Gorgeous Green Eyes

by Teagan Amici

  “Are you sure?” he asked, looking up at me from the form which he held in his trembling hands. I sat beside him.

  “Yes, I am, but are you? You know, if no-one challenges this, that you will be assuming responsibility for Melody until she’s eighteen. Unless Darren suddenly has a change of mind and demands a DNA test, to all the world, you will be her father”.

  Blair grabbed the pen from my hand and signed the form before he spoke again. “To all OUR world, I am already her father, I’m just so touched that you want to make it official. Speaking of making things official, do you want to get married? I forget sometimes that you weren’t born one of us, and have different customs. If it’s important to you, then it’s important to me”.

  “I love you Blair”, I said, taking the form from his hands and dropping it on the floor before pulling him down to me as I reclined back on the couch. “I know that in your eyes we’re mated for life, and I don’t need a piece of paper to prove that. You’ve shown me so many times and in so many ways how much you love me, that’s all I want”.

  I was just running my hands up under his shirt, lifting my butt off the couch so he could pull my jeans down and throw them aside, when the phone rang. We both stilled. Ordinarily, we both would have ignored it, but we knew that Diane was due to deliver at any time. We stared at each other for a moment before I shouted “Go” and pushed Blair off me. As he sprinted to the phone, I retrieved my jeans and scrambled back into them, running to him just as he hung up the phone. Due to the patchy service, we still had an old fashioned land line in the house, and as Blair turned, I couldn’t make out from his face what was going on.

  “What, what is it? Is it Diane, is it the baby? Tell me!”

  “Sorry, sweetheart, I didn’t mean to worry you. Yes, Diane is in labour, Cole just left her for a moment because he forgot to ring us when he rang Mum and Dad. He rang them hours ago, they’ll probably be here soon. Diane’s been in labour all day, but Cole thinks everything is alright so far”.

  Shortly afterward, we heard Maria and Marcos drive up, and I let them in while Blair paced. Then I watched Maria and Marcos join him in pacing and fidgeting. I watched for a while before interrupting.

  “Was this what it was like when I was in labour? I had no idea what it’s like for the people outside the delivery room. It’s pretty awful waiting, but not as bad as delivering, I can tell you!”

  Maria sympathised with me, having been through it more than a few times herself, but my attempt at humour just drew two dark looks from Blair and Marcos. The interminable wait lasted a few hours more, then there was a mad scramble when the phone rang. Blair and Marcos were neck and neck, when I heard a low growl come from Marcos. Blair stepped back, deferring to his father, and Marcos snatched up the phone, identifying himself then listening for a while. When he hung up, he turned with a stunned smile on his face.

  “Well?” demanded Maria. “Are they both well? What is my new grandson’s name?”

  Marcos stared from one to another of us before turning to Maria with a big smile.

  “Yes, they are both well. Cole said that Diane is tired, but she is healthy and of course healing well, and your new grandson is actually a girl named Eve”.

  “A girl?” asked Blair in shock. “But most shifters are boys, is it because of Bram? Is she a wolf?”

  “Silly boy”, began Marcos, “You know it is normally too early to tell such a thing, but I think the child is the beginning of something new. Maybe the universe is sending us a sign that the shifter communities should be working together, for that will be our greatest strength. I think when Eve matures to her shifter stage she will amaze us all. It appears she may be both a panther and a wolf”.

  Despite all of Marcos’ explanations, it really wasn’t clear what he meant until the following afternoon, when Blair and I took Melody to visit her new cousin. I had been reluctant at first, thinking that we shouldn’t go near a new born baby so soon, particularly with a little baby ourselves, but was reassured as to the strength of shifters’ constitutions. We left Maria and Marcos behind, Maria cooking up a storm of dishes to take with her so that there would be food in the house, forgetting that Cole was generally the cook anyway. I walked into the house, carrying Melody on my hip, and was surprised to see Diane sitting at the table, a hot cup of tea in her hands.

  “Diane, you’re up and about already? And looking so well! I felt like death for a day or two, and certainly wouldn’t have been able to sit on a hard kitchen chair….” my voice trailed off as three men turned to look at me, and I cleared my throat as my face must have turned the brightest shade of red ever. Blair came to my rescue, pulling me to him and kissing me on the head.

  “You forget that Diane got benefits from having a shifter grow inside her, it made her stronger and able to heal much more quickly. It will be easier for you next time, don’t worry”.

  My blushes barely subsided when the teasing started about how myself and Blair must already be working on ‘next time’, then I was glad of the distraction when there came a bawdy cry from the baby monitor. As Bram mumbled that it was his turn, and went deeper into the house to fetch baby Eve, I stared at the monitor.

  “Wow, that was the cry of a newborn? She sounds almost as loud as Melody! What have I let myself in for?”

  Diane shifted in her chair as I drew up alongside her, stretching out her hands for Melody.

  “They’re bigger, I tell you. It wasn’t easy, but I do feel better today than I thought I would. Come here petal,” she cooed at Melody, “wait until you see your cousin. It’s so great that they are so close in age, they’ll be able to play together”.

  Just then I heard Bram walking in, and I excitedly stood up, holding out my arms to hold Eve. He smiled as he gently passed her to me, and Blair came to stand next to me and we looked down at her together. I looked up at Blair briefly, then at Eve again.

  “What was your father talking about, I can’t see who she looks like, can you?”

  Blair shook his head, then put out a finger to touch Eve’s little button nose, in a similar way that I had seen him touch Melody before. I was struck again at how much affection he had shown Melody, and it had taken me so long to see how much he cared for her. Just then Eve opened her eyes, and I gasped in shock, hearing Blair’s similar reaction next to me. I looked at Diane.

  “That’s impossible. One eye is the exact gorgeous shade of green as Blair’s, but the other….” I looked at Bram, seeing the same silver colour. I looked back at Eve, muttering again at the impossibility of it. Blair laughed beside me.

  “What’s impossible, Lesley?”

  “She can’t have two biological fathers, it just doesn’t happen. One sperm, one egg, that’s how it happens. There has to be some other explanation!”

  Blair reached over, gently taking Eve from my arms and settling her into his, gazing into her eyes before looking at me, grinning.

  “Lesley, you’re standing in the presence of humans who can turn into animals, and back again, and you’re telling me what’s impossible?”

  I opened and closed my mouth like a goldfish for some seconds, before giving up and sitting down besides Diane again, looking at her in amazement.

  “Could it be? What do you think? Did you know?”

  Diane laughed, and then looked up at her daughter, now safely ensconced in Blair’s arms, having a tour of the house.

  “I can’t think of any other explanation, Lesley. It’s not just the colour, it’s the expression. When I hold my hand up so I can only see the silver eye, I see Bram looking back at me. When I cover that eye so I can only see the green eye, it’s just like looking at Cole. Somehow, I don’t know how, but our DNA got all mixed up and she’s the child of all three of us. I think it’s beautiful, but I don’t know how it happened. All I know is that it did. I’m told that shifter girls are really rare, so I pity the poor child, just as I pity Melody. Can you imagine what it’s going to be like, when they hit puberty and boys start paying attention, to
have these guys as fathers?”

  I looked up to see three large men looking at each other balefully. Diane and I looked at each other and laughed. After a while, Diane and I moved to the lounge room so we could sit comfortably while we both attended to our daughters’ feeding needs. We could hear the three men in the kitchen, and then the noise of shoes clomping in and out as Maria and Marcos arrived with all the food. As Diane looked up worriedly at the amount of times the door opened and closed, I smiled wryly at her before telling her what Maria had been up to.

  “Maria started cooking last night and hasn’t stopped. I think she thinks you will all be starving, even though you told me that Cole is a fabulous cook. There’s not a casserole or baking dish left in our kitchen, so you’d better hurry up and eat some of it so I can have some stuff back”.

  Diane was silent so long that I lifted my head to look at her, finding her watching me with a satisfied look on her face.

  “What?” I asked in confusion.

  “You should have heard yourself, Lesley. Did you realise that you called it ‘our’ kitchen, not Blairs, and you asked for ‘your’ stuff back. You’ve really settled in, haven’t you?”

  I didn’t get a chance to respond, because Maria swept in just then, and waited impatiently until Eve had finished feeding and she could hold her. I thought about what Diane had said, and realised how I had long ceased to think of the old farmhouse as Blair’s, and thought of it as ours. I was slowly burping Melody when Maria looked over just as Melody let out a very loud belch.

  “I am so lucky”, she said, swooping in to kiss Melody. “Two grand daughters in just a few months, after only having boys. Thank you, you two lovely ladies for loving my boys as much as you do, and for giving me these two little princesses to fuss over”.

  That feeling of warmth carried me over all through the rest of the day, and through the night when Blair took me into his arms. Normally we were all over each other, but tonight I was happy to begin with a slow cuddle. Blair kissed my hair as I lay with my head pillowed on his chest, and I heard the rumble in his chest as he spoke.

  “Something troubling you?”

  “No”, I said, as I shifted so that I was laying on my front, my chin resting on his chest as I looked into his face. “It’s just been a really wonderful day. I felt so much a part of everything, and if I had any doubt about your family accepting Melody before, I don’t now. Your mother fussed over her just as much as over Eve. I guess up until today, a part of me was always worried that Melody would never really be treated as your daughter, but I know now that she will, and that makes me happier than you will ever know.”

  Blair put his hands under my armpits and dragged me up the length of his body so that I was laying on top of him, and then moved his hands to gently hold my head and guide me down to his mouth for a kiss. As my eyes locked on to his gorgeous green eyes, I saw a slight glimmer of unshed tears in his eyes, and realised that there was probably a matching glimmer in mine. Our lovemaking that night was different, as if something was passing between us that was unsaid but understood, that I was finally at peace with all my fears, even those that I wasn’t conscious I had.

  Chapter 16

  Even though I had seen for myself how well Diane was doing after delivering, and was secretly hoping that I would recover so quickly after Blair and I had our next child, I was still stunned when Diane advised me that the Saturday afternoon football match was still going ahead.

  “It’s actually easier this way”, she said that morning, bustling about the kitchen with Cole and I, while Blair and Bram kept the girls amused. “Everyone wanted to come and see Eve, and see for themselves our miracle baby, and the only way I could prevent two hordes of shifters tromping through my house was to promise to show her off before the game. I bought us all a couple of days of peace and quiet this way”.

  I shook my head as I played fridge Tetris with the bowls of salad, trying to rearrange everything so things would fit. The fridge was normally big enough for the food required for the after match barbecue, but as Maria’s contributions were still taking up space - it had only been a couple of days and although some things had been eaten, Maria had really gone overboard with her preparations. I straightened up at Diane’s next words.

  “I invited Jess and Gerald as well. I wanted to thank them personally for helping out Blair, and Jess will want to see Eve anyway”.

  “How are you going to explain Eve’s eyes? What about Maria and Marcos? Are you going to tell them?”

  Cole spoke from where he was slicing and buttering rolls at the bench.

  “Mum and Dad have agreed to call themselves Uncle and Aunt while Jess and Gerald are around. Dad will tell them he’s my father’s younger brother. That’s not the issue, there’s just no explanation for Eve, nothing they will believe anyway. We’re just going to shrug our shoulders and pretend we don’t know. Let them think what they want. Jess has known Diane for a long time, one day she’s bound to find out the truth, so we’re not really worried about that. Diane doesn’t know Gerald all that well though, so we’ll just have to wait and see”.

  “Well, I like Gerald”, I said as I covered a plate of rolls with some cling wrap. “He helped out Blair without a second thought, and wouldn’t take any payment. He’s clearly head over heels about Jess, so I don’t think he would want to hurt her friend”.

  I was certainly convinced of that when they arrived. They walked up to where we were milling around outside, arms around each other. I could see the love between them, but as they approached us, I got an impression that the smiles on their faces were a little forced. I didn’t get the chance to think much about that as Jess moved towards the prams that were placed so that the sun wasn’t shining in the girls’ faces. Melody was awake and waving her little hands around, and Jess, with a quick look at me for permission, bent down to pick her up.

  “Hello beautiful. I haven’t seen you for a while and you’ve grown so much already. Diane, I don’t know how you do it, you have barely given birth and here you are, looking amazing and hosting a game again. Is your little one asleep? Well, that’s good, because that will give me time to play with Melody, then I can have a hold of the newborn later”.

  We settled in, and the idle chatter began while the crowd of shifters grew as new arrivals came. Marcos, in his role as young uncle, was attired in shorts and footy boots, clearly intending to play. Gerald had been embraced, back slapped, and had his hand pumped by many people thanking him for intervening on Blair’s behalf and was looking a little dazed at the crowd gathering, and I remembered that he had never been here before, so it was all new to him. By now the noise had started to rouse Eve, and she was fidgeting in her sleep, on the point of waking up. Melody had in the meantime enjoyed being passed around, from Jess to Gerald, then through various shifter hands, both panther and wolf, and had been smiled at and tickled under the chin until she had almost laughed herself silly. I had been a bit worried at first, as some of the men I only knew by sight, some I could barely remember from before, but quickly saw that they all had a genuine love for children and despite their size and their huge hands, they each held Melody as if she was something precious, which of course she was to me. By the time Eve was clearly demanding to be picked up, Melody was firmly ensconced in the arm of a very tall panther, waving one little hand around until he grabbed it and blew raspberries into her palm, making her giggle afresh. I turned from watching them to see Jess watching them with an odd look on her face, then I saw something very strange. A couple of wolves had just arrived, I knew them both by sight, but not by name, although one was a very tall man I had noticed talking to Blair once, and as they approached us, the man halted as he saw Jess, sitting next to Gerald. He stared for a moment before he appeared to pull himself together and approached us again, reaching down to gently lay a huge hand on Eve’s little head as she lay nestled against Diane, who had finally picked her up.

  “So this is the little angel I’ve heard so much about. Is she awake
yet?”

  “Yes and no. A lot of grumbling about the noise, but she’s still fighting to stay asleep. How are you both, William and Reynold? You’re almost late, you’d better hurry up and go join the others”.

  With a nod, and a last glance back at Jess and Gerald, William jogged to catch up with Reynold, who was already headed towards the group of men in the middle of the field. Diane settled down to feed Eve, and I wondered what would happen when she was finished, and Jess wanted to hold the baby. That never came to happen though, because shortly after the teams were selected and the game began, Jess got up and turned towards us.

  “I think maybe I’ll wait until another day before you introduce me to Eve. I’ve got a sudden headache, and Gerald is going to take me home where I can lie down. I’ve had a stressful week, and I think it’s all caught up to me”.

  As Diane was busy with Eve, and Jess and Gerald were insistent on going, despite Diane’s suggestion that Jess could lie down in the house for a while to see if she felt better, I walked them to their car, thanking Gerald again for all of his help.

  “No worries”, he said again, “I was glad to do it. The two of you look so right together, I’m glad I could help you sort it all out without too much trouble. Don’t ask me again about payment, think of it as a favour. Maybe one day there’s something you can help me out with in return”.

  I stared after their car as they drove away, then turned back to the field and returned to Diane, who by now was burping little Eve, and happily handed her over to me so that she could refasten her nursing bra and pull her shirt down again.

  The day felt a little odd after that. At half time, Bram and William disappeared into the house and didn’t reappear, leaving their spots on the team to be filled by other men. Just before the game was over, I saw William head out to his car and drive off. After the obligatory nudie run to the dam after the game (I tried to look away, really I did, but my eyes were drawn to Blair’s butt as he ran, and I imagined clenching those buttocks that night) Bram and Cole dressed and started cooking the meat, and while I was bustling about, helping to organise the food, I intercepted a strange look between Bram and Cole, certain I had interrupted a conversation.