Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

"Mom!" Lucas hollered from somewhere deep inside the house. "I can't find my sneakers!"

Charity looked around the room with a distinct feeling of helplessness. She was sitting on the floor in the carnage that was her living room, which was soon not to be her living room at all. She was packing. Theoretically. Far more theoretically, Lucas was helping.

In reality, he was moving around according to a logic only a seven-year-old could possibly parse, picking up things almost entirely at random, losing them immediately after, and generally making sure that not only did he not pack anything, but Charity wasn't managing much either.

"We already took your shoes over to the new house," she called back after she'd taken a deep breath.

The good thing about moving next door was that you could do it in stages quite easily. A box packed after school here, a box unpacked before dinner there. Got five minutes? Nip next door and wrap up some plates.

The bad thing about moving next door was that it offered a false hope that it wouldn't be as terrible as moving always was.

"No, Mom!" Lucas shouted back from another part of the house. "The shoes I wore here."

She pressed the heel of her palm into her forehead. Both her kids, as she now thought of Addie as hers too, were wonderful. She loved them more than anything in this life. They were magical, delightful little creatures who surprised and amused her daily.

But why could they never find their shoes ?

"Did you check your room?" she asked wearily.

"Uh, no."

"Go check!"

"Okay!"

She glanced at the time on her phone, wondering when Dominic and Addie would return from Addie's dentist appointment. Another thing Charity had learned recently: it was all too easy to fall out of the single parent mindset.

She loved Dominic for his own merits, of course. He was kind, and funny, and charming when he wanted to be. She even loved his grouchiness.

But she couldn't deny that she also loved having someone to help take care of the kids. There was just something undeniable about having another person in the house who knew how to tie their shoes, never left half-eaten fruit in bizarre places for her to find half-rotten, and didn't need reminding not to leave the front door hanging open.

She had managed to pack exactly four books before Lucas's voice rang out again.

"They're not in my room," he said.

"Try the front hall!"

A miniature stampede went past as Lucas, followed by Milo, heeded her instruction.

"Oh, hey!" her son exclaimed brightly. "They're on the shoe rack."

She couldn't help but laugh. Who would have ever thought to look for shoes on the shoe rack?

"Thanks, Mom!" Lucas called as he raced back up toward his room. Charity wasn't sure why he needed his shoes if he was just going to his half-empty room, but she had long ago learned that there was no sense in asking such questions. He was entertained and out of danger, which was all she needed.

She'd packed four more boxes by the time Dominic and Addie returned.

"Charity, Charity, Charity, Charity," Addie called, bouncing into the room ahead of her father. "Guess what? Guess what?"

"What?" Charity asked, opening her arms just in time for the little girl to throw herself into them. Just as quickly, Addie had pulled away, her energy apparently too great for even a moment's stillness.

"The dentist said my teeth were amazing! " she exclaimed, throwing up her hands in emphasis. "And that meant I could have two toys from the toy bucket! So that means I have one for Lucas too!"

She grinned a gap-toothed smile and Charity's heart melted over the loving relationship that had grown between Addie and Lucas. When her marriage to her ex-husband had fallen apart, one of the things Charity had grieved was the possibility of Lucas ever having a sibling. Now he had Addie. The two were inseparable.

"That's very sweet of you, Addie," Charity praised, reaching out to gently tug one of the little girl's dark curls. "I'm sure Lucas will appreciate it."

Addie nodded, her eyes already darting toward the stairs. She was clearly eager to go find Lucas and Milo. "Yeah, and the dentist wasn't scary, actually. They had cartoons while they brushed my teeth but I couldn't hear them because the stuff was loud."

Charity wasn't sure if this was praise or a complaint. "That sounds interesting," she said neutrally.

"Yeah," Addie agreed absently. Then she looked at Dominic. "Daddy, can I go give Lucas his toy?"

Dominic smiled down at her. "Sure, baby. But come right back down. We have to take the boxes over to the new house."

"Okay!" Addie agreed. She was gone in a flash.

"There is no way she's coming right back," Charity said with a chuckle as she reached out a hand so Dominic could help her to her feet. He kept pulling until she was firmly in his arms so he could give her a kiss.

"Oh, no way," he agreed when they separated. "I'd call it a win if we have to ask them to come down any fewer than three times."

"Kids," she said with a laugh.

"Kids," he echoed before leaning in to steal another kiss.

The adults managed to pack another handful of boxes while their children, true to form, did not come right back down. It was only when Charity glanced at the time again and realized that they needed to get going on dinner that they summoned Addie and Lucas, who reluctantly tore themselves away from an activity they promised was packing but which sounded quite a bit like playing.

"Okay, troops," Dominic said when everyone had finally been corralled into the front hallway. "Adeline, this one is yours." He plunked a box in her arms. "Lucas, for you." Another box was duly handed off. "Charity." Two boxes. "And me." He stacked four boxes atop one another, so high he could barely see over them.

"Showoff," Charity teased.

Addie giggled.

"We should get a sled so Milo can pull boxes," Lucas opined.

"My arms are falling off here!" Dominic exclaimed with an exaggerated groan. "Go, go, go!" He staggered out the door, but once the kids were ahead of him, Charity noticed that he started walking normally again.

They all deposited their boxes into the pile in the living room that never seemed to get any smaller, no matter how many boxes Charity unpacked. Still, dinner waited for no man, so she ignored the mountain for now, heading instead into the kitchen.

She threw together a quick dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, while Dominic distracted the kids. When they were all seated around the table, Dominic turned to his daughter.

"Hey, Ads, you know the upstairs closet, the one that has all the towels in it?"

"Uh huh," Addie said distantly, absorbed in twisting pasta around her fork.

"We're going to move those towels into the bathroom so we can use that closet for storage, okay?"

Addie dropped her fork, stricken.

Even though she'd become a lot steadier, emotionally, since moving to Whale Harbor, Addie still sometimes struggled with changes, and this change was enough to put anyone on the back foot. For a kid who had been through as much upheaval as Addie had in her short life, it was distressing, even if the changes were good. When he and Charity had realized how much the shifts were distressing the young girl, Dominic had called Addie's therapist from Boston, Doctor Donohue, who had advised talking through changes, even small ones, with Addie before they happened.

"Why do we have to?" she asked. Milo, either sensing her distress or hoping for some dropped food, tucked his head against Addie's knee.

"Well," Dominic explained patiently. "Now that we all live here, we're going to have more things. More coats in the winter, more beach stuff in the summer. It won't all fit in the downstairs closet like it does now. So in the winters, we'll put the summer stuff upstairs. In the summers, we'll move the winter stuff downstairs."

Addie nodded, but the pout of her lower lip suggested she was just being brave.

"But what if I forget?" she asked.

"We can make a sign," Lucas chimed in. Charity had sat him down to explain that sometimes new things made Addie extra nervous, and that this didn't mean Addie was doing anything wrong or that she wasn't brave, just that she needed a little extra time to prepare for new stuff.

Dominic nodded. "That's a great idea, Lucas." Lucas beamed.

"And you can always ask us too, sweetheart," Charity reminded Addie.

Addie nodded again.

The little girl remained quiet through the rest of dinner. This had been the hardest part for Charity, and she knew it was difficult for Dominic too. But Doctor Donohue had advised them to let Addie work through her worries in her own time and to avoid rushing her to feel comfortable on their schedule instead of hers. Their job, he'd recommended, was to let her know they were always available to talk, but not to pressure her if she wanted to take her time.

It grated at every one of Charity's maternal instincts. She wanted to wrap Addie up in a hug every time she saw that serious, thoughtful look.

But part of parenting was letting kids figure out things for themselves. She knew that. She didn't have to like it, but she knew it.

And sure enough, Addie's quietness slowly gave way to her usual smiles, and by the time the dishes were cleared and washed, she and Lucas were sitting together, heads bent over the sign they were making for the closet door. There seemed to be some debate over whether or not the sign should direct to the proper location for the towels or should list what actually was inside the closet. As long as they didn't attempt to start working with glitter this close to bedtime, Charity was happy to leave them to it.

She joined Dominic where he leaned against the kitchen counter, watching the kids from a distance. His arm slipped instantly over her shoulder and she felt a rush of warmth at the simple domesticity of it all. She and Lucas had only officially been living in this house full time for a few days now, but she was already so much more deeply in love with their little family.

"Hey," she said quietly, nudging against him. "I love you."

"Hey." He smiled down at her. "I love you too."

He pressed a long, sweet kiss to her mouth and then they leaned together in a comfortable silence, watching as their kids made decorations to adorn the house that was finally theirs.

When the alarm went off on Marty's phone, she was piled under every single one of her cats. Some people, she knew, thought cats were standoffish, but that had never been her experience. Her four had immediately sniffed out her nerves and had come to pile their sweet, warm bodies on top of her.

And demand pets and scratches, obviously. They might be sweet, but they were still cats. They treated her constant affection as nothing less than their due.

"Okay, okay, you goofballs," she said with a laugh as Macy looked at her, clearly affronted that Marty was attempting to stand. "I have to get that."

The three younger cats scattered. Peaches merely moved one cushion over on the couch, like this had been her plan all along.

Marty walked back to the bathroom, hands shaking with nerves as she picked up the test she'd placed on the counter several minutes prior. She'd known she would have driven herself mad with waiting if she'd remained in the bathroom, hence the timer and the impromptu cuddle session.

She held her breath as she lifted the test and read the results.

And then read them again.

And again.

Eventually she did have to breathe, but she did so as she kept staring at the little plastic object in her hands, irrationally convinced that if she looked away, the whole thing would turn out to have been a dream.

"Hey, Mar?" Wyatt's voice from the living room drew her out of her stupor and she wondered how long she'd been standing there like a total goofball. "Are you home? I see your car but…" His voice trailed off, as if he'd realized he might be talking to himself.

"In here!" she called, her voice sounding a little shrill.

"In… ?" His head poked through the bathroom door. "Hey! What are you doing?"

Wordlessly, she handed him the strip, the little white thing with its little pink cap that was going to change their lives forever. He glanced down at it, his expression starting confused before morphing into wonder.

"Wait, really?" he asked, a grin splitting his face.

She nodded. She could feel her own smile spreading.

"Really?" he asked again, as if he couldn't believe it.

"Really," she confirmed.

"Oh my—Marty!" He threw his arms around her, wrapping her in a tight hug. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, this is amazing!"

He sounded completely overwhelmed, a feeling Marty could definitely relate to.

Then he pulled back abruptly. "Wait. Am I squishing you? Are you okay? Are you nauseous? Are you tired? Are you—"

"I'm fine!" she interrupted with a laugh. "I'm better than fine," she amended. "I'm amazing."

"Well, yeah," he said, a goofy grin on his face. "We're going to have a baby ."

"We're going to have a baby," she agreed. They gazed at one another for a long moment, their happiness complete.

Wyatt reached in with both hands to cup Marty's cheeks, clearly aiming for a kiss. At the last moment she pulled back, clearly surprising him.

"Oh, I want to kiss you," she said in response to his questioning look. "But can we wash our hands first? You know how those tests work, right?" she asked, nodding to the test he still held in his hands.

He laughed, then placed the test back on the counter before turning to the sink. "You know," he said, "apparently I don't, because I thought it would have the mysterious lines on it, but that just says, clear as day, PREGNANT."

"I splurged on the fancy one," she confessed.

"Good thinking," he praised. "I was pretty surprised to see the test in general. Imagine how much more surprised I would have been if you handed me something that needed decoding."

She laughed into his shoulder as they both dried their hands.

"Okay, now can I kiss you?" he asked.

"Now you can kiss me," she confirmed.

And he did, long and sweet and with all the love and hope for their future that he had to give.

When he pulled back, he peered down at her again.

"Are you sure you don't need anything?" he demanded. "I've heard that pregnant women get intense cravings."

Marty was pretty sure those would come, but for now, she was happy exactly where she was.

"I don't need a thing," she said, wrapping her arms around his middle. "I have absolutely everything I need right here."