Til Death Do Us Part

by Jenny Wood

“It’s tough; I hate moving.” He chuckles, but I can hear how exhausted he is, especially with the little one wriggling around in his arms.

  “Hi, pretty girl.” Jase coo’s at her, and she leaps towards him without preamble.

  “Whoa, hey,” Finn reaches out and catches her before almost dropping her.

  “It’s okay, can I?” Jase reaches for her, and he hands her over.

  “She’s usually shy; you must be good with babies.” He smiles at Jase, his smile is friendly, and I can tell he’s going to fit in just fine around here.

  “It’s been a while, but I grew up with all kinds around.” Jase smiles. “You look around, get settled, this little lady, and I are going to go right over here to Joker’s station and color. You wanna color with markers?” He asks her, but I doubt she has any idea what he’s saying. He’ll have to show her. She’s adorable.

  “That one’s your husband, right?” Finn asks, nodding to where Jase and his daughter just sat down.

  “Not yet, someday,” I reply seriously. No doubt in my mind it’ll happen someday.

  “I can’t believe everyone’s married here, or close to. Nobody gives a shit?” He asks. To be honest, before I’d moved here and met these guys, it was a foreign concept to me as well.

  “No one bats an eye. Conner lived here his whole life, so everyone knew him and knew he liked men. Then, when we moved here, he met Kayson. Then, Kingsley met Morgan; then Jody met Cam. Jase and I just got together during summer break, so less than six months. We’re serious, though.” I tell him, just in case he gets any ideas.

  “Hey, no, I was just curious. It’s new for me, that’s all.” He clarifies. I can understand that; I tell him as much.

  “Do any of you have kids?” He wants to know while looking through pictures of different pieces hanging on the wall.

  “The guys’ brother Jinx and his wife Layla, but they moved back to their home state just recently. To tell you the truth, I’ve only met them a handful of times, myself. But they visit often. They have a daughter, she’s about your daughter's age, maybe a little younger.

  “That sucks, I was hoping y’all knew of a good daycare or a nanny type situation or something.” He asks but shrugs it off.

  “Conner and me can help with that.” Morgan pops his head out from the office where Kingsley is hanging out answers that question. “I work from home; I could babysit until you found someone more permanent. My husband and I are looking into adopting; it’d be good practice.” He smiles encouragingly.

  “Oh, I couldn’t put you out like that. Y’all already gave me a job.” He huffs a nervous laugh.

  “It’s no trouble at all, honest. I’ll call Conner over so you can officially meet him. We’ll see how we all get along.” Morgan smiles, already walking back into the office.

  “He’s nice” Finn replies, and it’s true. He’d have to be, to live with Kingsley. “Everybody is so nice here, actually.”

  “It’s a good place to settle down; I won’t lie. I love it here; the people just make it better.” I tell him. Before he has a chance to reply, Conner comes barreling into the shop with the biggest smile. I swear, these guys heard there was a baby coming, and they all freaked the fuck out. It’s just a baby.

  “You’re here! Hi, I’m Conner. It’s awesome to meet you finally.” He says, shaking hands with Finn but then walking quickly away when he spots the baby.

  “I literally had no idea all these guys were baby crazy. Including mine.” We chuckled as we watched Conner fuss over the baby that Jase was trying to keep hold of.

  “Look at how precious!” Conner squatted next to the table next to Kayson’s chair, where they sat, coloring on the paper. Well, Jase was coloring, it looked like the baby was just punching markers down on paper.

  “We’re coloring, go away.” Jase teased, spitting his tongue out at a crazy Conner. Morgan joined them and sat next to Conner.

  “Stop hogging the baby! Finn, tell Jase to stop hogging your baby!” Morgan whined.

  “You sound like King, you big baby.” I tease them.

  “Take that back, or I’m gonna tell!” Kingsley whines playfully as he walks out of the office with a bag of money to take to the bank.

  “You guys are crazy.” Finn laughs, enjoying everyone’s banter.

  “Who’s doing the bank run, tonight?” King asks.

  “I’ll do it, Kayson is expecting me home pretty soon, anyway. I can hit it on the way home.” Conner says. Finns phone rings and he excuses himself to answer it.

  “That was the movers, my truck of stuff is in, now. We should probably meet them over at the rental.” He tells us, and Jase reluctantly hands him back his baby.

  “Do you need help moving? We were going to ask earlier, but, you said you were still at the hotel.” Morgan offers.

  “Oh, no. I couldn’t ask that.”

  “You didn’t.” Morgan laughs. “Here, write down your new address and me, and some of the guys will meet you over there. It’ll take half the time it would’ve taken you, and one of us can hang out with this little lady while you big guys lug the heavy stuff.” He smiles at the baby and Finn.

  “Well, whoever wants to help is fine, please don’t feel obligated. I’ll make sure and feed you all if pizza works for everyone.” Finn negotiates.

  “Deal.” Conner says, “I’ll go drop this off and then pick up Kayse. Text me the address.” Conner says, walking out the door. “It was great to meet you, Finn. Glad you’re here.”

  “I’m glad I’m here too.” He murmurs softly.

  “You riding with me, baby, or you gonna stalk the baby and ride with Finn?” I ask Jase, watching him watch the baby.

  “Hey, I don’t want one of my own yet, but that doesn’t mean I can’t temporarily kidnap someone else’s.” He smiles at the baby, touching her long, raven black hair. I’ve never seen such a little thing with so much hair; but then again, I’ve not been around many babies. Did he just say he didn’t want one, yet? As in, someday? I wonder if he means, like…with me? He must see the slight panic in my face because he comes over and kisses me, softly, in front of everyone.

  “Someday, we’ll talk about it in a couple of years, yeah?” He whispers and I only nod. That’s a crazy idea, isn’t it? This is as close as I’ve ever been to a live baby before, who would give me one?

  “Relax, I said years.” Jase giggles and kisses me again. I catch Finn smiling at us, but he looks unsure, probably all the PDA we’re displaying at the moment.

  “Come on; we’ll help you move. I’ll text everyone on the way.” I tell Finn and everyone else. I smack Jase’s ass on our way out for all his teasing.

  Kingsley

  I’m exhausted, helping your friends move, sucks. We were all happy to lend a hand though, Finn is more like our group than we realized and I’m glad he looked us up.

  “I wanna stop and get gas, baby, that way I don’t have to in the morning,” I say to Morgan on our way home. He gasps as he turns to me.

  “The station with the churro’s?” He asks hopefully. As we eat somewhat healthily most of the time, my little chocolate bug could live off of all things chocolate.

  “If you wanna churro baby, I’ll get you some.” I laugh at his kid like expression. That woke him up.

  “Ooooh, with the chocolate dipping sauce?” He moans, next to me.

  “Yes, with the chocolate dipping sauce.” I laugh at his blissful expression. Down to my soul, I love that man and its little times like these that I’m reminded why.

  We pull into the gas station, and it doesn’t look busy at all. There are two cars in the lot and looks to be two men and a gaggle of children. I’m not sure who belong to whom, but I go inside to pre-pay with Morgan on my heels.

  “I’m going to grab a soda; you want something to drink?” I ask Morgan as he hits the aisle with chocolate.

  “Chocolate milk.” He says, making a beeline for the churro stand. I roll my eyes and go to the cooler with all the soft drinks and pick out his childli
ke, chocolate milk. I slide down a couple of doors and grab me a cola and just when I back up to open the door, I bump into someone standing out in the aisle.

  “Oh, shit. Sorry.” I say, turning around to apologize properly. The man looks familiar, but I can’t tell where I’d seen him before.

  “Oh, hey, yeah, sorry.” He rambles.

  “Didn’t hurt ya, did I?” I ask, studying his face. I know I’ve seen him before, but I cannot for the life of me, remember where from. “Do I know you?” I ask, knowing it’ll bug the piss out of me if I don’t.

  “Yeah, uh…” He shuffles his feet and looks around nervously, “I doubt it.

  “Hmmm,” I say, noncommittedly. I’d swear I know him from somewhere.

  “Ooooh, if I could marry this, I would.” Morgan paddled down the aisle way and stopped just short of this guy I’d just run into. “Oh, hey… sorry, I’m having a love affair with chocolate churro’s.” He smiled at the guy I’d just bumped into.

  “No problem, sorry I bumped into you.” The guy tried for a friendly smile, but it presented itself as a grimace.

  “Running over people again?” Morgan asked, dunking his finger back into his dipping sauce.

  “Oh no, it was my fault. I wasn’t watching where I was going.” The man says to both of us, looking afraid to dispute the simple mistake.

  “Just backed up into him, wanted to make sure I didn’t step on him or accidentally give him a concussion or something.” I tried to tease; I knew my big body was hard and probably not fun to faceplant into. Especially my elbow, which felt like bumped him first.

  “Nope, all good. Sorry, again. Sorry.” He says just before taking off.

  “Jeez, scare the man, why don’t ya.” Morgan giggled. The whole encounter did seem kind of weird, but I’d swear there was more to it than that.

  “You got all you need, fiend?” I asked my husband, shoving away the awkward encounter. He was still dipping his finger into his chocolate and if I knew any better…and I did, he was going to need more chocolate before we got home to eat his churro. “You better refill your chocolate, else you won’t have enough for bathing that in,” I suggested.

  “Good idea.” He murmured around the chocolate dipped finger in his mouth, and he turned to spout of chocolate to get some more. I met him at the counter and paid for all of our things, including the extra chocolate; then, we jumped back in the truck to head home.

  “So, now that Jody and Cam tied the knot, the only one left to do it is you and Joke. Any plans for that yet?” I ask Jase, just as Jody came into the shop and sat down. I was inking the Joker card on Jase’s hip that he was doing as a surprise for Joker’s birthday. I had a feeling, Joke wouldn’t be too happy with me for inking his man, but whatever. I’d been inking him long before he’d ever met Joker; he’d just have to get over it.

  “What the fuck, King?” Jody grouched, like I knew he would. I see Jase’s flat stomach bouncing with his chuckles as I continue to taunt Jody.

  “I’m just saying, Papa Bear, our little boys’ all grown up. Do I get to be your best man? Please tell me I can be your best man.” I goaded.

  “I guess y’all can draw straws.” He chortled, Jody, rolling his eyes and flipping us off.

  “Don’t rush him, King. They’ve known each other for half a’ minute.” Jody grumbled but then looked to Jase seriously, “I do think it’ll happen eventually though and when it does, I’ll give my blessing. I like Joke.” Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at Jody.

  “What? I do!” He jumped up defensively and disappeared into the back, break room.

  “That was weird,” Jase commented, and I agreed. Jody wasn’t known for his thought out nicely timed compliments. “Marriage made him soft, I think.” I murmured.

  “Jody! King said marriage made you soft!” Jase yelled back to Jody. I should’ve stabbed him with my tattoo gun, the little punk.

  “Fuck you, King! I’ll show you soft in a minute!” My eyes went wide at his threat, and I couldn’t help but laugh… I seemed to like easy going Jody; I hope he stayed a while.

  The shop wasn’t busy today at all; Jody was here for a three-hour session with one of his out-of-towners and Finn was coming in later for an unofficial first day, handling walk-ins. I was going to let him ink me; a small cancer ribbon on the inside of the wrist of my right hand. I’d been wanting to do it for a while, just never got around to it. It’d be the perfect time to let Finn break some skin at his new shop before his official start up. He readily agreed and was coming to meet Morgan here so Morgan could watch his daughter Lennon. I had to admit; I loved seeing Morgan with that little girl; any time he, Jase or Conner was within eyesight of her, one of them (or all of them) moved in to claim her. If Finn stayed around and let them be honorary Uncles, that little thing was going to be spoiled rotten- just ask Kady.

  The rest of the next few weeks was watching everyone get settled in with life as married couples and us with our newest addition to our tribe. Everyone got along with everyone, and we even suspected that Finn had met someone. Morgan had offered to babysit if he wanted to ever go out with the guys after work or find something to do before coming to pick her up of an evening. We were going through the process of getting an adoption started, but we were told that fostering might be a better option. It was costly and a long shot for us to adopt, but my man wasn’t giving up. If anything, the time he spent with little Lennon, made him more determined that we would be great parents. Everything was going great, Everyone was happy and healthy and in love, and things couldn’t be better….

  At least, that’s what we always say, right before shit hits the fan, isn’t it?

  Finn

  “Hello?” My phone rang, mid-back piece and I wouldn’t have answered it at all, but ennon and I, were still getting used to our new home and all the new people in our lives; so when I saw that it was Morgan calling, I wanted to make sure that everything was okay with her. He’d been a godsend the last month, they all had been. Jase, Morgan, Conner and even Kady had become extremely taken with my little lady. I appreciated them, more than they knew. They’d all accepted us with open arms, and I was so grateful that they’d given me a shot.

  “Hey, Finn. Everything’s okay, but Lenny girl, here, is running a slight fever and I just fed her those puff things she likes, not many, about a handful and the first drink of juice she took, she threw up. I mean, not just spit-up, but like…exorcist throw up. I gave her the baby medicine, and although she’s a little fussy, her fever went down a bit, but I just wanted to let you know.” Morgan rambles. He’s trying to sound calm, I can tell; unfortunately, his panic is showing through his long but rapid explanation.

  “Okay, do you think we should take her to the clinic? We don’t have a doctor here, yet.” I ask as I’m thinking out loud.

  “I mean, kids get sick, right? It doesn’t seem like anything terrible. I’m sure it’s not emergency room sickness, is it?” He asks, worriedly, like I’ll have a clue. While it’s true, I’ve been doing this dad thing for a couple of years now, I’m still at a loss when it comes to knowing the ins and outs of everything, baby. I’m learning as I go.

  “I’m not sure, should I google it?” I turn my gun off and ask. I take off my gloves that I would’ve replaced before restarting and apologized to my client. “It’s about my daughter; I’ll just be a sec, do you wanna take a break for a few minutes?” I ask, and she agrees.

  “I already did. I wouldn’t advise it. I’m pretty sure it’ll tell you everything from a simple infection to prostate cancer… she doesn’t even have a prostate; it’ll just scare you!” He almost squeaks. I can’t help but giggle at his warning, I already knew about those doctor sites, I try to stay away from them. Why is everything, always cancer!? Earache? Cancer. Stomach ache? Could be cancer. Long menstral period, probably cancer! I didn’t fancy myself a hypochondriac until I started looking things up on the internet. I was convinced we were all going to die within days of a stubbed toe, from blood clots,
gangrene, and infection. I’ve learned my lesson.

  “How about I check her temp again in about a half-hour and I’ll see if I can’t get her to drink some water, and if it gets worse, I’ll meet you over at the clinic?” He suggests. I have about a half-hour-forty-five minutes left on this outline, so I agree. Hopefully, it’s nothing, but if she’s not doing any better, I’ll just reschedule my next appointment that’s a couple of hours after this one, and we’ll see what’s what. Better to be safe than to be sorry. I apologize to my client, and she fully understands, having three children, herself, her stories keep me distracted until we finish.

  Hey, Kayse, that was Morgan, he says Lennon is running a fever and throwing up, has been for about an hour. Would it be okay if I checked out early and ran her to the clinic? I just want to make sure it isn’t anything to worry about; he says now that Kingsley’s home, even he can’t get her to stop fussing. I hate not being with her when she isn’t feeling good.” I explain and hope he has mercy on me. I know I’m still the new guy and this will technically be the second time I need time off for something baby related. About a week after moving here, Lennon caught her little toes on a frayed piece of carpet in the hallway and bumped her head pretty good. She’s just learned that running, is fun when you have bouncy hair, but it’s also dangerous when it’s not pulled up because it gets in her eyes and she can’t see where she’s running. Hence, head-bounced-off-wall.

  Kids get bumps and bruises, I know this, but head injuries are no joke. And I know these guys don’t have children yet, so I wasn’t sure how empathetic they’d be to my situation. Sometimes, people who don’t have children, don’t understand that literally everything else comes second to being a parent. Your child will always come first, no matter how many clients I have or how important I know that they are. Luckily, the Kennedy’s understand that.

  “Of course, You should’ve said something earlier; someone would've taken over for you. Go, make sure everything is okay.” Kayson tells me, and I’ll be damned if he doesn’t look just as worried as I feel. I knew these guys were good guys, I’d heard of their reputation for as long as I’ve been inking. I never dreamed they’d adopt us into their little fold and all but adopt my little girl as their honorary niece or something. They do that, though. I shouldn’t have been surprised; between Jody, Jase, Joker, and their partners; blood couldn't make them any thicker. Now, they’ve engulfed my baby and me into all that familial goodness. For someone who doesn’t have anyone but the baby they inherited, that family means the world.