way here. How are you even hungry right now?” Selma asks, sounding astonished.
“That was like forever ago,” he says with a straight face, and she shakes her head in disbelief.
I curl my boy into my side and tip my head down toward him. “Turn on the oven and I’ll put in a pizza for you before I hop in the shower.”
“Cool.” He grins, and I ruffle his hair then let him go to watch him hug his aunts before he disappears through the doorway into the house.
“I need brain food too, Dad,” Mitchell tells me with a grin as Selma and Sejla start muttering back and forth under their breath about how much my boys eat.
“I’m sure one pizza will be enough to hold you and your brother over until dinner.”
“I guess so,” he grumbles before he starts for the door.
“Umm… are you forgetting something?” Sejla asks his back, and his shoulders sag as he turns to face both his aunts, who are looking at him expectantly.
“Sorry.” He holds up his hand for a high five, and my sisters take that as a challenge and rush him at the same time. Once he’s stuck between them, they begin to hug and kiss him.
“Dad!” he yells, looking at me for help, and I hold up both my hands and laugh while he groans and grumbles, trying unsuccessfully to dodge them.
“Now, you can go.” Selma laughs, releasing him at the same time as Sejla.
I hear him growl under his breath as he adjusts his clothes and fixes his hair, and I smile as he glares at me before stomping away, disappearing back into the house.
“He’s growing up too fast,” Sejla says, and I feel pain slice through my chest. She’s right. I try not to think about it, but I know it’s only going to be a few years before we’re searching for colleges. And on the heels of that, he’ll move out, eventually find someone to spend his life with, and start a family of his own. And not long after he’s gone, Max will do the same and begin his own life. It feels like it was just minutes ago that I was holding each of them against my chest, marveling at the fact that I created them. And now they are on the cusp of becoming men of their own.
“Both my boys are growing up too quickly,” I reply, watching my sisters’ faces soften in understanding. “I’ve loved watching them grow and become their own men, but—”
“You miss your babies,” Sejla says quiet, cutting me off.
“Yeah.” I rub the tension from the back of my neck.
“Maybe you’ll have another baby one day,” Selma says, and I shake my head in denial.
“No sleep, bottles, and endless amounts of diapers? No thanks. I did that twice, and I’m not going back.”
“You’re still young,” Sejla points out, like that’s reason enough to have another kid.
“I have my boys. I’ve done the baby thing and enjoyed every second of it, but I’m not interested in going through that again,” I say, then watch my sisters share a look of disappointment. “What?” I ask, looking between the two of them.
“You’re young,” Sejla repeats, then holds up her hand when I start to open my mouth to reiterate my earlier statement. “Whoever you end up with will most likely be young too, so what will happen if they don’t have kids and want to start a family with you?”
My chest tightens as I fully comprehend the point she’s trying to make. Still, I say, “Whoever I end up with will have my boys and me.”
“Okay, I get that, but maybe you shouldn’t completely close the door on the idea of having more children,” she tells me, then continues with her voice dipping to a solemn tone. “With both Mitchell and Max, you were a single dad doing all the heavy lifting alone. It would be different if you found the right woman, someone who wanted to be a mom. Someone to share things with, who’d stick around even when things got hard.”
I want to tell her I’d be open to the idea of more kids with the right woman, but in all honesty, I don’t know if I would be.
“Please, please don’t shut that door,” she pleas, reading my expression.
“I won’t shut that door,” I agree just to get the look of concern out of her eyes, and she lets out a deep breath before she looks at Selma then back to me.