Unfinished Hero 02 Creed(116)

It was easy to agree to that one.

“Okay.”

Creed didn’t let me go and I let him hold me.

This went on awhile. So long I decided to move things on.

“Uh… Creed?”

“Right here, Sylvie.”

“This might not be the time but I’m thinking at least three kids, maybe four.”

His body turned to stone.

“Okay, three,” I said hurriedly.

Creed said nothing.

“Right, then, two. But, warning, I’m sticking on two.”

Creed still said nothing.

“Though, if it’s two boys, we have to go for a girl…” I paused, “and, uh, vice versa.”

Creed stayed silent but started walking me backwards to the bed. We weren’t too far so we went down in two steps, me on my back, Creed on top of me.

After we bounced twice and settled, Creed spoke.

“You want four kids, we best get to work, baby.”

I grinned.

There it was. Creed made it all better.

Unfortunately, he went on, “We stop at three, you get to an age where four isn’t healthy.”

Seriously?

“I’m not old, Creed.”

“Gotta have two years in between.”

“Is that a rule?”

“Yes.”

Seriously. Sometimes a bossy badass was annoying.

“Creed –”

His head was descending and I stopped talking when it froze in its descent for a moment before he dipped his chin and looked at me through the dark.

“It’s two oh five,” he announced weirdly.

“What?” I asked.

“It’s two oh five, baby.”

“Okay,” I said slowly, not understanding the information he seemed intent on imparting on me. Or, more to the point, not understanding why he seemed intent on imparting this information on me.

His lips came to mine. “You’re a minute into your thirty-fifth birthday.”

Oh. Yeah.

Right on!

“Yippee,” I whispered against his lips. I was pretty sure he was going to kiss me but he rolled, got on his ass, did something in the dark by the nightstand then he came back to me.

His hand trailed down my arm, found my wrist, lifted it and turned it so my hand was palm up.

I felt a box set in it.

“My girl’s green,” Creed murmured.

Oh shit.

Oh crap.

Oh fuck.

I had this back too.

Not that I forgot it, just that I had it back.

I had it back.

Finally.

Tears clogged my throat and through them, I pushed out a weak, “Creed.”

“Open it, Sylvie.”

I sucked in breath and started to shift up. Creed moved to my side, I got up on my ass and, in the dark, I opened it. I didn’t even look at it, not that I could see it if I tried. I just pulled it out, tossed the box aside and my fingers slid along the chain until I found the clasp.

“Will you lift my hair, baby?” I muttered and Creed moved to do as I asked.

When he shoved a hand under and lifted the mass up, I clasped the necklace on and felt its cold settle next to the one I was already wearing.

My eyes went to him. “Love it.”

My hair tumbled down, I felt his hand cup my jaw and there was a smile in his voice when he remarked, “You can’t see it.”

“Don’t care. Still love it.”

For a moment, yet again, Creed said nothing.

Then he said something, he just didn’t use words.

He moved into me, covered me and used body language.

Magnificently.

Thus my thirty-fifth birthday, unlike any of the thirty-four before, except one, started perfectly.



This was it.

The life.

It was evening. I lay on my back in my backyard, elbows in the turf, bare feet crossed, gut filled with Creed’s homemade, shredded chicken barbeque sandwiches, store bought macaroni salad and Charlene’s birthday cake. I was watching Brand and Kara play with Adam and Leslie. Creed was lying in the grass twenty feet away letting Theo use him as a jungle gym while Charlene was in my kitchen. She had put her foot down declaring I was not allowed to do the dishes on my birthday (not that I would, they could wait a day or three) so she was doing them.

I lounged thinking that I loved this. I only ever had a hint of this feeling, spending time with Creed and his kids in Phoenix, but I got it.

This was what family felt like.

This was what friends and family felt like.

This was what it felt like to be surrounded by people you loved who loved you (mostly, Kara and Brand probably weren’t there yet but I hoped they someday would be).

Outside of having Creed, this was the best feeling in the world.

And when he and I made our babies and Kara and Brand got to know me, it would only get better.

I’d had eleven great birthdays, the ones I spent with Creed growing up.

Those were great, but this one was better.

Further, it was official. Creed’s kids were good kids. Maybe Creed gave them a head’s up and some instruction but they didn’t even blink when they met Adam. They also didn’t treat him any differently.