside Trevor. "Ever thought about coaching for real? You're basically doing my job for me."
Trevor laughed, "I'm a wearer of far too many hats at the moment, I think. Kaci doesn't have a Dad and she and her Mom are close family friends, so… I'm just here to support her."
The coach, Shannon, smiled. "She's a great little ball of strength. I could really use a hand if you ever feel like you want to reconsider."
"I do want to reconsider," Trevor admitted, "I actually love watching these kids, they're incredible, but I am still learning about gymnastics and my wife's just had a baby, so… it's hard to take on more stuff right now."
"Well, even on a friday night, spotting help is always deeply appreciated and the rest can be taught. Think about it," he replied.
"Will do," Trevor promised. He glanced down the end of the run at Kaci who was watching them for their attention. "Come on kiddo, you can do this…" Trevor murmured, nervous for her. He stepped up to the vault to spot her in case she wasn't quite successful. The coach stuffed the clipboard beneath his arm and clapped for her. "Come on Kaci, you can do this! Hit your mark and you've got it!"
All they could hear was the plodding of her feet hitting the mat, sprinting toward the spring board to facilitate her jump on to the vault. She held her body tight, her stomach muscles tightened as she hit the springboard with both feet, making wide-arm circles as Shannon had shown her to create more force before she propelled her body forward, panicking slightly as she did every time she became airborne. She felt the vault beneath her hands and pushed off as if she was doing a hand spring and felt her body continuing with the flip until the ground was suddenly beneath both feet.
The relief swept over her and a grin filled her face as she stuck the landing. She glanced at Trevor and her coach and laughed happily. "I did it!"
"You did it!," Trevor told her, excited. "Good stuff, honey!" Trevor engulfed her in a hug and celebrated her win before he let go of her.
Shannon held up a hand to give her a high-five. "See, Kaci, all those drills that you hated so much came in handy, didn't they? They were important. And guess what?"
"What?," she asked.
"I want you to do that ten more times tonight… and then we are going to do the drills again. It feels stupid, I know, but they are all about getting your core strength right. Do you trust me that I know what I'm talking about?"
She nodded with a smile. "Yeah… but I just wanna be an expert already," she joked.
"Okay well there's a little ways to go before you're Simone Biles so let's pace ourselves," he smiled at her.
"Thanks coach and thanks Trevor."
/
"I'm so exhausted," Trevor remarked, struggling to keep his eyes open on the last bit of the journey, wishing that he had organised to go to his parents house on Saturday morning, but everyone was driving up early for a birthday party that he really had no say in.
"Do you want to pull over and let me drive?," Olivia asked. Noah was travelling with Tara and Kaci and both kids were asleep in the back.
"I think I'll be okay—" he paused blinking hard. "Actually no, I should pull over, yeah, maybe you should drive," he replied.
"Yeah, good idea…" she murmured. He'd hardly said much in the last half an hour and they still had a little under half an hour left. Slowly he pulled the car to a halt on the side of the freeway. Olivia and Trevor both got out and swapped spots. She waited patiently until she was able to indicate back on the road.
"Sorry, Liv…" he apologised, "I know you're tired too.
"Yeah but I'm okay, you don't have to be sorry. You were so busy today. You were up super early and your day ended a bit rough and then you had to take Kaci to gym… its totally fine. Why don't you just take a nap?"
"No…" he murmured, reaching for her hand as she drove. "I just don't think I was concentrating very well on the road."
"Its okay baby," Olivia replied, giving his hand a squeeze. "We both have our days."
Despite not wanting to go to sleep, it wasn't long before Olivia could hear Trevor's light snoring in the passenger side. She considered calling Tara to see how far away she was but she figured that they were having their own adventure. It was the first time Tara had the bravery to involve Renee and Kaci had begged Noah to be able to ride in their car to make things less awkward.
/
Noah gave Kaci's hand a squeeze. "Did you and your Mom enjoy Wicked last weekend?," Renee asked, turning from her passenger seat to glance at the teen.
Kaci couldn't help but to grin. Wicked was the most incredible thing she'd never seen. "Yeah, it was so good. Thank you for the tickets… Mom and I had never seen a broadway show before."
"You're welcome, I'm just glad you loved it so much. What was your favourite part?," she wondered.
Kaci wanted to hate her, she wanted to find so much wrong with her Mom's girlfriend, but the harder she tried, the more likeable Renee was. "Mmmm," Kaci glanced at Noah and smiled, "Noah has seen it a bunch of times and we both love the part before the intermission, the big, big song," she replied, "where the witch transcends…"
"Defying gravity," Noah told her with a little smile. "Mom and I love that one the most too," he told her.
"I've heard so much about your Mom, Noah, I can't wait to meet her. From what Tara tells me, she's a bad ass."
"She is," Noah confirmed. "She's the best there is. A female super power."
Renee grinned and turned to Tara. "You're surrounded by the best people, Tara, you're very lucky… I wish I had this many cool people in my life."
Tara glanced at her and smiled. She was feeling a little self-conscious, worried about what Kaci would think. They'd all officially met the weekend before for a Sunday night dinner and Kaci was a little stand-offish, but Renee didn't mind, she knew that Tara's daughter would take some time to warm to her.
"I am lucky and I'm even luckier that my sweetheart little girl has a lot of very strong role-models in her life…" she paused, "actually, you didn't tell me, babe, how was gymnastics tonight? How did you go with Trevor?"
Kaci smiled, at her Mom in the rearview mirror, wanting her to know she was trying and wasn't holding any grudges with her bringing Renee. "Good, coach Shannon offered him a job helping coach, but Trev told me while he enjoys it, he knows he'd be a little biased and is more interested in helping me…he helped me do a successful handspring on the vault. It was the first time I've done it…"
"What!" Tara exclaimed, "why didn't you tell me? Honey that's amazing, congratulations. I bet Trevor was so proud. I'm so proud."
"Thanks Mom," Kaci smiled. She turned to Noah who was smiling too. "He's a really good coach."
"Kace are you hoping to compete in gymnastics or is this something you've just taken up for fun?," Renee wondered.
Kaci thought about it for a moment and shrugged. "I don't know, I do cheer at school and I just wanted to do gymnastics to help with my cheer stuff, but now I care less about cheer and more about gymnastics and my friend Jessie wants to join too, so I guess we'll see."
Tara smiled. "Actually, I talked to Amanda about Jessie joining today, she's gonna come down next friday night. Amanda spoke to coach Shannon about it…"
"Oh, neat," Noah remarked. "I hope Jessie won't be a pain in the butt."
"Don't be mean Noah, she's my friend, just cos you know her as your little cousin…" Kaci shot back.
"Yeah well, she's mean to me," he replied with a little smile.
"Yeah but you guys have history, you've probably been mean to each other forever…" Kaci replied. "But she's my friend in a different light…"
"Fair…"
"So are we really go swimming when we arrive? Will Grandma Georgie and Grandpa Pat be okay with that?" Kaci asked.
"Yeah, Dad said we could…I don't think he cares, he's super tired," Noah laughed.
"Guys don't get too excited, its after 8, Grandma and Grandpa might be tired and want to sleep…"
"Mmm I don't know, I could swim," Renee winked at Tara.
She laughed, "don't encourage them, Nay…"
/
Olivia smiled when they walked in to the kitchen to find the lights on out on the back veranda. She could hear everyone outside. She and Trevor stopped in town just before arriving to pick up some drinks and some snacks for the kids.
She carried Lexi who was awake and a little tired and Trevor held on to a sleeping Luca who was due to wake at any moment for his feed.
They greeted everyone as they stepped out, finding Raia and Gavin and Tara and who Olivia assumed was Renee and Trevor's parents. They were enjoying wine and beer and chatting, getting to know the girl they'd heard so much about.
"Ohhh hello!" Lexi sparked up as soon as she saw her grandma and grandpa. "Pa-pa!" She grinned as Patrick got up to greet them. Lexi held her arms out and Patrick took her, pausing to give Olivia a kiss on the cheek and to carefully greet his son without upsetting the baby.
"Hi Georgie," Olivia greeted her, giving her mother-in-law a warm hug. "So good to see you!"
"You too, honey, take a seat, let us see our grand babies…" she was excited and Olivia was grateful because all she wanted to do was to take a seat and have a glass of wine.
She smiled to see everyone else as Trevor handed Luca over to his Mom. They greeted everyone and Trevor was so exhausted and slid in to a seat. "Trev, this is Renee, Renee, this is Olivia's fiancé, Trevor — Trevor is the lovely man who takes Kaci to gymnastics and coaches her."
"Ohhh, nice to meet you, Trevor. I heard a lot about you on the way up from Noah and Kaci."
Trevor smiled wearily. "Thats nice to hear, thanks. Nice to meet you too, Renee, we've also heard a lot about you," he leaned over and shook her hand. "Where are the kids?"
"Where do you think?" Raia asked, nodding down toward the pool. "They couldn't wait… they probably wanted to go and make out."
"Don't-" Olivia warned her, "I can't handle that, not tonight, I'm too tired not to be neurotic."
Raia and Gavin laughed. "Why don't you go to bed, baby?" Olivia asked him, leaning over taking his hand over the top of the table. "Your eyeballs are hanging out…"
"Ohhh being a parent to two kids under 3 is exhausting, isn't it?" Gavin asked, "you think you're prepared but you never are."
"Its not that bad mostly, but one of us is clearly coping better without sleep today," Trevor replied with a smile, leaning over to put an arm around Liv, "as usual, being much better at all this stuff…"
"Not true," Olivia replied, leaning in to him. He kissed her lips with a smile.
"Don't mind these two," Raia spoke to Renee, "they're worried about their kid making out with his girlfriend, but you need a flame thrower and a wrench to break their mouths apart."
"Raia, shut up…" Trevor rolled his eyes. "Okay, maybe I will go to bed. I'm so sorry guys, I can barely keep my eyes open."
"I'll take Luca to bed too," he told Liv.
"No, its fine, leave Luca, I'll have to feed him shortly, but maybe see if you can pry Lexi from your Dad and get her to calm down for sleep… she shouldn't be awake still."
"Okay, goodnight beautiful," Trevor smiled lovingly at Liv. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay up and-"
"No, you're tired," she told him, a little exasperated, "I'm not mad or upset and if I need help I'm sure there's any number of volunteers tonight," she told him gently, touching his arms. "Goodnight. I love you."
He leaned over and kissed her lips. "Love you more."
"Sickening," Raia remarked.
"Oh no," Tara disagreed, "they're so cute… I love them."
Olivia laughed, "Thank you Tara."
"Yeah, thanks Tara," Trevor echoed. "Goodnight guys, Renee, I'm so sorry to run away as soon as we arrived and not get to get to know the woman that's been making our friend, Tara, so happy…"
"That's so sweet but you definitely should sleep. We'll catch up tomorrow."
Trevor waved and headed inside where his parents had taken the kids.
/
Lexi wouldn't settle in her own bed and Trevor was too tired to care. He turned the air conditioning on in his old bedroom knowing that if Olivia gave in when she came to bed and let Lexi sleep between them they'd both cook. He eased her tears when she cried for him and finally picked her up from the make shift cot at the end of the bed beside the hammock where they were going to place Luca for the night.
"Come on," Trevor lifted her back in to bed beside him. He lifted her t-shirt off leaving her little camisole and her sleeping diaper. Lexi wrapped her arms around his neck, shivering with cries. She was already upset because Trevor had made her come with him when she wanted to stay up and play with Grandma and Grandpa.
"Its okay, you're just tired like Daddy," he told her softly. He sat against the bed head and closed his eyes, holding her, listening to her whine-y, half-hearted cries as he rubbed her back, slightly rocking her. Each time he felt himself nodding off he sat forward, trying to stay awake until Lexi slept.
Eventually with relief he felt her relax and quiet down. Very carefully he laid her down beside him and eased himself down, letting his eyes shut. His head had barely connected with the pillow before he felt himself drifting off.
/
"Why's Trevor so tired and you, not?" Raia asked curiously.
Olivia shrugged, "He just had a huge day today and Lexi had us up early but I was lucky enough to get a nap in when she and Luca were sleeping and with work I'm probably used to not having as much sleep."
"Lucky him, must be nice," she remarked. "Anyway, we better go, we just wanted to stop in and say hello while Elizabeth looks after the kids before she goes home." Elizabeth was Raia and Gavin's nanny that Gavin had given in to and had seemed happier that they were able to win back some time to work on themselves as a couple.
"Great, you make sure you don't leave those kids at home tomorrow. I want to see all of my babies together playing," Patrick told his daughter and her husband.
Raia rolled her eyes, "We never leave them at home, this one time… you're never gonna let us live it down, are you?"
"No," Georgie answered for him.
"We'll be back tomorrow with coffees in the morning, decorations for Trevor's party and Mom and I organised the pool house for Amanda and Sonny and the kids and Hannah, Alice are with us…" she paused to see if she was forgetting something, "oh yeah and the boys can do their tent thing too. The girls can if they want, but I'll let you guys decide how you want that to go," Raia grinned, knowing she wasn't keen on the girls being so close to the boys all night without supervision.
"Thanks Raia, if you need help with anything at all tomorrow, please let us know…"
"Thanks beautiful," Raia smiled at Tara, "and Renee it was so nice to meet you, can't wait to have a drink with you tomorrow and let-loose a little."
"You too, Raia, Nice to meet you Gavin."
Everyone shook hands and exchanged hugs as the married couple left.
Patrick retired to the living room and Georgie went inside to get some snacks because her love language was always feeding everyone and she knew Olivia would be hungry. "So how's it going? How did the drive go with Kaci and Noah?"
"Good," Tara nodded, glancing at Renee, "what do you think?"
"I think it went okay… when Tara told me Kaci was a bit unsure about the whole thing, I was a little nervous, but… she was chatty and so was Noah too. She and Noah are so sweet together and she was on a high because her gymnastics training went really well. She and Noah gushed about your Trevor," Renee informed her.
"Aww, that's so nice, Trevor was pretty proud of her today. He said she really got in to the zone and that in that sport, most of it is having a very strong mindset and the ability to just keep getting back up."
"Yeah, that's my girl," Tara grinned. She was a little funny about showing too much affection to Renee in front of everyone, worried that people might not like it. Renee found herself grabbing her girlfriend's hand but Tara withdrew it immediately. Olivia clocked it and Tara gave her a guilty look.
"Its okay," Liv said gently, "Tara, nobody cares…"
"About what?" Renee asked, as if the silent conversation was lost on her.
She glanced at Renee and gave her an apologetic look. "I just get a bit scared that people might react to us badly or … think that I'm a bad Mom having a girlfriend or— I don't know, that sounds so stupid."
"Not really, most people who come to terms with their sexuality later in life struggle a bit at first, its all good, sweetheart. You can just tell me, if you want me to lay off the affection while we are here, I'm good with that."
"No, I don't want you to not be yourself. You're great," Tara reached up and stroked her long blond hair, "you deserve to have someone not be uptight around you—"
Olivia smiled to witness them definitely looking a little woozy and giddy with one another. She was so pleased to see it. "Yeah but … you deserve to ease in to this comfortably so if it's a slow burn, its okay."
"Babe, no one cares," Olivia said again, "I think the only person here who may get a little weirded out by affection would be Kaci because she's never seen you in that capacity probably not even with Clive… but the rest of us do not care if you want to hold hands, or kiss or hug, or speak cute to one another," she grinned.
"Like the way you and Trevor can't keep your hands off one another and are really open in talking about how much you love one another in front of everyone."
"Exactly," Liv said, "nobody cares and neither should you. Kaci will get used to it."
"Thanks, Liv… you always say all the right things," she smiled at her friend. Olivia looked over to see Noah and Kaci making their way up the yard toward the patio where they were all hanging out. Kaci had a towel firmly wrapped around her waist and Olivia couldn't help but to smile at how cute she and her son looked as the giggled and chattered away to themselves.
"Uh-oh, here comes trouble," she remarked as Kaci reached the landing of the stairs with Noah in step behind her.
"Mom, did you bring anything to eat?" Noah asked softly, "we're starving."
"Oh, hello Mom, how was your trip? Oh, good thanks Noah, thank you for asking," Olivia shot back.
Noah blushed, "Sorry Mamaaaaa…." He gushed coming to Olivia's side and wrapping his wet arms around her, shaking his hair on to her.
"Thanks for that," she rolled her eyes making a face. "If you go and ask Grandma, politely, she told me she has some sandwiches in the fridge that she made in case anyone was hungry. "Don't let her lift a finger though…"
"Okay, come on, Kace…"
"Nooooo, you're the one who's hungry, not me. I don't want to ask your Grandma for food."
"Wait, who wants food?" Georgie asked, stepping out. "Are you both hungry?" She was holding a platter of meats and cheeses and crackers with some fruit. She placed it on the table.
"Oh my gosh, Georgie, you're crazy!" Olivia exclaimed, "this is too much!"
"Be quiet, Olivia, eat up! All of you," she glanced at Noah, "are you hungry, honey? What would you like?"
"Grandma its okay, I can get something, Mom said there were some sandwiches in the fridge. You should sit too. It's getting late."
"Do I look like I have a bedtime?" She asked him with a little smile. "Come on, follow me, kids, Grandma will get you some snacks and a real drink for Mom."
Olivia laughed, "Grandma knows me best," she added. Everyone assumed Olivia was very much in to drinking wine, but vodka was her favourite and she couldn't wait to drink a cold glass of it with seltzer water while eating some of the amazing platter. "And grandma's got a little sass tonight,"
"I heard that," Georgie called over her shoulder.
Renee, Țara and Olivia laughed. "Eat, guys," Olivia told them both, "she won't let me go to bed until I clear this plate," she joked.
/
Noah took the chicken and salad sandwich outside to eat while Kaci trailed behind in the kitchen with Georgie taking time to cut some fruit for herself, insisting to Trevor's Mom that she do it. "Did you have a nice swim?" Georgie asked her.
"Yeah, thank you for letting us swim so late," Kaci smiled. "Trevor took me to gym after school to practice and my legs were really aching from all the drills my team did so I think the water helped."
Georgie put an arm around her and gave her a squeeze. "You don't have to thank me, sweetheart, you are welcome here anytime. With or without my son and his family."
"Thank you," Kaci smiled at her.
"So how is it with Mom's girlfriend?," she asked quietly.
She circled the counter and grabbed another knife and helped her skin an orange, noticing that she was struggling a little. Kaci turned serious and gave a shrug. "Its weird, I don't know. I don't want to be unfair."
"Well, that's very kind-hearted of you, but you can talk about how you feel with me if you like, it'll be between us."
Kaci looked behind her to see that her Mom was still sitting with Renee. She shrugged again. "She's really nice and she's really pretty, I just feel like maybe Mom is vulnerable and she's being taken advantage of."
"Do you not think that your Mom can discern that for herself?"
"Well, I don't have a choice but to let her. I just am scared that she will get hurt and I don't know how she will cope if that happens. I don't want to see her sad."
Georgie smiled. "Honey, I think all of those feelings are very valid and show just how much you love your Mom, but we can't know everything. Maybe she will get hurt, but maybe she won't and maybe this woman makes her very, very happy in a different way to the way you make her happy… All you can do is try your very best to be happy for her and be there for her if something doesn't work out."
"I know."
"You know she would do the same for you if you and Noah were to break up tomorrow and you got your heart broken… she would never prevent you or treat Noah badly just because of what might happen despite how much she loves you — and by the way, that is a lot."
Kaci smiled. "Yeah, you're right."
"Honey, you do me a favour okay? You go ahead and you bask in your Mom's happiness, you go ahead and you let yourself like Renee if you think she's likeable. And if you are worried or if you think something doesn't feel right or you have a reason to think Mom's gonna get her feelings hurt, you talk to me, you call your Grandma Georgie or if you don't feel comfortable, you can call Olivia or Trevor I'm certain of that."
Kaci could feel the stinging of tears in her eyes. Georgie immediately noticed. "Come here, I think you need a hug."
She put down her knife and made her way over to Noah's grandmother and felt the older woman wrap her arms around her. Kaci let her eyes close and enjoyed the embrace. It made her miss her own grandma who she hadn't seen since her Mom had a small falling out with her parents over the decision they tried to push Tara to make to move out of the city closer by.
"Its okay sweetheart, it'll work out."
"Thanks," Kaci sniffed. "I know."
"Before you leave, I'm going to give you my number and you can call whenever you need. Okay?"
Kaci nodded and gave her a little smile as Georgie smoothed her damp blond hair. "You're a brave girl, Kaci, you've dealt with a lot and you watched your Mama deal with even more and healing is a tough road for you let alone feeling like you have to be responsible for someone else too — but you don't have to take care of Mom, because we are here to do that for you. We all just want you to focus on you, Mom wants that too."
"Thanks," she murmured again so softly that she thought if she spoke out loud she might cry.
/
Georgie and Kaci joined the rest of the girls and Noah outside. "Come here, babe, come sit with your Mama…" Tara smiled patting her lap. Kaci smiled and made her way to her Mom, placing her bowl of fruit down. She sat down on her Mom's lap and gave her a hug.
"Are you drunk, Mom?," she laughed.
"No, don't be silly, of course not," Tara replied, wrapping her arms around her daughter.
"Thanks, Georgie, shall I drink straight out of the bottle?" Olivia asked with a laugh, picking up the vodka bottle.
Georgie laughed as she turned over two glass tumblers. "Well, pour me a small shot first so I can add some juice to it and you can suck out of the bottle… I dont think id stomach it."
Olivia winced at her words but let it roll off her back, not realising how it struck her in the moment. She took a deep breath and let it out slow and poured them both some vodka and topped it up with soda.
"Mom, remember when you used to hide your drinking from me?," Noah asked teasingly. "Now you're just a straight up alcoholic in my face."
Olivia raised her eyebrow. "Excuse me, it's not my fault that my children drive me to the bottle, okay?," she joked.
Noah laughed. "I don't care. I'm only joking, I've never seen you drunk."
"I have," Tara muttered.
"Oh you have not," Olivia laughed, "I can't remember the last time I got drunk," she fibbed. She remembered alright, it was a date night with Trevor, laying in bed drinking a cocktail straight from the jug after having drunken sex.
"Leave Olivia alone," Renee piped up, "why are we giving her a hard time?"
"Yeah! Thanks Renee, why are you guys giving me a hard time?"
"We're just teasing you, Mom, its okay," Noah told her gently, feeling a little bad. "I'm sorry."
Olivia just smiled at him.