by G S Binkley
As tired as Gage was, she knew this conversation would be broached before the night was through and that it was very important to Lacy. “I’m never too tired for you.” Gage placed a loving kiss on her partner’s lips. “You know, you set me up leaving Hayley with me while I talked with Stella.”
Lacy knew Gage wasn’t trying to avoid the subject at hand. “Did the trick, did it?”
“It was like she was a whole fire department all by herself waiting to douse even the smallest spark that might have struck. With those innocent eyes of hers… just like yours.” The tip of Gage’s fingers drew an imaginary line along Lacy’s jaw line while staring into her lover’s eyes.
“Like yours. A beautiful green.” Lacy countered.
Shaking her head, Gage disagreed. “The blue in her eyes is coming out more and more every day. I like it.”
One of the same eyes they were talking about popped open for a brief moment as Hayley surveyed their assigned places. Knowing she wasn’t exactly where she wanted to be the astute toddler somehow knew that her mothers needed to be together this night. With that thought, she let her sleepy eyelid fall shut.
“He just wanted to talk. He’s still having problems.” Mitch and his wife had reconciled during the summer. Gage didn’t really want to get into another subject from her past. However, to provide Lacy with what she wanted to know about the call and Mitch, Gage would have to reveal a few things about her along with it. “He called me instead of getting drunk.”
An arched eyebrow sprang up.
“They had a fight and he needed to get away for a while.” Gage sucked in a deep breath and her partner was very much aware that the blonde was about to take a giant step forward. “Mitch and I used to…. Lacy, you know I’ve never really drank much.”
“I know.”
“There was a time though. Mitch and I would close down the bar nearly every night. We worked together at a treatment facility for teenagers, and when we got off work, we’d hit the bar.” After the bar was closed a very drunk twosome would somehow find their way home, fall into bed and drag themselves out of it just in time to go to work the next afternoon – which would start the cycle all over again. “We didn’t intend to get drunk. Because of our unusual work shift, we didn’t really have time for our normal shift-working friends. Not much to do when we got off at ten… except hit the bars.”
Lacy didn’t want to interrupt the flow of her partner’s welcomed revelation but she also knew Gage might need a moment to re-group. “I can understand that. An actor’s life has weird work schedules, too.”
“Yeah, I found out.” Glad for the short reprieve, Gage pressed forward. “It became habit. Same routine day after day and even on our days off we’d end up at the bar. When life’s pressure would hit us, I guess we started to use drinking as our way of escaping. We were used to it. Mitch knew I’d understand and so he called.”
“Smart man.”
“Why do you say that?”
“It worked, didn’t it? Instead of getting drunk, I’m betting he went home.”
“Correct on the first try.” Gage was proud of the fact that Mitch elected to call her for help and felt good about herself for guiding her old friend in the right direction. “When you’re lucky enough to have a family of your own… people who love you, nothing and I mean nothing comes before that.”
Lacy kissed her lover as a reward for the good deed done.
“Guess you know now?”
The dark haired woman was puzzled. “Know what?”
“That I really wasn’t making much of a sacrifice giving up liquor when you were pregnant.”
“Sweetheart, you’ll never know how much you did for me and I don’t just mean when I was pregnant. You’ve changed your whole life for me.”
“And the kids.” Gage smiled.
“We all love you.” Once again, Lacy kissed her lover passionately.
Gage shifted uncomfortably. “I’m sorry about that night at Mark’s bachelor’s party.”
“No.” It was Lacy’s turn to run a long finger along Gage’s face. “I’m the one that should be sorry. You’ve always taken the brunt of when I’ve been stressed out. This is no excuse but it’s because I know you love me so much and you always will. There’s a very comforting feeling knowing that I can strike out during those times…. at you…” Lacy ducked in to offer her lover an apologetic kiss. Tears filled her eyes. “…and…” Lacy couldn’t go on.
“I’ll always love you no matter what… same as you, Lacy. My heart fills with utter joy to know that I will always have your love.” Gage understood perfectly why Lacy seemed to vent her anger at her. For Gage there was never anything for Lacy to ever be sorry about regarding these times because she took great pleasure in knowing that Lacy felt the depth of her love. “Come here.”
Lacy passionately returned her lover’s kiss. “You’re everything to me.”
“Yeah. Me and four….” Gage considered for one brief moment to use a funny description of their children like ‘rug rats’ or ‘curtain climbers’ but rejected that thought immediately. Name calling when she was just a kid had a devastating effect on her. “…. beautiful and loving children.”
“That I do.” Lacy pulled her lover’s head to rest on her shoulder. I’m the luckiest person in the world.
Chapter Five
A little over two months later the Ballant clan was gathered around the beautifully decorated eight-foot evergreen tree celebrating Christmas Eve. They were spending this evening together before celebrating Christmas Day at Lacy’s parent’s home.
With wrapping paper, ribbons and toys haphazardly spread across the family room’s floor, Lacy and Gage settled on the couch watching their children play. They had offered to build Stella a small house next to their home thinking she would want a place of her own and some privacy. Stella refused stating she was happy with her large room. She didn’t tell them the real reason she wanted to stay in the house. After years of not having her daughter in her life, Stella needed to stay as close as she could with her family.
Derek was happily playing with his new racetrack after insisting that Gage put it together. So for nearly an hour, they both worked diligently connecting the intricate pieces with some help from Sammy and Hayley, which ended up being more of a detriment to getting the track in working order. As a final touch, Derek placed his huge stuffed panda bear in the center of the track.
Shaking her head, Gage knew she would have to take the large track apart and reconstruct it within the next few days in her son’s room. “Lacy, we’re going to have to knock out the wall between Derek’s room and that spare room if we keep getting him bigger and bigger racetracks each year.”
Lacy lightly slapped her lover’s arm. “Oh, he’ll grow out of it and next year they’ll be something else that will get his attention.”
“Ha!” Gage grunted. “That’s what you have been saying for the last three years and each time it has to be bigger and bigger and now… Sammy’s into them, too.”
Lacy nudged her partner, distracting the blonde from her mock ranting and raving. “Look.” Lacy pointed to Dani.
“Mom! Where’s the batteries?” Dani yelled, holding up her new portable CD player which the young girl in her mind had already selected the perfect place for it in her room.
Stella jumped up. “Here you go Dani. How many do you need?”
They fiddled with the CD player, inserting the batteries so Dani could carry it around the room. “Thanks grandma.”
Every time Stella heard that word, it warmed her heart. Dani was the first to use it. It didn’t take long for Derek and Sammy to follow suit as their oldest and wisest sibling explained to them. “If she’s our grandma, we get better presents.”
“Stop it Hayley!” Derek whined. “Now give it back.”
The energetic tiny blonde grabbed the yellow racecar after she derailed it from the track near the hairpin curve.
He chased after his little sister but she wobbled safely b
etween her grandmother’s legs, burying her blonde head against Stella. “No.” This was first intelligible word from Hayley’s mouth and she used it often.
“Mooom…” Derek twisted around to find Lacy and gave her a stern look, demanding. “Make her give it back.”
“Derek, you must have what…. a zillion of those cars?”
Narrowing his grey eyes at his sister, he complained. “That’s my favorite.” He then quickly returned to look at his mother. “Besides, she’s your daughter!”
“And what is that supposed to mean?” Lacy decided to give her young son a lesson in sharing. “Derek, just a few minutes ago Hayley let you play with her new play piano. She didn’t whine and complain about it. Now did she?”
He looked back at his sister and sighed. “Oh, okay.” Leaning down, he turned his sister around facing him. “Hayley.” Her bright eyes crowned her smile. “You can play with it for ten more minutes, okay? Then you have to give it back to me.”
Sticking it in her mouth, she nodded.
“Oh, great… now I’m gonna have to let it dry for an hour.” Derek fussed with her long curly locks before returning to his racetrack. By this time, Sammy had moved in and was taking it over. “Sammy, you can play with me, okay?” Not even getting his brother’s attention, he plopped back down near the track and grabbed one of the controls.
With a clear path to her mothers, Hayley made a beeline to them. The piles of discarded wrapping paper and toys didn’t deter her from her mission. Gage lifted her up on her lap.
“Here. Let me have her. I have one more gift for you.” Lacy exchanged her daughter for the gift in her hand.
“More for me!” Gage waggled her eyes, happy to get another present. She tore it open, revealing a bottle of cocoa butter formula.
Lacy noticed her partner’s lackadaisical reaction. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. There’s a whole case of it already in the bathroom.”
This brought a huge smile to Gage’s face. Ever since the blonde had used cocoa butter on Lacy’s expanding pregnant stomach and realized how well it worked to ward off any stretch marks, Gage started using it liberally on her whole body. “Hey, it’s for you more than me.” Gage leaned in to whisper in her lover’s ear. “So you can have nice soft, silky skin to play with.” The blonde left a trail of soft kisses down her partner’s neck.
“Always thinking of me.”
Gage nodded before setting the bottle aside. When she did that, Hayley bounced over onto her lap. Hayley climbed up her blonde headed mother and kissed her.
From across the room, Sammy eyed his sister’s move with keen concern. He dropped the remote control on the floor then made his way across the room, crawling up onto Gage’s empty knee. “Me…me.” Suddenly, he kissed Gage on the cheek as Hayley stared at her.
Reaching up her tiny hand, Hayley patted Gage’s cheek where Sammy kissed her and echoed her brother’s words. “Me, me.”
“Why thank you, Sammy.” She smiled and brushed her lips along his temple then kissed her daughter’s hand. “You, too. Thank you.”
With a light shove, Sammy pushed at his sister to move over to Lacy’s lap. Hayley resisted. Not because she didn’t want to but because she wanted to give her brother a kiss, too, which she did.
“Come over here, Hayley.” The little girl complied, landing in Lacy’s lap.
“Hayley… look. Another present for you.” Dani handed the neatly wrapped gift to her sister. Seeing the jealous look on her brother’s face, Dani quickly retrieved the gift she had got for him. “Here’s yours from me, Sammy.” Happily, he took it and carefully and painstakingly opened it. He was such a precise little boy.
Dani watched both her siblings unwrap their presents as she fingered the new charm on her bracelet. It was from Lane. He had given her a small silver unicorn. Back in September, the young girl decided not to go steady with Lane. At first she fretted about it until Lane confessed he felt pressured by his friends to ask her. With that admission, they seemed to grow closer and the bond between them would continue to grow through the years.
Her mother helped Hayley unwrap the present to reveal a new outfit. “Dani. Would you help her put it on?” Lacy asked.
“Oh, mom. I was just going to play my new CD.” Seeing that answer did not meet her mother’s approval, Dani changed her mind. “Okay….c’mere you little squirt.”
Sammy remained on Gage’s lap much to her astonishment, holding on to his new Disney movie. I guess Lacy was really right.
He pushed the disk in his hand at Gage. “Play for me?”
Surprised, Gage was about to agree but Lacy answered first. “Not tonight, honey.” The frown on his face prompted her to offer. “Tomorrow morning before we go to your other grandmother’s house we’ll watch it…. in bed. Okay?”
Happy to comply with his mother’s wishes, he nodded. “Okay.” But refused to let go of his prized present or his place on Gage’s lap.
“What do you mean ‘in bed’? Gage glared at her partner. One of Lacy’s presents to her was one of those new thin-screened televisions that the younger woman said would fit perfectly in their bedroom. “Not in our bedroom.” The blonde declared.
“I got it for the bedroom. Why don’t you want one in there?”
“You know what they say.” Gage cocked her head as if Lacy should have known. But she didn’t so Gage explained, whispering into her partner’s ear. “Once the TV comes through the bedroom door, sex goes out the window.”
Lacy erupted in laugher, swatting her lover’s arm. “Like that would ever happen.”
“Hayley!” Still on her knees, Dani yelled. “Come back here.” After Dani took off Hayley’s clothes so she could put on her new outfit, the tiny escape artist wiggled free from her sister’s grasp.
“No.” Hayley shot back with a smile.
Exasperated, Dani sat back on her legs, spying a big red bow.
Like a magnet drawn to the North Pole everyone’s eyes and full attention needled to Hayley as she stood there with a huge happy smile on her face.
Snatching up the red bow, Dani planted it on her sister’s curly locks. Dani then pushed the play button on her CD player. When the song erupted, filling the room, Hayley shook her little bare butt to the beat as she clapped her hands.
“Ooooh…my….gosh…” Gage let out.
“What?” Eyes still glued to her daughter, Lacy asked.
Motioning her head at their naked daughter, she resolved herself to the truth dancing before her. “Our little bohemian!”
***********************
“Stella!”
“What about her?” Lacy asked.
The frustrated blonde finally decided to let Lacy in on her secret. She turned to Lacy aiming serious green eyes at her lover. Gage noticed her partner become concerned. “Stella. That’s my name. My middle name. Instead of Saint like I… would have preferred, it’s Stella.” The blonde let out with an exasperated sigh. “And Gage is my mother’s maiden name.”
“Oh, sweetheart.” Lacy cupped her lover’s cheek. “I think it’s beautiful.”
“Well, anyway, that’s your last Christmas present.” For tonight that is. “I knew you’d like it.”
Anytime Gage revealed even the smallest nugget about herself, Lacy accepted it as a very special treasured gift. “No more gifts tonight?” Lacy snuggled closer, sliding a very silky and sexy leg along Gage’s leg then parked itself over the blonde’s hips.
Gage spared a defeated green eye at their bedmate, happily sleeping on her right side. “We promised her.”
The smart little 9-month-old toddler finally found a way to ensure that she remained in her mothers’ bed all night long. She gave up sleeping between them in a compromise to stay the whole night. Lacy was the one to figure it out first. Once in bed, Hayley would kiss both her mothers then either crawl in the middle or to the side of one of her mothers. Every time she woke the next morning after having crawled to the side of one of her mothers and Hayley found herself in her baby b
ed in the morning, the tiny blonde - in a rare show of emotion - was miffed and cranky. Lacy noticed that when their little girl chose to fall asleep between them, she would be her usual happy self even though she woke up in her own bed the next morning. Once Lacy figured it out, all of them were very happy.
“Mmmmm…. okay then Gage Stella Ballant.” Lacy smiled. “The very first night our little angel falls asleep where we can put in her in her own bed… then you’re mine.”
Gage kissed her lover. “Promise.”
***********************
Bright and early the next morning, Sammy gathered his brother and sister then headed to his parent’s room, carrying his movie. He stopped to yell for his grandmother but she refused to budge from her bed. Stella was up past midnight collecting all the left over wrapping paper and discarded boxes even after Lacy protested when she told them her plans.
A sleepy Gage agonizingly dragged her eyes open to find all of their children in bed. The brand new television and DVD player was placed across the room ready for use. With Stella on her secret mission to clean up the family room, Lacy had a mission of her own since she promised Sammy they could watch his movie in their room. Actually, it didn’t take much prompting for Lacy to convince Gage to haul the television and the accompanying DVD player up to their bedroom and hook them up. She only had to explain to Gage how wonderful her partner was around the house and she would be lost without her. When Lacy ducked her head slightly, offering a small pout, Gage caved.
With Derek on the right side of Gage and Sammy on her lap, she scooted closer to Lacy who was holding Hayley. Dani took up residence on her mother’s left side as she patiently waited for the movie to start.
“Okay.” Gage grabbed the remote. “Who wants to start the movie?”
“Me…me!” Sammy captured it from Gage’s hand and pressed ‘play’.
“Me, me?” Hayley echoed in the form of a question as she looked at Gage.