29. Where We Are At

29

WHERE WE ARE AT

A t the end of the month, Michael, Kelly and Ty walked into Cade’s house.

It was Saturday, Memorial Day weekend, and they were going to visit the baby. Ty wanted to play with his cousins and Michael figured it wouldn’t hurt to get out of the house.

He’d been with Kelly every weekend this month except one. Last weekend he had Ty, and Kelly had plans with friends to go to a concert. She’d had the tickets prior and he told her to have a good time.

Owen had come over and hung out with them that night and Ty loved the male bonding.

Now Ty felt he was going to be entertained every weekend and it was the last thing Michael wanted. Or needed, as it was tiring on top of it.

“Congratulations, Alex,” Kelly said, leaning in to hug Alex. She’d come to the door when he rang the bell.

“Thank you,” Alex said. “It’s good to see you. And see you together for the first time now that I know what is going on.”

“Sorry we didn’t tell you,” Kelly said. “We were just taking it slow.”

“Ty!” Cameron yelled and came charging down the hall.

His son took off for the toy room with Regan following along.

“Bye, Dad,” Ty said as he dashed down the hall. His son had no desire to see the baby and he hadn’t expected anything different.

“There is nothing wrong with going slow regardless of what my mother-in-law says,” Alex said.

Cade came walking down the hall carrying Jordan. “Good timing. She just woke up. She might want to eat. I thought I’d hold off and see what Alex planned on doing.”

“If you can go get a bottle and warm it up, that’d be great,” Alex said. “Maybe Kelly wants to feed her?”

“I’d love to,” she said, rubbing her hands together. “But I know you’re breastfeeding so maybe you don’t want to waste a bottle.”

“I’m weaning her. She does it at night only now,” Alex said. “The rest is bottles. I’m going back to work in a few weeks, at least part time. Jolene is going to watch Jordan between Cade and me until she is four months old. Then she’ll start at the daycare.”

Cade handed his daughter off to Kelly and Michael watched his girlfriend cradle Jordan as if she had been doing it her whole life.

“I’m surprised Jolene doesn’t want her full time,” he said.

“She’d do it if I asked, but I won’t. There are a lot of grandkids and she fills the gap for them all. I’m sure there will be times she comes here with one or more. I’ll bring Jordan into the office for a few hours if I have to. Cade will do the same.”

“We love babies in the office,” Kelly said, looking down at the baby with a soft smile on her face. “He won’t have much to do, as we’ll just pass her around.”

“He knows that too,” Alex said, grinning. “It all works out. Please, come in. I shouldn’t be standing here gabbing, but it’s nice to see you.”

“No work talk,” Cade said, coming in and giving Kelly the bottle.

They’d walked to the back of the house and were sitting in the family room. Kelly went over to the rocking chair and put the bottle in Jordan’s mouth. “She’s a greedy one.”

“She likes to eat,” Alex said. “The good part is, she goes right back to sleep most times. Just like her father. Stuff her full of food and she is out if she is in that chair. Not that Cade can be in the rocking chair.”

“Stop,” Cade said. “That doesn’t make me sick like it did when I was a baby. I’m not even sure it did back then and my mother was probably yanking my chain.”

“We know she loves to do that,” Alex said. “Thank you for the outfits too, Kelly. They are adorable.”

“It was so much fun shopping for baby clothes.”

“If you say so,” Michael said. “My mother did a lot of that for me.”

“Your mother bought Ty’s clothing?” Kelly asked.

“I gave her my credit card.” Not that his mother would use it half the time. “There are only so many hours in the day and baby clothes shopping wasn’t my top priority.”

“That’s one of the fun things,” she said. “But I’m sure you weren’t thinking much was fun back then.”

“No,” he said.

“I couldn’t even give him any of Cam’s clothing,” Alex said. “They are only a month apart in age and Ty is bigger than Cam and always has been.”

“I never asked when Ty’s birthday was. I had no idea they were so close in age.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I moved back here knowing that Alex was going to be starting her family at some point. Electra got pregnant around that time. Not that I knew that. Ty was born in August. I hated to take time off while she was still out.”

“It wasn’t a big deal,” Alex said. “We weren’t nearly the size we are now back then and you still put more than enough time in.”

“Alex was back to work part time by the time I took a month off to get things set. You know I didn’t get Ty full time until he was over a month old, so the timing worked out. I was coming in to work on the weekends though and my parents had Ty for me then.”

“Which had to be hard to do,” she said.

“We got through it,” he said. “Not ideal and it’s all good.”

“Speaking of all good,” Cade said. “How is it going? My mother has been good about not bugging me too much, not that I’d offer anything up.”

“She’s been leaving me alone too,” Kelly said. “Which is nice. I like where we are at.”

“She’s leaving you alone,” Alex said, “because Cade told her to.”

“Aw,” she said. “I didn’t know that. I can handle your mother.”

“You shouldn’t have to handle her. She knows you two are dating and taking it slow and that should be enough for her,” Cade said.

“She never bugs me too much,” Michael said. “With Alex out, she has no reason to go to the plant.”

Which was a good thing. He didn’t want to deal with any meddling. It wasn’t his thing.

He and Kelly were getting through this on their own and he wanted to continue to do that.

It was working for them and for once in his life it felt good to know something was working that didn’t take a lot of effort.

Then he had to remind himself he had put a lot of effort into this. More than he had with another woman.

Relationships took work.

“Wish she had no reason to come to the corporate offices either,” Cade said. “But I can’t very well tell her she isn’t welcome.”

“No,” Alex said, laughing. “She is the one who helped get Fierce where it is.”

“She did,” Cade said. “When it was just the pub. But you know as well as I do, the five of us had the vision.”

He’d heard the story a few times. That the five kids had a plan to turn Fierce into the empire it was now and all picked a career to make it work and cover all their bases.

No one thought Cade would be a lawyer. Or that he went for that degree to never use it for anything more than family most times.

“And that vision could only come true with her putting faith in the five of you,” Alex said. “More like the four of you.”

“Let me guess,” Cade said. “I’m the one excluded.”

“Jolene has said that to me before,” Alex said. “She thanks me for settling you down.”

“Do I burp her now?” Kelly asked. “Half is gone.”

“Yes,” Alex said. “Otherwise she tosses the whole bottle with her final burp and Cade will go running from the room gagging.”

“Not anymore,” Cade said. “You told me to stop doing that when the twins would spit up.”

“There is a big difference between spitting up and puking,” Michael said. “Trust me, I know.”

“I’d like to avoid any of it,” Kelly said. “If I can.” She put the baby on her shoulder and patted her back, a burp coming out fast. “That was easy.”

“She wants the rest of her food,” Alex said. “She’s greedy.”

“She seems like an easy baby to me,” she said.

“She is. Nothing like her father.”

They turned to see Jolene come in. Michael hadn’t known she was in the house. Hadn’t heard the doorbell but suspected she just walked into her son’s house.

“What are you doing here, Mom?” Cade asked.

“I wanted to come see the baby. I have Anthony and Joseph with me. They wanted to see Cam so we thought we’d stop and I was going to see if I could grab the twins and bring them to the house for a bit. Or at least Cam.”

“Regan likes playing with the baby and not all her male cousins,” Alex said. “She’d rather be with Madison.”

Madison was Ella’s daughter. “Then I’ll have to have a girl's day with them at some point. It’s nice to see you two together. How is it going?”

Jolene got comfortable in a chair facing Kelly and Michael. He was on the couch next to her in the rocker.

“It’s going well,” Kelly said, still watching the baby with the bottle in her mouth.

No one else answered that and Jolene was starting to fidget. He found it funny that she might be listening to her son.

“Do you mind if I leave the boys here for about thirty minutes since you’ve got company?” Jolene asked. “I was going to run to the store to get a few things and it’d be easier without them.”

He found the whole thing funny considering she’d said she was going to come here and get the twins. He’d be willing to bet she drove by and saw his vehicle and decided to stop, but he wouldn’t call her out on it.

“Sure,” Cade said. “They won’t bother us.”

“I’ll be back soon,” Jolene said. “It was nice seeing you all.”

“That was odd,” Alex said.

“Yeah,” Cade said. “But I think she can’t stand to sit there and not say anything so she had to get out of here. She’ll drive me nuts when she comes back.”

“We’ll make sure we are gone by then,” Michael said. “Thanks for covering.”

Kelly laughed. “I’m fine with whatever. But things are good and sometimes it’s best not to jinx it.”

Michael wasn’t sure what she meant by that and didn’t want to ask.

“You just can’t let it be, can you?” Gavin asked Jolene later that night.

“Of course not. I always call my sisters-in-law after their Memorial Day party.”

She hadn’t gotten much out of Cade when she’d returned to get Aiden’s sons.

The boys were now upstairs sleeping and she and Gavin were sitting in their sunroom relaxing.

“You’re only mad that you aren’t getting anywhere with Michael and Kelly,” Gavin said. “Admit it.”

“I am,” she said. “It’s frustrating to see them together and not be able to ask much.”

“You asked,” he said. “Kelly said it was going well. What more do you want?”

Her eyes all but bugged out of her face. “I want more than that.”

“But they aren’t your family,” he said. “So you’ve got no right to ask. And be happy they are as accommodating as they’ve been.”

She waved her hand. “Whatever. I’m going to call Diane now.”

“Put it on speaker so I can hear them rub your face in things.”

Jolene frowned and wondered if her husband knew something she didn’t.

He’d already called her out on driving by Cade’s and seeing Michael’s SUV and stopping. That she should have just continued to go on and let Alex visit with her family.

“How was the party?” Jolene asked when the phone was answered.

“Another success and engagement,” Grant said.

“You had another engagement at your party?” Gavin asked. See, even her husband got into it though he liked to pretend indifference.

“Not at the party,” Diane said.

“Last night,” Carolyn said. “But we all found out today.” Gavin’s twin brothers and their wives were always together when they made these calls after the party.

“That’s wonderful news,” Jolene said. She knew it had to be Zander and Regan engaged because that was the only couple that her in-laws were working on that weren’t married or engaged just yet.

“I hear the sarcasm,” Grant said, laughing. “Don’t be jealous, Jolene, that we got Dane and Sloane and now Zander and Regan engaged in less than a year each. I’d say that makes us the leader of the pack now.”

Her husband started to laugh. This was probably what he meant, as his brothers did like to bust her butt.

“Not the leader,” she said. “Remember who started it all.”

“Me,” Gavin said. “Don’t be mad because you’re struggling with Michael and Kelly.”

“Fine,” she said. “I’m kind of struggling. But I’m going to learn from you and let Cade do some of my dirty work for me like you had Zander and Regan’s assistants do yours.”

“Never too old to learn,” Carolyn said.

“Wiseass,” she said.

They all laughed and hung up and she turned to her husband.

“What do you think Cade is going to do?” he asked.

“Not much. But he’s the one I can wear down the fastest so I’ll figure out more through him.”

Gavin rolled his eyes. “I’m not so sure about that. Good luck.”

Jolene knew how to work with her kids. Her husband should have more faith in her.