by Amy DeMeritt
“I can’t believe you brought these. I didn’t think we’d receive them till the baby is born.” Awenasa has such a serene smile on her face as she glides her hand over the top of the box and slowly opens it, pulling out a smooth wooden bear. “What if we didn’t know yet? Would you have brought them home with you?” Sequoia smiles and kisses Awenasa’s forehead. “No, my sweet girl. Now that you’re trying to have children, these belong with you.”
“You know, you are the first woman in the family to inherit these. The first born in my line has always been a male, while the first born in your mother’s line has been female. It will be interesting to see what gender your first child will be. Do you have a preference?”
“We want sons and daughters equally, so we’ll be happy with which ever we have. Thank you for bringing these.”
“You’re welcome, sweetie. Come here.” Sequoia pulls Awenasa into a hug, while she wipes happy tears off of my wife’s cheeks. “I love you, and I am so proud of you. If you need me at all during your pregnancy, you just let me know and I’ll get on a plane and come out here.”
“I love you too, Mom. I’m definitely going to want you out here often, especially towards the end and after the baby is born.”
“Sorry to interrupt. Kayla, your family just arrived.”
Jaime is standing at the end of the sectional, and looks a little out of place, but mostly has a look of longing on her face, like she just wants to hold all of us. I smile really big and leap off of the sofa, making her smile widen and everyone follows me with a small laugh.
I pretty much tackle my mother as she gets out of the car. I wrap my arms around her tightly, lifting her off of the ground and spin her around as I had done to Sequoia. She pats my head and back and firmly kisses my cheeks and forehead.
“Hello, my sweet angel.”
“We’re having a baby. Awenasa is pregnant.”
“Oh, sweetie, that is wonderful news.”
Her eyes tear up and she caresses my cheek and runs her fingers through my hair. She gives me a tight hug and then pulls Awenasa into a hug, giving her words of congratulations, love, and support. After she has gushed over her, she gives each of our other wives’ hugs and kisses as well.
My dad ruffles my hair to get my attention, because I’m just so captivated by watching my wives and my mom have this beautiful moment. I smile really big and jump into his arms. He laughs and scoops me up, spinning me around.
After he sets me down, I give Talia and Joey hugs, and then we help them into the house with their luggage. Even though this is their home, and the rooms are theirs till they decide where they’re going to settle down, the squad has given up their bedrooms upstairs to allow our families to use them. They’re all going to be staying in the basement with Sara and Keira till the families go home.
We show our families up to the bedrooms, with my parents in Jaime’s room, and Awenasa’s parents in Symone’s room. Joey and Talia are going to be staying in the living room, in addition to Madison’s brother, Jacob, and her sister, Ashley.
My mom smiles and picks up a frame off of Jaime’s dresser. It’s a picture of all of us together when we went to Arizona, just before the ballroom dance TV show Jaime and I did. We’re all standing under a beautiful natural stone arch in the desert with our arms around each other, with Jaime in the center, and we’re all smiling really big. She sets the frame down and runs her fingers over another, which is a picture my wives took of Jaime curled up in my lap, with my arms wrapped around her, and her head on my shoulder. We’re both sleeping, but smiling, which is why my wives took the picture. There are a few pictures with the whole squad, and some pictures from my wedding and the family gathering last spring on the reservation, but most of the pictures are of Jaime and I and my wives.
My mom looks over at me with a calm smile and caresses my cheek. She kisses my forehead and pulls me into a short hug.
“Give us a few minutes to get settled and we’ll come help with the feast preparations.”
We leave my parents to unpack, and return to the kitchen, where the squad and Sequoia are working together on preparing food.
“What can we help with?” Sara looks up from cutting peaches, and says, “Can you get the chairs and blankets for the lawn?”
“Sure.”
I head for the backdoor, and Jaime stands up and follows me, saying she’s going to help me. As we start walking across the lawn to the barn, Jaime bumps into my shoulder.
“I’m really happy for you.” I smile and take her hand in mine. “Thank you. I can’t wait to go for the first ultrasound to see that little peanut in my wife.” Jaime laughs a little and lifts my hand to kiss the top of it. “Are you still ok with me living here, now that you’re going to have a baby?”
I stop and look at her straight on, feeling like I’ve just been punched in the stomach.
“Do you want to move out?” Jaime smiles and wraps her arms around the back of my neck. “No, I’m very happy here. I just want to make sure you’re still happy with me being here.” I grab her hips, pulling her in close, making her smile widen. “I’m very happy that you live here and I don’t want you to leave. You look really nice today.”
“I’m just wearing a tank top and shorts. There’s nothing special about that.”
“Well, you still look great.” Jaime releases a short happy laugh and gives me a soft kiss on my lips. “Thank you. Come on, let’s get those chairs.”
Most of the first level of the barn is used for mine and the squad’s online merchandise businesses, so there’s a lot of boxes of inventory, shipping supplies, and tables for boxing up the orders. There are racks full of “easy-grab” inventory, bins of boxes ready to be shipped, and a few computers for managing the sales and printing shipping labels. We use about a quarter of the space for storage of a couple stacks of nice lawn chairs, cushions, a big commercial lawn mower and other lawn tools, and supplies for the swimming pool.
Using a hand truck, we cart both stacks of chairs across the lawn and then load up our arms with the cushions. By the time we have the chairs arranged in the lawn with the cushions on them, Sara, Tahoma, and Shannon come out of the house with trays of different meats to put on the grill plates of the long stone firepit.
As soon as they start laying out the meats, the air is made fragrant with the smell of seared chicken and beef and spices. I release a deep moan, and Jaime laughs.
“That smells really good.”
“Yeah, it does. What else do we need to do?”
“I guess we should set up some wireless speakers around the deck for music. They’re in the office.”
Jaime follows me to the office and I grab six speakers that are charging on a self. Jaime leans against the desk looking at a piece of paper in her hands with her cheeks blushing and an adorable closed lip smile. I lean against the desk next to her and smile. She’s holding the erotic fan art picture we received in the mail with me fingering Jaime while we kiss and she squeezes my breast.
“I’m surprised your wives haven’t thrown this out.”
“Why would they? It was a gift and its really good.” Jaime looks up at me with a cute grin and glances at my lips for a moment. “It doesn’t bother them to see us like this?” I shake my head and take the picture from her to look at it. “No. They like this picture. Madison wants to frame some of these and put them on the wall in here or in the dance studio. I think Sara would throw a fit if we put this one in the studio though.”
Jaime laughs as she loops her arm through mine and kisses my cheek.
“Yeah, this one should probably stay in the office. Kayla?” I look up from the picture to meet her eyes, and her cheeks blush again and she looks down, nervously biting her bottom lip. “What’s up?”
“Would it be weird or cause problems with your wives’ parents if I sleep with all of you this week? I don’t mind giving up my bedroom for your parents, but I don’t sleep well on the floor and I don’t think I’ll sleep well on the recliners in the bas
ement theater.”
“Yeah, of course. I should have thought of that actually. I’m sorry I didn’t. I should probably extend an invitation to Symone too.” Jaime smiles and firmly kisses my lips. “Thank you. I have to be at the studio every day this week – otherwise I could have just pushed through it.”
“No, its fine, really. This is your home, and you’re being super generous by giving up your room. Will you have time to go for a run with me in the morning before you have to go into the studio?”
“Probably. I need to be at the studio at nine o’clock. I’ll wake you up if you’re not already awake.”
“Hey, loser.” We look up at the doorway, where my little sister, Talia, is leaning with a grin. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Your wives asked me to come tell you to stop hiding from the family. Madison’s and Sam’s families just got here and Shannon’s family just arrived at the airport, so they’ll be here soon.”
“I wasn’t hiding. We came in here to get speakers for outside.”
“How are you feeling right now?” I look at her confused and she grins. “Fine. Why?”
“I want to challenge you to a race. You’ve been making me run longer and harder every day since your little pep-talk before my science fair last year. I’m the fastest on my track team now.”
“And you want to see if you can beat me now?”
“I know I can beat you now. I just want to rub it in your face.” I laugh hard and nod one. “Ok, baby sister, we’ll see about that. Are you ready to do this now?”
“We’ll wait for Shannon’s family. I want everyone to be here to witness your defeat.” Jaime and I laugh and Talia’s cocky smile grows wider. “Ok.”
“You should change. I don’t want you having some ‘improper gear’ excuse when I whoop your ass.”
Talia is dressed in running shorts, a tank top, and sneakers. She’s actually prepared to run. I’m wearing Bermuda shorts, low-top Converses, and a tee shirt.
“I love the confidence. It’s only going to make my victory that much sweeter.” Talia grins and releases a laugh as she turns to walk away. “Not happening this time, loser.”
Jaime nudges me in the ribs and laughs a little as we follow Talia down the hall. As soon as we enter the kitchen, I’m accosted by Eliza, Sam’s mom. She wraps me in a tight hug, shaking me from side to side, and kisses my cheeks and forehead. After she gushes over me and covers my face in red lipstick lips, Sam bursts in her usual annoyed complaints that always follow the kissing attacks, and is quick to wash my face off with a damp paper towel.
Susan, Madison’s mom, is much less embarrassing in her greeting, but she does hold onto me for a couple long moments, telling me she missed me and congratulating me on Awenasa successfully becoming pregnant.
Jaime takes the speakers from me, and goes to set them up outside, looking over her shoulder at me with a cute smile before stepping outside. After talking to the family for a few minutes, I rush upstairs to change for my race with Talia.
Shannon’s family is just arriving when I come downstairs, and Talia is quick to request everyone to go outside to watch her “whoop my ass”, which everyone finds very amusing.
“Ok, where are we racing to?”
“We’ll walk down your long driveway and end here so the whole family can witness your defeat.”
“And what if they witness your defeat?”
“Then you can buy me new sneakers.” I laugh hard and push her shoulder. “I have to buy you a gift if I win? Fine, but if I lose, then you have come work the choreography event in California with us next month.”
“How much are you going to pay me?”
“You’ll have to take that up with Sara. She’s the boss.”
“I’ll give you a nickel an hour.”
“Five-hundred-dollars an hour? Oh, you are definitely going to lose, Kayla.” Sara and I laugh and Sara pushes Talia’s shoulder. “I said a nickel – that’s five cents.”
“We’ve already agreed to five-hundred-dollars an hour. Let’s go – you’re going to be eating my dust for lunch.”
Talia and I start walking down the driveway, and when we’re several paces away from the family, Talia bumps into my shoulder.
“Congratulations on the baby. I’m really happy for you. Did you go crazy and run around the house like a maniac like you did in Hawaii when you found out?”
“Thanks. I was a little more emotional and less hyper this time.”
When we’re at the beginning of the driveway, in front of the iron security gate, Talia stops and starts stretching. After we’ve stopped stretching, we get into position, and when we hear Awenasa release a loud sharp whistle, we take off running as fast as we can. Talia has grown a couple inches this year, so she’s just as tall as me now, and her speed has picked up significantly. She’s actually keeping pace with me. Normally, I would have already surpassed her.
I steal a glance at Talia to see she’s smiling really big. Without looking at me, she asks, “Ready?”
“Ready for what?”
“Time for you to lose.”
“Oh, so you want to go into turbo mode?”
Talia’s smile fades a little, and she glances at me for a moment. I smile really big and increase my speed, making my legs move so fast that I feel like I can barely get one in front of the other in time to prevent my momentum from making me faceplant on the asphalt.
“Shit.”
Talia curses as I take a small lead, and she pushes herself harder, catching up to me. We rush passed the cheering family, and we slow down and bend over to catch our breath. Talia stands upright, panting for air, and shoves my shoulder with a laugh.
“I beat you. I finally beat you.”
“I think it was a tie.”
We look to the family and several of them have their phones out smiling. Sam looks up with a grin and holds her phone up for us to see. Talia and I appear to be perfectly in line, but looking at our feet on the ground, Talia’s foot is about two inches ahead of mine.
“Wow, look at that, baby sister, you actually did win. I guess you don’t get new sneakers.”
Talia laughs and throws her arms in the air, screaming in victory. She does a silly victory dance around me and then stops to stand in front of me with her hands on her hips.
“You know you still want to buy me sneakers to celebrate my great accomplishment.”
Everyone laughs and Sara wraps her arm around Talia’s shoulders with a challenging smile.
“Ok, hot shot, my turn. If you can beat me, we’ll buy you whatever you want.” Talia’s jaw drops. “But you actually ran track in school. You broke state records and stuff.”
“Exactly.”
“But I just ran harder than I’ve ever run and you’re all fresh and haven’t exhausted yourself.”
“That will just make your victory even better. But if you’d prefer, I’ll run to the gate and wait for you.” Talia smiles and nods once. “Run it first and then I’ll race you.”
Sara pulls her phone and wallet out of her shorts and hands them to Keira. She playfully punches Talia in the arm, telling her she’ll see her in a few minutes, and then takes off running. Talia looks nervous, but starts walking to meet Sara at the start of the driveway.
“Do you think she’ll win?” I glance at Shannon, with doubt sitting heavy in my gut. “I’ve never even beat Sara in a race. But to make it worse, her confidence is zero.”
I look back to Talia, who is still slowly making her way towards Sara, who is already in place and waiting for Talia. I jog up next to Talia and she looks over at me a little startled, but slightly relieved.
“Why are you walking up there like you’re about to have a bucket of mud poured over you?” Talia shrugs a shoulder and looks at her feet. “You know you only beat me because you said you would, right?” Talia looks up confused and stops. “But my running has improved a lot.”
“Yeah, it has. But if you started our race like you’re about to start this one, you would hav
e lost by several yards instead of winning by two inches. Losing against Sara is a very likely scenario, because I can’t even beat her. But how much you lose by is what matters.”
“Is this your idea of a pep-talk?” I laugh and take several steps backwards, just till I’m out of arms reach. “Without moving your feet, try to reach me from there.”
Talia looks confused, but reaches her hand out, and comes up about eight inches short of being able to touch my arm.
“Now, you can either stand just like that and wait for me to reach you, and I’ll give you nothing, or you can lean forward and I’ll give you one-hundred-dollars if you can touch my arm.”
Talia smiles as she leans forward and flicks my arm.
“I get it – the reward is greater when you make an effort to shorten the distance to your goal instead of waiting for it to land in your lap. Thanks, loser.” I smile and turn around to walk back to the family. “See you at the finish line.”
I get several feet away, before Talia calls out, “Hey, I still get the hundred-dollars, right?” I look over my shoulder and smile. “Yeah, sure.”
Talia grins and jogs the rest of the distance to Sara. As I reach my wives, Awenasa loops her arm though mine with a smile and kisses my cheek. She looks back to Sara and Talia, and releases a loud sharp whistle. They take off, and Sara immediately takes a lead. Talia catches up so Sara’s only a few inches ahead of her, but Sara takes off and gains a foot, then another, and yet another foot. Shit, she’s coming in hard. Talia gains in speed, and as they reach us, Sara finishes ahead of Talia by just two feet.
Sara grins and walks it out, letting her heartrate come down, but Talia crumbles to the ground panting for air.
“That’s the best you’ve ever run. You did good.” Talia smiles up at Sara and playfully kicks Sara’s foot. “I’m going to beat you one day.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” Sara holds a hand out to pull Talia up off of the ground. “I guess you’re going to be spending the last week of your summer vacation with us in California.”