One month later
“Can you please move the sun shade?” Tia asks. She’s barely laid back on the sun lounger for a moment, fussing and worrying over everything and nothing. It’s a beautiful late summer afternoon and this morning’s physiotherapy session was particularly strenuous. An afternoon relaxing in the garden is just what the doctor would order. In his absence, I ordered it; if only she would relax.
“It’s covering them, Tia, and they haven’t exactly started crawling, wriggling yes, moving off of the spot we placed them, not so much.”
“Maybe move it a little closer.” She offers a soft placatory smile. “Make sure the shade covers the whole blanket. Or maybe put me right next to them, not three feet away, so I can at least move them away from the sun as it works its way across lawn.”
“I can do that. Would you like a refill first?” I take the two empty glasses and the jug from the table beside her lounger.
“Oh yes, thank you.”
“I’ll check on lunch too. I think Logan is baking the bread for the sandwiches from scratch with all the time he’s taking.”
“Make sure you tell him that with the same mocking tone and take pictures before he gives you a fat lip.” She raises a warning brow high and amused. I laugh and flash a cheeky wink her way.
“He’s yet to land a decent punch, princess. Besides, he knows I’m only jealous. Don’t tell him I said so, but I think he could give Gordon Ramsay a run for his money.” I lean down and keep my voice deliberately low.
“I heard that!”
“Of course he did. Be right back.” I roll my eyes and Tia giggles. That man has ears like an elephant, and he damn well never misses a thing with all the cameras he had installed. An unnecessary security measure now his sister is dead.
“If it’s not too much trouble, milord, could you get your arse in here and give me a hand?” he yells, tugging a long strand of his fringe in a mock bow.
“With lunch?”
“Lunch was ready an hour ago. I need help with the cribs.”
“Weren’t we going to do those tonight?” I call back, irritation clipping my tone.
“Well, I’ve started them now. They are growing fast and will be out of their Moses baskets before we know it.”
“They are going to outgrow them by tonight?”
“You’re funny. You know, we could continue to shout at each other across the lawn or you could just come and help.”
“I think it’s me going to be giving him a fat lip if he keeps that sarcastic tone.” I bend to give Tia a quick kiss. “I’ll be right back.”
“Don’t be long, please.” I hate the catch in her voice, the uncertainty and fear every time she’s left alone with her own babies. She’s the best mum ever but also incredibly insecure.
“Tia, you’ll be fine. The babies will be fine. Relax, enjoy your book, smell the roses, and I’ll go and help Bob the Builder. I won’t be long.”
“Okay, just—”
“You worry too much.” I cut off a conversation we’ve had a hundred different ways.
“So would you if you were this helpless.” Her shoulders drop, and I can feel the frustration rolling off of her in sizeable waves.
“You’re not helpless Tia; you’re stubborn.”
“Stubborn?”
“Part of your brain is stubbornly refusing to listen to the part that knows you can walk.” I try and keep the tone of the conversation light because I know how much this is affecting her. She needs to stay positive and really believe she will get better. Logan and I can help but this ball is in her court now.
“Yeah, dumbass brain.” Her lips curve to one side in a half hearted smile but it’s better than nothing.
“We’ll get there princess.” I kiss her on the top of her head and sprint over to the house. Logan has disappeared inside, and I follow the sound of footsteps to his study.
“Where’s the cribs?” I look around at the array of screens and zero piles of crib paraphernalia.
“In the boxes in the nursery, we said we’d do them tonight.” Logan looks confused by my question, which interestingly, makes two of us.
“So why did you call me in here. You know she doesn’t like to be left alone with the babies.” I walk over to his desk.
“Look, look at this.” He turns the screen of his laptop to face me.
“What am I looking at exactly?”
“Watch.” He enlarges the image to full size, and the CCTV image of Tia in our bed fills the screen. The covers are pulled right back, and she’s sitting upright and seems to be sitting on her hands. She starts to pull her knees up, at least a few inches off the bed and drops them flat. She does this again once more before she relaxes back against the pillows.
“What the hell?” I move the cursor back and watch the recording one more time.
“She’s been doing this for the last few days. It was a little movement at first, and I wasn’t sure she was actually doing it because her hands were always resting on her thighs or knees. She could’ve been making the movement with her hands, but this…”
“She moved by herself?” I finish his sentence with my own question.
“Yep.”
“Why hasn’t she said something?”
“At a guess, she’s probably worried it might not be much more than this and doesn’t want to get our hopes up.” Logan points to the screen, and I although I can understand the sentiment, she’s crazy to keep this to herself.
“That would kind of make sense I guess. It’s still crazy that she’d want to keep this quiet.” I shake my head with a mix of excitement and sheer disbelief. “So what now?”
“Now we wait until she’s ready to share. I just wanted you to—”
“Logan! Cass! Come quickly! Logan! Cass! Now!” The terror in Tia’s voice has us both flat out sprinting for the back door. I reach it first and slam my hand across the doorway, preventing Logan from passing.
“Wait!” I hiss.
“Wait? What the hell, Cass, she needs us.” He growls, pushing his full force against my arm. The angle makes my bones creak, and it feels like my elbow is about to snap. I hold my position, and with my glare, I urge him to wait and shut the fuck up.
“Logan! Cass! There’s a huge fucking bee crawling toward the babies, please! Whatever you’re doing, drop it and come here NOW!”
“Cass, move your arm,” Logan grits. His nostrils flare with pent up rage.
“Just wait.” I keep my voice quiet but punctuate each word with resolute conviction.
“I can see the fucking bee from here, Cass. She’s not lying.” He pushes forward, and I wince from the pain shooting up my arm. I jerk my weight to push him back a little. His feet skid on the tile floor and all of a sudden he stops trying to get past me.
“I can see she isn’t lying, Logan. I can also see the bee is a fair distance from the babies and it’s barely moving. Tia on the other hand…look.”
“Oh my god!” Logan breathes out slowly, and we both watch, careful to stay out of her periphery.
“I’m going to fucking kill you two when you get out here!” Tia yells over her shoulder as she eases herself onto all fours and begins to shakily crawl the short distance from the lounger to the blanket with her babies. She grabs one of the teething toys scattered around and flicks the bumble bee clear off the blanket. She sags down next to the babies, who remain oblivious to both the unlikely danger of being stung and the miracle of their mother moving under her own power.
I let my arm fall, and Logan pushes past. We both jog over to Tia.
“You crawled.” Logan drops to his knees, a huge grin splits his face.
“You saw that did you? Didn’t think to come when I screamed though. You’re both arseholes, you know that, right?” She is drawing in some rapid breaths no doubt from the rush of adrenalin and the physical exertion.
“You crawled,” I repeat and sit down on the blanket beside her. She rolls onto her back and pitches up on one arm, using the other to shield the sun from her eyes.
“I did. I really did,” she says after she lets the smile on her face light up the whole damn world.
“Want to try and stand?” Logan asks.
“Yes.” She bites her bottom lip and nods enthusiastically, holding her arms up for assistance. We each take an arm and lift her to her feet. Her toes curl into the blanket and we both have to crouch so she can support herself on our shoulders.
It’s clear we’re no longer bearing all her weight. She takes a step forward and I want to cry. Tia does. She gasps and her cheeks are instantly soaked as she takes another tentative step.
“My legs feel very wobbly, but they are definitely listening to me.”
“You’ve lost a lot of muscle strength,” I explain. Even if she’s heard it a fair few times, this time it means something. This time she can actually feel what it means. “You have some because of all the exercises we do, and now that you can support yourself, muscle tone will really improve.”
“Let’s not go crazy. We both know I’m hitting the deck as soon as you let me go.” She looks at me and Logan, holding and sharing the intensity of this moment in a single gaze.
“Never going to happen.”
“Never letting you go princess.” I add my own vow to Logan’s truth.