The first thing I did the morning after the hospital trip was check on Asher. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t sick like his brother. Once I was satisfied that his temperature was perfectly normal, I made my way to Cayden’s room to check on Cain. Cain wasn’t in his room with his brother and I remembered Cayden saying something about keeping him in his room so he’d be away from Asher. A smile spread across my face as soon as my eyes landed on Cayden’s bed. Cayden was lying on his back with Cain lying on his stomach on top of him. Cain’s arms were wrapped loosely around Cayden’s neck while Cayden’s arms were hugging Cain to him. I slipped my phone out of my pocket and took a picture, loving the precious moment.
“Wha-?” Cayden asked groggily, the flash from my phone waking him up.
“Oops, sorry Cay. I forgot to turn the flash off,” I said sheepishly as I slipped my phone in my pocket.
“S’okay. What time is it?” he asked as he carefully unwrapped his arms from around our son to rub his eyes.
“Ten. I just woke up,” I answered.
“Is Asher still asleep?” he asked as he carefully moved Cain to the bed beside him.
“Yeah, I figured he’d be awake by now but I guess I was wrong,” I responded.
“Well Kasper said that he did wake up last night. Kasp said he had a little bit of a freak out when he woke up in an unfamiliar place without us around,” Cayden answered, making my heart clench. I hated the thought of my baby being scared.
“Momma? Daddy?” a little voice said from down the hall, slightly muffled by the door.
In an instant, I was out of Cayden’s room and down the hall, scooping up my baby. Asher had just woken up, that much was obvious. His hair was ruffled and his eyes were still droopy. The smile that spread across his face as soon as he saw me, however, told me he was wide awake and happy to see me.
“Good morning baby,” I chirped, placing a kiss on his cheek as I hugged him to me.
“Where’s Cain?” he asked, looking around for his brother.
“Cain’s sick, baby. He’s in Daddy’s room until he gets better so he doesn’t get you sick,” I explained, walking back into Asher’s room to get him clothes for that day.
“I wanna see him!” Asher exclaimed.
“I know you do, but you can’t yet. He’s sleeping right now and we don’t want you to get sick, too,” I said.
“But-“ he started to protest, but Cayden cut him off.
“No buts, buddy. Your brother is sick and we have to let him get better. We don’t want him getting you sick because then he could get sick again,” Cayden explained, knowing perfectly well that Asher probably didn’t understand him.
“Daddy!” Asher yelled, completely ignoring anything that Cayden said, holding his arms out to him.
A second later, I felt Cayden’s body pressed against my side as he reached over to grab our son. I knew I was supposed to be staying away from Cayden, but feeling him pressed against me, even for just that small moment, was enough to cause a flood of memories rush back into my mind and make me want to lean into him.
“Umm, come on Asher, we have to give you your bath,” I said, slightly flustered as I picked out clothes from his dresser.
“I’ll do it. You go eat breakfast or something,” Cayden offered as he took the clothes out of my hand.
“Okay,” I said as I turned around, hearing Cayden chuckle slightly.
I could hear the water running in the bathroom as I walked to the kitchen to get something to drink. I had just filled my glass with orange juice when there was a knock on the door. I started walking towards the front door, setting my glass down on the side table in the hallway. I opened the door to see Tyson, my date from last night, standing in front of me with a sheepish expression on his face.
“Tyson,” I said, surprised. I had expected him to not want anything else to do with me after his yelling fit last night.
“Hey Kenzi, can I come in? I need to talk to you,” he asked, giving me a small smile.
“Yeah, of course,” I said, stepping back to let him in.
“Thank you. I want to apologize to you. I had no right to yell at you last night and I’m so sorry that I did. It’s just, I really like you Kenzi, and finding out that you’re a mom and that you live with the father of your children made me jealous. I should have listened to you when you said I had nothing to worry about…..or maybe I do,” the last part of what he said was quieter and his tone had changed, making me curious as to what happened to cause that change.
Looking over his shoulder into the living room, I saw my box of pictures on the floor with pictures scattered around it. The pictures were all of me and Cayden from when we were dating. Some of them were from before we started dating, but even then it still looks like we were dating. Cayden and I have always been close. Tyson slowly made his way to the pile and picked up a couple of the pictures, looking them over before turning his head to look up at me.
“I don’t know what to think anymore Makenzi. You tell me I have nothing to worry about, but these pictures say otherwise. Not to mention the fact that they’re spread out over the floor and you’re the only one I see around here,” he said before letting the pictures fall back to the ground.
I open my mouth to answer, but I’m interrupted by my baby boy Asher. He ran into the room, shrieking with laughter, with absolutely no clothes on. I laugh, recognizing his bath time ritual. Both of my boys love to run away as soon as they’re lifted from the bathtub. They have a tendency to run around the house until someone catches them. Cayden appears in the doorway, laughing as well, and I scoop the laughing toddler into my arms.
“What are you doing, baby? Did you get away from Daddy?” I asked, tickling his ribs.
Shrieking with laughter, Asher could do nothing but nod.
“Come here buddy. We have to get you dressed and let Mommy finish talking,” Cayden said as he walked closer to us.
Cayden walked to where he was right next to me before reaching over and grabbing our son from my arms. Asher, apparently, didn’t want to let go of me, bring Cayden and I even closer together. We were still laughing and simply loosened Asher’s grip on me before Cayden nestled him safely in his arms. Cayden gave me a smile before walking away, heading towards our sons’ room to dress the mischievous, laughing toddler in his arms.
I watch them leave before turning back to Tyson, who was looking angry.
“I can’t believe you! You go and tell me that I have nothing to worry about and then you do that little show just now. What the hell is your problem?” he asked, throwing his arms up in anger.
“What’s my problem? What the hell is your problem? We went on one date Tyson. That doesn’t give you any power over me. I will admit that I liked you, but not anymore. You’re getting angry and possessive and we aren’t even dating. That’s pretty pathetic. You obviously have some jealousy and anger issues, possibly even mental issues, which you really need to get checked out. Goodbye Tyson. Have a nice life,” I said angrily before turning around and walking towards the hallway.
“Oh no you don’t,” I heard Tyson say before I was suddenly flying forward and slamming against the floor.
“No one talks to me like that, especially not a little whore like you,” Tyson growled while he dragged me to my feet by my hair.
He spun me around to face him and I brought my fist back and punched him in the face. Outraged, he threw me against the wall, which made a crashing sound. My vision became blurry and my head started pounding and I could feel blood trailing down my face. Within seconds, Cayden was running into the room. He took one look at me on the ground slumped against the wall with Tyson standing above me and lost it. He flew through the air and tackled Tyson to the ground before punching him repeatedly in the face. Tyson attempted to fight back, but it was futile. Cayden looked ready to kill and Tyson was his target.
“Cayden,” I tried to say, my voice coming out hoarse and low.
He didn’t hear me and continued to punch Tyson. I turned my head and saw Asher in the doorway, watching Cayden and Tyson with his mouth hanging open.
“Cayden!” I yelled as loud as I could, wanting to stop the fight. Tyson deserved it but I didn’t want my two year old son to be a witness to it.
Cayden paused and looked up at me with a questioning look on his face. I knew he wanted to know why I stopped him.
“Momma!” Asher said, answering Cayden’s unspoken question as he ran to me with tears streaming down his face.
Cayden looked panic-stricken and he leaped up before hauling Tyson to his feet. He dragged him to the door before pulling the door open and throwing Tyson to the ground outside. Cayden slammed the door and locked it before rushing over to me who had a hysterical Asher in my arms.
“Shhh, buddy, it’s okay. Calm down and let’s help Momma,” Cayden cooed as he gently extracted Asher from my arms.
Asher clutched tighter to me, not wanting to move. Cayden sighed and left him there before directing his attention to me.
“Are you okay?” he asked worriedly, his hand traveling to my forehead, which was still bleeding.
“It hurts, but I’m okay,” I answered as I leaned my head back against the wall.
“Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up,” he said before getting to his feet.
He bent forward and grabbed on to my hips before lifting me to my feet. I was still slightly dizzy so I leaned against him as he led me to the kitchen. He deposited me on a chair before going to the bathroom for the first aid kit. When he came back, Asher had calmed down and I was able to set him on the floor so that Cayden had better access to my wound.
“This might sting,” Cayden said before pressing a cloth covered in antiseptic to my head.
I hissed through my teeth but otherwise didn’t make a sound. I watched Cayden as he worked to clean and bandage my wound. His concentration was on his task at hand, but you could still see the anger rolling off of him. I knew Cayden wouldn’t have stopped punching Tyson if it hadn’t been for Asher. I smiled slightly at how protective he is.
“What’s the smile for?” Cayden asked, making an effort to hide his anger.
“You. Thank you Cayden. I don’t know what he would have done if you weren’t here,” I said as Cayden packed the stuff back into the first aid kit.
“Don’t say that baby girl. I’m trying to get my anger under control and comments like that are just going to get me even more angry,” Cayden said as he closed the kit once everything was in there.
“Momma,” Asher said as he walked back up to me.
I looked down to see him standing in front of me with his little arms raised in the air towards me. I reached out and picked him up and nestled him in my lap. I looked up to see Cayden watching us with a soft, tender expression on his face. I could tell that his anger had, at the very least momentarily, disappeared once his son came into play. Cayden leaned forward and placed a kiss on Asher’s cheek before placing one on the bandage on my forehead and standing up to put the kit back.
I stood up and walked to the living room with Asher perched on my hip. I settled down into the couch with my baby on my lap and reached down to pick up a handful of pictures. The smile that appeared on my face continued to grow as I went through the pictures, pointing out the people to Asher. Somewhere along the way, Cayden had come back into the room with Cain. We were trying to keep the boys separate but we figured it’d be okay as long as Cain didn’t breathe, sneeze, or cough on his brother. Cayden and I spent the next few hours going through that box with our sons on our laps. I couldn’t help the sense of completeness that I felt at the moment. I realized I was perfectly content and I could imagine myself doing this, this whole family scene, for the rest of my life. I knew I still loved Cayden and, no matter how hard I tried to fight it, I couldn’t help myself from falling more and more in love with him. The question I had to figure out was Could I trust Cayden not to hurt me again?
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Here's chapter 22. I am so sorry that it took so long to get out. My first semester of college just ended and the last couple weeks have been really hectic. I'm off for a month, though, so updates should be faster. Enjoy and tell me what you think!