Fate Attracts

Chapter Fourteen

"Good god, Tate, I'm not a toddler," he says, trying to give me a scolding look, but the edges of his lips are turning up into a smile.

"You could have fooled me."

Taylor punches me in the arm, sending me into a fit of laughter, something that hasn't happened for a while. He just looks at me, his own smile spreading across his face as we walk back to the house, me holding the bowl of berries in the crook of my arm and him swinging our arms in time with our steps.

We reach the house just as the sun is setting, and the wonderful scent of dinner greets us as we walk through the front door.

"There you guys are," Liam says from where he is stirring a pot of something on the stove. Luckily, this place has a gas stove, meaning that all we have to do is turn on the gas and light it with a match in order to use it. "I was getting worried when you guys didn't return before the sun started to set."

"We're fine, Liam," Taylor says, walking over to the other omega and bumping him with his hip. Liam gives him a smile before letting Taylor take his place in front of the stove.

"You know I worry, Taylor, no matter what you say." Liam walks over to me, taking the bowl of blackberries from my hand and attempting to shoo me out of the room. "I can't believe Taylor let you pick these with your broken wrist. Now get out of here and go check on the little ones. They have been driving me up the walls the last few hours."

"Well, we all know how they love to test your patience," Taylor says from the stove. Liam swats him in the back of the head before taking the blackberries over to a bowl of clean water and washing them off.

Rolling my eyes, I walk out of the kitchen and over towards the living room where the little ones' voices are coming from. I hear a playfully mumbled, "I swear to god, sometimes I question whether or not we are truly friends," from Liam, and an indignant scoff from Taylor.

Whenever those two are together, they love to push each other's buttons, waiting for one to snap so that the other can laugh. This has been the first time they have really bantered, though, since Allie was killed over a week ago. Everything has been tense, all of us too afraid to say something that could break the tentative calm in the house.

The only ones who have been slightly alright since the ordeal are Elliot, Olive, and Grace, but even they have seemed to be feeding off the nervous energy around them. Just the other day, Elliot had a complete meltdown over Grace throwing a toy car at his tower of blocks and knocking it over. He wouldn't calm down for over twenty minutes, eventually falling asleep from exhaustion.

Even Matty has been extra fussy lately, wanting to nurse or be held constantly, and I can tell that Liam is overwhelmed by the sudden clinginess of the baby. Liam took to just carrying Matty around in one of those baby wraps with his shirt off, not seeming to care what anyone thinks, not that any of us are bothered by that, anyway.

A loud cry draws my attention back to the scene in front of me. Somehow, I had managed to walk to the living room without even remembering the process of doing so. Elliot is standing over the twins, his arms crossed and a pout on his lips. Olive has large tears rolling down her face while Grace is yelling something unintelligible at my little brother.

"Hey now, what is going on in here," I say, walking over to where they are having their tantrum. As soon as Elliot sees me, his lip starts to wobble and he bursts into full on tears, running over to me and raising his arms up so that I will pick him up.

"Tate," he wails, drawing out my name on a loud cry. "They too' Blue!" He wraps his arms around me and buries his face in my neck, his tears making my skin damp. Looking over at Grace, I see her holding Elliot's favorite stuffed bear, ingeniously named Blue, for the blue bow tied around his neck.