Always Us

mr. handyman

"I'll do it, Liv." He reached back for the tape measure, but she was already pushing past him with Gianna on her hip. "Liv, I—"

Everyone stilled at the pained yelp that cut through the room.

Olivia's eyes went wide. "Spencer!"

Lost in his back and forth with his wife, he had forgotten that Caleb was standing next to him and accidentally stepped on his foot.

"Shit." He moved away as fast as he could, but the reaction only spurred more chaos. The two-year-old had been desperately tugging at his foot, and when it finally came free, he lost all balance and tumbled back.

Another yelp.

"Shhh, it's okay, baby." Olivia dropped to her knees, wrapping her arms around his little trembling body. When she looked up, her eyes glistened. "He's bleeding. His face skimmed the tool box."

"Shit, okay," the father mumbled, snapping into action. "Everyone up." He scooped up Gianna, who was wailing on the floor, partially from being abandoned, partially because her brother was. "I'll call my mom and we can take him to the hospital.

Olivia nodded, picking up Caleb and leading everyone out of the room.

_____

Leaving the house had been a fiasco. Gianna wouldn't stop screeching, and Sienna wanted to come with them. When the father told her for the third time that she was staying home with her siblings, the ten-year-old stormed off. There had been no time to address the slamming door because the second Grace stepped onto their property, Olivia was yelling repeatedly from the door that they had to go.

As a result, the drive to the hospital ended up being a silent one. Spencer drove with one hand on the steering wheel, all the while reigning in the impulse to point out that he had been right. Kids didn't need to be around him while he worked on house projects. It wasn't safe. He had told her that. Multiple times. He had also told her that he wasn't in the mood and that he'd do it tomorrow. But she had insisted that they would all hang out together while he did it—pretty please.

The tension simmered down a notch at the hospital, where the parents answered questions and soothed their baby boy. The cut to his eyebrow wasn't deep, but he still needed stitches. Olivia had winced at the news, and while the doctor worked, Spencer's eyes remained on his wife. By the look on her face, he wasn't sure who would end up more traumatized from this experience.

Caleb was asleep in Olivia's arms by the time they walked back through their front door. The parents were exhausted from the long afternoon, but they both knew they needed to talk. They had been bickering for the past couple days, and that morning, it had finally boiled over into something that could have ended much worse.

"Your attitude was completely unnecessary today."

Spencer stopped in his tracks. He had been ready to apologize, but apparently she wasn't. "That's the first thing you got to say, Liv?"

Her eyebrows knit together. "Yes. We just spent the afternoon at the hospital because our son got hurt. None of this would have happened if you hadn't been so sour."

"None of this would have happened if you didn't bend to the kids' every wish. I told you I'd take care of the mirror when they weren't around. Again."