Chapter 24
Sunday September 4th
Lennon's POV
"You want to come over for lunch?" My mom questioned although I wasn't sure why. Usually the only way my parents see the kids is when I'm the one initiating it and stopping by their house for a few hours. My mom has only recently been coming by my house, it never used to be like that.
"Yeah, dad can grill and the kids can splash around in the pool. Theo would like that, and dad hasn't seen the babies in a while either" I explained my reasoning. Theo loves when we go swimming, despite it not happening all that often. We don't have our own pool and the neighborhood one is always way too crowded for Theo's liking, so we really only have a pool day when I bring the kids over to their grandparents.
"Yeah, I guess that could work. What time?"
"12:30? The twins need to nap at 3, so that would give us enough time to eat and play" I suggested. The twins would wake up around 11:45, so as long as I can get Theo ready to go while they sleep and get the babies bathing suits and supplies ready in advance, we'd be good to go right around 12:30.
"That works. See you soon"
"Alright, bye" I waited for her goodbye and then I hung up the phone. I was glad that Theo was entertaining himself with the toys in his room as I spoke on the phone. Then it could be a surprise for him, one that I know he'll enjoy.
I smiled down at the babies who were drinking their bottles in their bouncers. I could tell they were already getting tired and wanting to go down for their morning nap.
"Momma! Look what I maked" Theo emerged from his bedroom, holding up what appeared to be some block stacked on top of each other in a singular line. I had no idea what it was.
"Wow! That's cool bud" I praised.
"Yeah. I'm hungry"
"You can get a snack" I told him. We ate breakfast not too long ago, but we probably won't eat lunch until at least 1 so if he wants a snack then he can get a snack. "What would you like?"
He excitedly ran over to the pantry and slid the door open to reveal his options. He put his hands on his hips and thought about it, before making a grab at the chocolate chip cookies.
"This is my loved snack momma" Theo brought it over to me, outstretching it to have me open it for him.
"I know it is. What do you say?" I asked, taking the packaging from him.
"Open please"
"Of course. Here you go" I handed the now opened cookies back to him. "Sit at the table please so you don't get crumbs all over the floor"
Theo turned around to walk over to the table like I asked, instead of towards his bedroom. Meanwhile I lifted the babies up out of their bouncers once they were finished with their milk, and laid them down in their cribs for their nap. By the time I was done, I heard Theo rummaging around again in his bedroom to play with his toys, so I figured I'd better get the stuff I need to do done now rather than in half an hour when he asks me to entertain him.
It took me 10 minutes of searching around the house to find where I had stored the pool bag containing throwing toys, goggles, swim diapers, and whatever else. Except the sunscreen was not there. Groaning, I began to pull open every cabinet in the house to find the missing bottle.
Finally, I found it in my bathroom? I had no idea why it was there but I was relieved I didn't have to keep searching for it. I picked out coordinating bathing suits for the twins, and then found Theo's swim shorts all in the laundry room. Restocked the twins snacks in their diaper bag, and any other essentials such as diapers, wipes, extra clothes.
I finished in just the right amount of time, because as soon as I finished I heard Theo calling me asking me to come play blocks with him. The house was a bit messy from all of the playing the kids did this morning, but I'd rather give Theo attention. The house ends up looking like a tornado blew through it the day after I clean it anyways. Yesterday the house was presentable, and by this morning it was ruined.
I can't keep up with the endless cycle of cleaning.
Theo and I played blocks with each other creating castles and houses that he wanted, until he got bored and moved onto play doh. He sculpted different food items and pretended to serve them to me, and we did that until it was nearing the twins wake up time. We had to stop playing so I could go get the bottles ready.
"Can I wake Lia and Atti up?" Theo asked, stopping me in my tracks as I headed to their room. I waved him over and instantly his little legs were by my side. The twins were very excited to see us, and Theo entertained one while I changed the other.
After the babies were fed and the car was loaded up, we began the 10 minute drive to my parent's house. We listened to baby songs the entire way there, and Theo sang along to them to his siblings.
"Grandmas?!" Theo gasped when I pulled in the driveway and he instantly recognized where we were at.
"Yes!"
"But mom, my swim suit!" Theo frowned, looking down at his clothes, clarifying to himself that he was in fact not wearing a bathing suit.
"I packed your swim clothes, don't worry" I assured him and turned the car off.
Heading to Delia's side first since she hates the car, I unstrapped her from her car seat and held her on my side. Then I unclicked Theo's seat since I haven't taught him how to do it on his own yet in worry that he'll try and unlock it while I'm driving.
It's better if he stayed strapped in.
He climbed out of the car and followed me to Atticus's side and did the same thing to him that I just did with Lia. I had the diaper bag on my back, and handed Theo the pool bag to carry since I had ran out of arms. He followed me to the front door, dragging the bag alongside of him.
"Hey kiddos!" My dad answered the door enthusiastically greeting us as he did. Theo left the bag on the concrete and ran into his grandpa's arms excitedly. "Hey curls, whatcha been up to?"
"Noffin" Theo giggled and wrapped his arms around my dad's neck. "I go in the pool?"
"Yeah we can go in the pool" My dad answered and then grabbed the left behind pool bag to bring it inside. I followed him inside and set the babies down on the living room carpet to give my dad a hug and say hello.
My mom joined us giving curt hellos. Theo began to ramble on to her about something, and I briefly caught up with my dad. It's been over a month now since I've seen him. It wasn't long until I changed all the kids and I into our swim attire and we headed outside to dip in the pool.
The twins were sat in their pool floats, little hats on their head to block the sun from their eyes. Theo knew how to swim, Hudson and I taught him last summer, and he was good about staying on the shallow end. Unlike I who got right in the pool with the kids, my mom stayed sat on the steps with a cocktail in her hand. Dad didn't have the option of going in the pool yet since he was starting up the grill.
Theo of course showed off all his swimming abilities and how he wasn't scared to jump into the water all on his own. His curls were very damp and stuck to his forehead, his hair getting slightly long, but it was adorable.
"So kid, anything new going on?" My dad asked, his question directed at me.
If only he knew what I've been dealing with since last month.
I refused to tell him though about Harry. I already know what he would say and I knew if I heard it I would probably shut Harry out, and as much as I want to talk to someone about it all, my parents couldn't be those people.
Although I really needed to find out about these letters that Harry is talking about.
I didn't want to believe Harry was lying about them, because what would that even gain him? Absolutely nothing, so it doesn't make sense, but I honestly have no idea what he's talking about.
My parents have to know something about them, right? Harry is adamant he sent them to this address, and unless his letters coincidentally got lost in the mail several times, one of them knows something. I wouldn't think my dad would do something like that, but honestly with how angry he was at Harry after he left, there's no telling what my dad would do if he saw letters from him.
On the other hand my mom never liked Harry, and her feelings didn't change after his departure, so there'd be no surprise if she was the one who did something to them.
The other thing is I can't exactly bring up the letters unless I bring up Harry.
My parents would find it suspicious if I randomly brought up some letters without saying where I got this information from. Also I don't even know the last time that the 3 of us have even mentioned Harry in a conversation, it was probably before I even met Hudson, so quite some time ago.
Overall, I can't think of an unsuspecting way to bring the letters up to them.
I'll have to try and search for them.
My dad let us know when the hamburgers were done, and I left mom in charge of the kids in the pool so I could get out and get Theo's and I's plates ready. Theo was only a fan of ketchup and cheese on his burgers so I fixed that up for him along with a bag of chips.
We all ate on the side of the pool, it would've been a lot to dry the babies off just to put them back in again. I used my feet to keep them floating near me, and practically ate my burger in seconds so I could get back in the water with them.
We played in the water for a little less than 2 hours, Theo was having so much fun and it was refreshing to watch him full of nonstop smiles. My dad and I also were able to catch up on a lot of things as the two of us held onto a baby each. It was quite a fun day so far.
I knew we would have to leave soon however, and I haven't had a minute alone to go look for what I want to look for. Deciding I needed to do it now, I asked my parents to keep an eye on the kids while I go inside and clean up first.
They agreed and I headed inside to quickly dry off and change my clothes. I only had a few minutes before they'd be wondering what I was doing, so I ran across the other side of the house to the office. My mom's desk was on one side and my dad's on the other. I shrugged and went through my dad's desk first.
I pulled open every drawer, assuming they'd be tossed away in a pile since they were so old and probably forgotten about. The bottom drawer had tons of opened mail in it and countless envelopes, so I rushed to sort through all of them.
I didn't find a single one addressed to me, or with Harry's name on it.
I groaned and switch over to my mom's desk. Hers was a lot more organized than my dads which was nice. I just hope I didn't end up accidentally missing them since I'm rushing around like crazy. When I didn't see any letters in my mom's desk either, I sighed.
And what if they don't even have them anymore at all? Who knows, they could've shredded them to avoid the risk of me finding them, and then I'd really be out of luck.
I froze in my spot when I heard my mom calling out my name.
"You ok in there?" She asked.
"I'm fine! Just uhm, need another minute!" I responded, grateful a bathroom was across the hall and it sounded like that's where my voice was coming from.
"Okay" She answered, and I heard the backdoor shut again.
I was about to walk out when my eye caught the filing cabinet in the corner. I totally forgot that they had that since it's filled with a bunch of papers I generally don't care about, but maybe they could've hid the letters in there?
Of course with my mom's personality, it was locked. I looked around for a key around her desk and tried 3 different ones until I was able to pull one of the drawers out. I dug around in the first four, and had no luck of finding the letters.
Feeling like it was a waste of time, I unlocked the bottom drawer anyways. There were a bunch of organized labeled folders and my eyes scanned the name of each of them. Until my eyes stopped on the letter H and I saw a folder labeled 'Harry'
I looked outside the office and made sure the coast was clear, and then I peaked in the manila folder. There was definitely something in it, so I reached my hand out and grabbed ahold of several different papers.
My hands were now clutching 7 different pink envelopes, all addressed to me.
Well 😌