in this whole parenting thing. The second Reece and Zeke arrived, Bull proved once and for all that he’s the baby whisperer. It took a few mistakes and a few incidents with Reece’s diaper, but after that, he nailed it.
I sneak through our home while bypassing the light switch just in case Bull does have them in bed. I mean, if he has, that’s incredible. We can have a bit of mommy and daddy time, but on the other hand, I can guarantee that both Ryan and Coby would be lying awake in the dark, extremely pissed off. As they’ve gotten older, they’ve worked on and perfected their little girly attitudes, and they’re not something to blink at.
I go to sneak through the house but realize that it’s way too quiet. Even if they were all in bed. There’s no light snoring coming from Reece’s room. No tossing and turning from Coby’s, or quiet music playing from Ryan’s bed as she hides under the covers with her iPad, as if we don’t hear her. But mostly, there’s no TV on as background noise. No soft beep of the alarm. Nothing. It’s dead quiet.
My brows furrow as an uneasy feeling settles through me. What’s going on here?
It’s extremely possible that Bull took the four of them out for dinner, but that’s a lot of kids to handle by himself out in public unless one of the boys came and picked them up. That would explain why Bull’s truck would still be here, but he always lets me know when he’s going out with the kids so I don’t worry that they’re scaling the side of the house or running up and down the street in the nude like Zeke did last year, showing his manhood off to anyone who would look.
As I creep my way through the house, a shining light catches my eyes, before I spot another and then another. What the hell? As I walk towards them, I quickly realize they’re little tea candles, and there’s not just a few. There’s a whole trail leading out to the back yard.
I follow the path out to the back door, and my eyes instantly begin watering as I take it all in. There are tea lights covering my back yard and lining our deck that was installed last year. Lights glimmer along tables and chairs, even on the random tree stump that Bull has been promising to remove. They’re everywhere, creating a beautiful glow over my yard.
But that’s not all. A huge projector is set up in the center of the yard with the outdoor egg chair that’s been on my wish list forever, only we never got around to purchasing. Beside the chair is a little table with a glass of bubbling champagne that looks perfectly chilled.
The only issue is; my family is nowhere to be seen. Am I supposed to be doing this without them, or am I about to ruin a surprise?
I walk up to the chair and decide to get comfortable, picking up the glass of champagne on my way. As I scoop it off the table, I notice a little remote with a note sitting beneath it.
Press play.
Well, maybe this is a surprise that I’m supposed to be receiving on my own, after all. Besides, who am I to refuse this note? Clearly, so much love and thoughtfulness has gone into it.
I relax back into my egg chair and close my eyes for a brief second. This thing really is as good as I’d always hoped.
I aim the remote and press play.
Soft music comes bouncing around the yard and I realize that Bull must have set up some kind of surround sound system out here. A recording of me with all my babies at the beach begins playing, instantly stealing my attention.
I smile to myself, my eyes already filling with tears. I’ve never seen this footage, but it’s everything I could have ever dreamed of. The four kids are running down towards the waves as I follow behind. We hit the water with Ryan diving straight in and Reece standing back at the shore, jumping the shallow waves. Zeke goes down to his waist only to be knocked on his little bum while Coby throws herself at me because something had touched her foot.
Our laughter from that day is ingrained in my memory, but what’s better is hearing it now coming over the top of the soft music. The video fades to black before a photo