Loving Family

Faye: Tour ends

"Mamma can I come with you?" Evalynn asked me as I finished drinking my tea. She'd been sat next to me the whole time and I could sort of tell she wanted to ask me something, it'd just taken a while for her to find the courage.
She did know why I was going out with Benjamin, I'd made it clear earlier. "I'm taking Ben father's day shopping Ev. Are you sure you want to come? I've no issue with it if you do and no issue if you don't."
She nodded, glanced around to check Mick wasn't going to listen in then leant closer to me. "I want to buy him a little present too." She whispered.
My heart fluttered at hearing that sentence. My daughter was starting to properly trust my husband as a father figure, something I'd so desperately wanted the whole time I'd known Mick. "Alright sweetie, what kind of thing were you thinking?" I asked her quietly, willing to respect the fact she likely wanted this to be our secret. Not that with Ben around it was likely to be a secret for very long. Secrets didn't really exist in our house.
She shrugged. "I don't quite know."
"That's alright, I can help you find something." I assured her.
She smiled then nodded to show me she liked that plan and we left the conversation there. The whole idea made me so happy, even if it just turned out she got him chocolate and a card I knew it would be special to them both. The idea that my family were slowly threading themselves together made me smile in itself, for so long this was what I'd hoped for.

"Okay another weird question." Evalynn said in the car. She was sat in the front with me which still felt weird but she was big enough to so I didn't really feel like I should be weird about it. "Would you let me play rugby again?"
I considered the question before I even so much as showed a response. "Maybe. But it depends on where. We looked remember and nowhere had teams for your age group."
"I might be able to play at school. The PE teachers gave us a chance to suggest what sports teams we might want to run next year and I want to ask them if we could at least play rugby a bit as girls." She explained. I regretted glancing at her as I saw her watching me hopefully. I couldn't bubble wrap her forever I knew that, but I didn't want her to get hurt too much either.
"I mean if you want to why not?" They'd have to teach them how to play safely so she'd probably be perfectly fine, and it may give her a way to avoid her bullying issue.
She smiled a little bit at having permission. "I miss playing rugby. It's the only sport I ever liked in Gloucester. I did used to play netball, but that's so girly and dull."
Most of the time Evalynn was my little mini-me. Then every now and then she'd come out with a sentence like that and it just seemed so alien that anyone could think we were basically twins. Sure she had the same kind of interests as me - being adventurous, exploring, all that kind of stuff - and about 95% of the time this little beautiful bundle of curls was soft and playful and gentle and caring like everyone told me I was, it was just that in her the remaining 5% she seemingly spent wanting to play rough. I didn't entirely mind that, but the playing rough was the part that made me slightly scared for her.

"What chocolate does Mick like?" Evalynn asked, staring hopelessly at the different chocolates in the shop.
I'd promised to help her, she'd decided on chocolates, it was just which sort she was stuck on. "Okay now we're asking the real questions. He likes... No Ben darling we're not going over there." Benjamin insistently trying to get me to buy him sweets was getting a bit trying. He was tugging on my hand trying to get me to go look at whatever precisely it was he wanted. "I thi... Oh come on." I concluded I wasn't getting the sentence out. I picked up a couple of different chocolate bars I knew he liked and showed Evalynn, who nodded. I then handed her the basket and lifted Ben up. I felt bad that I couldn't give Evalynn more attention given realistically she was the one that should have needed more today, but I knew she understood. "Oh my gosh you've got heavier while I was away mr."
Evalynn laughed and tucked herself against me as I led the way to the card aisle. I wasn't putting Benjamin down until we got there and I wanted to hurry because he was too heavy to carry around like a toddler anymore. When we made it to the aisle and stopped I put Ben down straight away, and noticed immediately my arms were very relieved for the break. Another small sign that my time with proper littlies was slipping away quicker than I'd ever imagined it could.
"Are you two getting him a card together? Or one each?" I asked them.
"I want to get him one that says either father figure or step-dad I think." Evalynn replied.
Understandable, we weren't at the Mick being dad stage just yet with Evalynn. I'd suspected we weren't but it was nice to have a confirmation from her. "Okay, different ones it is, no problem. Do you want to look for one you like and I'll look for one with Ben?" I asked.
With a nod she turned her attentions to looking for the kind of card she was interested in and I turned my attentions back to my very cheeky son. "Are you going to help pick a card for daddy?" I asked.
"Yeah." He replied. He may have picked today to be cheeky, but he was too cute to stay mad at for very long. And being a touch trying on a shopping trip was trivial really.