Marked. Part II: Becoming Noah Baxter

by J. M. Sevilla

  It's really surprised me how many people have an interest in learning to drift and having a place to go to enjoy the sport. It took a few years to really see any financial gain, but now we've become big enough that we have other employees and it's not just Malik, Noah, and I working seventy hour weeks.

  We're closed today, our kids wanting their birthday party to be held here, loving any excuse to show off to classmates that their parents own this place and they live here.

  “Where's Vi?” Noah asks, head moving around.

  “Seriously, Dad?” Wes comes over to stand next to his dad, letting everyone see exactly what Noah must have looked like at that age, except he also got my eyes. “Where do you think she is?”

  Noah laughs, realizing it was a stupid question. Violet spends her days in our garage under the hood of a car. She reminds me the most of her father, never one to enjoy socializing or engaging in conversation, loving her solitude.

  Violet is our other thirteen year old daughter.

  That's right, they are all thirteen.

  Today.

  Triplets.

  Yikes.

  The day Noah and I found out, we both went into panic attacks for separate reasons. Mine was because I had no idea how the hell my body could carry and give birth to three babies and then take care of them simultaneously. Noah freaked out thinking no good could come from the number three. He fussed over me the entire pregnancy, scared shitless that any moment something was going to go wrong and we'd all be taken from him. It wasn't until he held Wesley (the first to come out) that you could tell he'd just found another reason to live. Then he held his daughters and he was done for; it was love at first sight for all of them.

  I never doubted Noah would be a wonderful father, but he proved me wrong; he's sensational. He's always patient, understanding, and the first to grab them into a big bear hug, giving them an abundance of love and attention.

  One of my favorite memories is when the girls were in kindergarten. They made him colored macaroni jewelry for father's day. Violet made him a necklace, Maggie a bracelet (her attention span's incredibly short and couldn't sit still for anything longer). Noah wore them every day for two straight years with pride. He would still be wearing them if the noodles hadn't started breaking. He had me glue them to a piece of paper with a picture of him wearing them from the day he received them, each girl hugging him. It's now hanging in our living room.

  Wesley and Noah have a special bond that's hard to define. It's not your typical father/son relationship. Seeing them interact gives me a good idea of the way Noah's father was with him. Noah treats his son as his equal, which in turn Wesley has never tried to test our boundaries, always coming to us to openly discuss things that are bothering him or he needs guidance on.

  The two spend a lot of time together. The thing they enjoy doing the most is sparring. Wesley is determined to one day beat his father, so he's never allowed Noah to purposely lose (not that Noah would). The major difference between the two is Wesley is extremely outgoing and can't stand not being around people and socializing, something Noah still has a hard time with, but thankfully it doesn't seem to bother anyone we're close to. They all accept that's just how he is.

  “Hey kids, happy birthday!” My mom and Rick call out, having just arrived with platters of food in their hands. They are still happily together, but neither one has a desire to remarry, and they keep their separate places.

  I quickly take a platter from each of them and head over to the table we have designated the food area.

  Maggie stops her verbal smackdown to run over and give them a hug. Wes comes over to do the same, already towering over them. The doctor thinks he'll be as tall as his father, if not taller.

  A minute later Noami and Stevie arrive with their two children, twelve year old Ava and seventeen year old Parker.

  Stevie had wanted to adopt an older child, hoping to give them a better life like Naomi's parents had for her. They met Ava when she was seven and instantly fell in love with her, and when they found out she also had an older brother they had adopted him too.

  Ava is the sweetest, most soft spoken girl, who makes the best cupcakes in the entire world. She's also Maggie's best friend. Just like Noami and I, they really seem to balance each other out. Ava stops Maggie from doing crazy things, and well...unfortunately, Maggie is usually getting them both into trouble.

  We all excitedly greet one another. Ava and Maggie give each other a hug before Ava goes to be by Wesley, who takes her hand in his.

  The very moment Wesley had laid eyes on her, he turned to me and quite seriously professed, “This is a life changing moment for you, Mom. You're about to meet my future wife.” Mind you, he was eight at the time. What do you say to that? But that's Wesley, overly passionate and loyal. Ever since then they've been a “couple.” Stevie, Noami, Noah, and I don't think they've reached an appropriate age to date yet, but when the two are together they are as close as two people can get. Just recently we've allowed hand holding, which I'm sure they were already secretly doing.

  Parker only gives a lift of his chin to acknowledge us all. The only people he gives proper greetings to are my mom (Naomi gets on his ass if he's not polite to her) and Noah, who gets his own special nod.

  Parker has been a handful from the start, especially at the beginning. He was a bitter, angry child, and at twelve tested Naomi and Stevie every chance he could. Ava was the only one he showed any kindness to. He's amazing with her. I think the only reason she doesn't have his anger issues is because he's always taken care of her and made sure she's protected.

  A few years after the adoption, Noah got tired of hearing about the hell Parker was putting Naomi and Stevie through, so when Naomi called me sobbing after finding out Parker had been suspended from school for fighting–his seventh one that year–feeling like she was failing him and running out of options to try, Noah snatched the phone from my hand and asked if he could join her at the school and drive Parker home. No one knows what happened between them during the three hours it took Noah to drop Parker home. Noah says it's not anyone's concern but his and Parker's. After that day, Parker started slowly changing. Twice a week since then Noah has picked him up and they do god knows what for three hours; neither one has shared. At one point Noah told Parker his entire story, which shocked me since I'm the only other person who knows, but he said he needed Parker to understand that he wasn't the one who'd had bad shit happen to him, and that staying pissed off all the time wasn't going to change anything. We still haven't told our kids the whole story. Noah figures we'll know when the time is right; he doesn't want the story tainting their childhood, wanting them to be carefree for as long as possible.

  Naomi is now Noah's number one fan and believes he's God's gift to us all for how drastically he's made those she loves most into better people.

  After softly conversing with Noah for only their ears to hear, Parker makes his slow meander to the garage, where he and Violet spend all their time working on old cars. The only reason they accept each other into their space is because they spend the whole time without conversing, only music and the clinking of tools to be heard.

  Noah watches Parker, jaw grinding, “Tell Vi she has ten more minutes before I drag her ass out here!”

  Parker doesn't respond or acknowledge that he heard, but we know he did; he follows any orders Noah gives him.

  Noah looks to me, “In about five minutes, I'm going in there. I don't like them spending so much alone time together; Violet's maturing too fast. ”

  I step closer to him so I can warp my arms around his waist, “I thought you trusted him?”

  He scowls down at me like the answer should be obvious.

  I shrug and raise my brows to let him know I'm not following. This has never been an issue in the past. The two have spent time alone together from the beginning, even when Parker was going through his “pissed off at the world” stage.

  “Our daughters have their mother's smile. Do you have an
y idea how much stress that causes me? Especially now that they are getting older?”

  I beam up at him, still feeling the effects of his compliments.

  “See? That right there,” he pecks my lips, “gets me every single time.”

  His words only make my smile bigger.

  Noah brings his mouth to my ear and a hand to squeeze my ass, “Stop, unless you want me to take you back to our room.”

  I do want him to; however, our kids' birthday party doesn't seem like an appropriate time.

  One thing out of a trillion that I love about Noah is he wants me just as much now as he did when I was twenty-two. The first time we made love after my c-section, I was embarrassed for him to see all the loose, wrinkled skin and stretch marks that carrying triplets did to my belly, and that to this day are still mostly there. Noah acted as though he didn't even notice a change, kissing along it as though it was still flat and smooth, giving my deflated breasts just as much attention as always. It's truly like he doesn't even see a change, or maybe it's just that it doesn't matter to him.

  “Parker would never touch her, she's like a kid sister to him,” I remind Noah, trying to get his focus away from the garage. Noah will forever be over protective when it come to me and his daughters, despite not a single threat having come our way.

  Noah snorts, “Yeah, until she's not a kid anymore.” He kisses the three scars on my neck, something he does at least once a day, “I need a beer.”

  I laugh at him and he brings his mouth to mine. For a moment I forget that we're having a birthday party and all our friends and family are here.

  Noah breaks apart, resting his forehead to mine, his heart rate spiked and visible on his pulsating veins, “You need to stop tempting me.”

  “Stop kissing me then.”

  “Not possible.”

  I love it when he gets mushy.

  My brothers arrive, along with my dad, Jill, and a bunch of our kids' friends. It's the exact distraction I need to keep me from molesting my husband in front of everyone.

  We greet them and ask how my brothers' skateboarding shop is doing, which to no surprise is still doing well. They ask if Arianna will be here and are bummed that she can't make it this year, both loving to playfully flirt with her. Once Seth started noticing girls, the two of them became the biggest flirts. They still are, having no desire to settle down.

  Arianna's still an employee at Cole Private Bank and Trust. She figured out not long after she started there that she's a natural at drawing in new clients and has brought in accounts from some of the wealthiest people in the United States, making her an asset to the bank.

  At least once a year she comes to visit us, always bringing Charlie with her as her personal body guard. She's never explained why she needs her own guard, just that Ben demands it.

  We don't hear much from Ben. He's one of those people that will always remain a mystery, and I think he prefers it that way. He sends each kid a check for a thousand dollars every year on their birthday, so they think he's the coolest guy ever.

  “I think I need to have a talk with that kid about limits,” Noah growls.

  I turn to see what he's focused on.

  Violet and Parker are heading over to the party. Noah scowls at how close they are walking, arms brushing with every small step they are taking, prolonging their arrival, neither one wanting to partake in the party.

  Violet's the only one that got my hair color and Noah's northern light eyes, ironically sometimes making them appear violet, depending on what she's wearing. Where Maggie's one of those girls you just want to pinch their cheeks they're so gosh darn cute looking, Violet is beautiful, her skin porcelain and cheeks always with a rosy glow, which you don't often see because she usually has oil smudges covering her. She doesn't smile very often, but when she does you can't help but stop and stare.

  I tug Noah's arm to try leading him back to the party, “You know it's not like that with Parker. Besides, you can't keep guys aways from our girls forever.”

  He scoffs, fists clenching, “Wanna bet?”

  “Let's go get you that beer,” I encourage, forcing him to follow me, knowing Parker would never do anything to destroy Noah's trust.

  We watch all the kids, plus my brothers, ride the go-karts. We got them around the time the kids were old enough to ride them and made it something to offer at the track a few times a month, a way for families to come together. It's been a huge success for us.

  Violet even joins in, laughing and having fun with her siblings. The three of them may be very different, but they remain each other's best friends and confidants.

  Noah wraps me in his arms and I can feel his smile without having to see it.

  “Thank you,” he breathes into my ear.

  I rest back into his firm body and sigh contently, “For what?”

  “For everything good in my life,” he tucks me in tighter and kisses my head, whispering an “I love you” into my hair.

  Noah and I have definitely had our fair share of struggles, as individuals and as a couple. Our relationship has never been perfect, our parenting sure isn't perfect (despite how hard we try), but the love we share is, and at the end of the day that is enough.

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