Five Years later

I lean against the door as I watch Andre playing a song on his guitar and singing for Caitlyn, who lies on his bed.

I recognise the song as Cups by Landshake. He sings this one to her all the time. I like how he changes the whiskey to milk, I hold in a chuckle when I see Caitlyn pull the blanket over her shoulders and start drifting off to sleep. Caitlyn has long, curly, blonde hair, bright-blue eyes, and recently a lot of freckles all over her nose and cheeks. She is very cute and beautiful, and she knows it. Caitlyn can only be described as cheeky, because most of the time she loves to do something that she knows might get her in trouble. Like the time we took her on holiday to Devon, and she ran straight into the cold sea, fully dressed, and Todd ran in after her. Her flashing shoes were ruined, but she didn’t care, she loved the water. That holiday was peaceful, and she loved it. We are all going to Greece next year for her first time abroad, and it’s the only time we can all get off work.

“Mumma?” I glance down as Connor walks into the room and holds his hands up in the air. I pick him up just as Todd follows him in. Connor is three now and was a surprise to all of us. We don’t know who his dad is, but with his dark hair and my brown eyes, he could be any of theirs. It’s never mattered to any of us who he is biologically related to, but we all agreed if Connor wants to know when he is older, then we will find out. Both Caitlyn and Connor call them all ‘dad’, or ‘daddy’ in Connor’s case, so it doesn’t matter, and I don’t think it ever will.

“You’re getting so fast, my little munchkin,” Todd says and tickles Connor’s tummy, which makes him laugh and try to escape him. Todd kisses the side of my head, and Connor makes a ‘yuck’ sound.

“Let me guess? It’s bed time, and you don’t want to go in the bath? You like being smelly,” I ask Connor who grins, but doesn’t reply, choosing to put his hands out for Todd to pick him up.

“I’m going to bathe him, be right back, El,” Todd says and kisses me quickly before walking off. I look back just in time to see Andre put the guitar down, and walk over to kiss Caitlyn on her forehead as she is fast asleep in his bed. He tucks her in and dims the bedside lamp. Caitlyn and Connor share the attic room, but they always end up sleeping in one of the guy’s beds. He tucks her in and then walks over to me.

“You okay?” he asks, pulling me to his chest. I know why he’s asking, and it makes me think of today. It was Caitlyn’s first day of school, and Liz was there. Her son is in Caitlyn’s class, and it means I will have to see her everyday now. She could have chosen any school to send her son to, but she chose the same as me, and she didn’t look shocked to see me there. She had some man with her, who her son hugged. Her son looks just like Drew, the same cold, blue eyes and blond hair. I didn’t get his name, and I don’t want to know. Half of me wants to move my daughter into another school, but it’s difficult to do that, and it wouldn’t work.

“Yes, I just, I don’t know. It was difficult to see her,” I tell him as he shuts the bedroom door, and we walk down the stairs together.

“I know, but you’re in a better place now, and she doesn’t deserve you,” Andre says, and I nod. I’m lucky that I have Jude and Annie for close friends now. Annie fell in love with a nurse she met on the day Caitlyn was born, and they are getting married next week. I’m her maid of honour, and I cried when she asked me. The guys and I have spoken about getting married, and we all decided that it’s not something we want to do. We all know that it’s us for life, but I look down at the white-gold ring on my finger with all their initials engraved on it. I think back to when they all gave me it a year ago, and that was their promise to me. It’s us forever. I bought them all matching, white-gold rings with my name engraved inside them, and they all wear them.

“You go and put the movie in, I’ll get the popcorn and drinks,” Andre suggests, and I kiss his cheek before walking into the lounge. Kaiden and Dom are already in here. Dom is sitting reading a book, and Kaiden is looking through the collection of movies on the Sky on demand movies. I lean against the door loving how quiet it is since the kids are sleeping. The house is very noisy in the day, making it hard for me to work from home. I run an accountant service for authors now. I started out with helping Dominic sort his accounting out, now that he is a New York Times bestselling author with his book based on the life of a male stripper. After that, a few of his author friends needed help, and now I run a very a successful business helping new authors with their accounting needs.

“So, what are we watching?” I ask, and they both turn to look at me. Despite the fact they don’t strip anymore, they still do some dances in private for me, and their bodies still look crazy-attractive. I still feel lucky every day that they all love me and I love them.

“There’s a new Spiderman movie that’s just come out?” Kaiden says, and I nod looking at the telly as Kaiden buys the movie. I walk around the couch, picking up a car toy I see on the floor and putting it in a toy box before getting to the sofa.

“Sounds good,” I say as I sit next to Dominic and place my head on his shoulder. He kisses the top of my head and puts his book down, moving us slightly, so I’m lying on the sofa, and he has his feet up on the coffee table. The lounge is full of toys on one side. The old white sofas we had were replaced with these black ones after Caitlyn decided to draw on them with a marker pen. Holy ducks, I had to try so hard not to laugh and tell her that was naughty. Kaiden lifts my feet and places them on his lap, rubbing my ankles in a way he knows I like, and I smile at him.

“Thank you,” I say and rest back as Andre comes in and sits down on the floor in front us. I rest my hand on his shoulder just as Todd comes in, placing the baby monitor down on the table and sitting next to Andre, with his back touching my knees. We always sit like this when we watch movies and my parents have the children once a week, so we can have a whole night to ourselves. We mainly spend those nights in the bedroom though, so we moved movie night to a night when the kids are here.

“You ready, Ellie?” Kaiden asks, holding the remote, and I nod, knowing that no matter what we face, we will be ready for it.