Playing House

When I woke up again, Ben was changing one of the babies. I looked at the clock, seeing that it was just past eleven in the morning.

“Morning,” I said softly, sitting up in bed.

“Morning,” Ben replied over his shoulder, smiling at me.

“Did you want some breakfast? Or Lunch even?” I asked, throwing the covers off of me and walking over to him. I shivered lightly from the quick temperature change, but then again I did only have my underwear on. Ben turned in time to see me shiver and wrapped his big arms around me.

“Nah,” he said, pecking me on the lips. “Leah fixed it.”

“Leah’s here?!” I exclaimed, yanking myself from Ben’s grasp and heading towards the door quickly. Ben grabbed my wrist and pulled me back quickly, scowling at me.

“You’re in your underwear!” He reminded. I looked down at myself, having momentarily forgot. I really wanted to see what happened between Leah and Sharpie, so I just shrugged.

“She won’t mind,” I said quickly, beginning to turn back away. Ben tugged me to him again, and I gave him a bewildered look.

“Your parents are here,” he argued.

“Fine, get me my robe,” I waved off. Ben went to go get it, but then he hesitated.

“Your robe isn’t much better than-”

“How many of them are here, Benjamin?” I sighed, exasperated.

“Just Sharpie and Burish,” he answered. “When Sharpie called-”

“Sharpie’s here too?!” I breathed in excitedly. I hurried over to my dresser, trying to find some comfy clothes.

“Yeah. At nine, Sharpie called and told me he was-”

“Where are my sweatpants?” I asked aloud to myself impatiently, rifling through my drawers. I was itching to get downstairs, and so far it just was not working out.

“So anyways, when Sharpie called-”

“Fuck it, I’ll just wear shorts,” I muttered, pulling them on. I pulled on a t-shirt as well before looking over at the triplets to make sure they were asleep.

I vaguely heard Ben talking, but I was so caught up in running scenarios about how romantic Sharpie was with Leah that I wasn’t paying much attention.

“Did you say Adam was here too?” I finally registered something Ben said earlier. Ben stared at me, like he was waiting for something. I remained quiet and became uncomfortable under his expectant gaze, and just before I began to fidget Ben spoke.

“Yes…Adam is here…” he said slowly, pausing every once in a while. “When Sharpie called me at nine…and told me he and Leah were coming…I called Burish.” Ben stopped again, giving me that expectant look again. I said nothing, and Ben continued once more. “Since Sharpie and Leah thought he was staying over…I figured it’d be good to, you know, have him be here.”

I nodded, walking towards the door slowly. Suddenly, getting downstairs to talk to everyone didn’t seem as pertinent as finding out why Ben was talking like that kid from Malcolm in the Middle.

You know, that black kid, in the wheel chair who was friends with Malcom and-

“Mal? You okay? You look funny.”

“You talk funny,” I retorted at Ben.

“I was talking like that because you interrupted me about twelve times when I tried to tell you the first few times,” he shot back with a grin.

“Oh. Really?” I asked. Ben nodded, and I looked over at him again. “How long have they been here?”

“Since nine!” Ben exclaimed, exasperated.

“Did you say that already?” I asked innocently, honestly having no clue. I smiled up at Ben’s perturbed face, and soon he just chuckled.

“Just go talk to Leah,” Ben shook his head. I scurried ahead of him anxiously, heading for the kitchen. I burst through the doors, grabbing Leah quickly and rushing back out. Ben sauntered into the kitchen as I pulled her out, and I heard a “What the fuuuck was that?” I could tell it was Burish, but I was still pulling Leah away.

“Oh, Amalia, where is the-”

“Ask Ben,” I told my mom, walking past her and my dad quickly. I entered Ben’s workout room and shut the door behind us before turning around.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Leah said, a questioning look on her face.

“Bullshit, you know exactly what I want to know,” I grinned. A small blush crept over her face, and she looked away sheepishly. “I thought I told you to take the day off if you needed to,” I added coyly.

“I didn’t have a reason to,” she shrugged, still blushing.

“Really? No sore legs, or anything like that?”

“Amalia!” Leah exclaimed, shoving her face in her hands embarrassedly.

“Oh yeah, I should warn you I’m kind of crude,” I waved off. “And I also expect details. Full details.”

“Nothing like that happened,” she insisted.

“Well then what did happen?”

“Well, he started driving me home, but then we passed a tiny little coffee shop and I informed him it was my favorite one. It was an offhand comment, honestly, but he stopped anyways. He said he could use a good cup of coffee, and it’s open twenty four hours, so-”

“When I said full details, I meant full, inappropriate details,” I informed. I was rewarded with a glare, and I put my hands up in defense. “Go on.”

“Anyways, we sat and had our cups of coffee, just talking and getting to know each other better. I mean, we’ve talked in the past, but this was the only time we’ve actually learned things about each other, you know? It was nice.”

“And then?”

“And then we finished up, he dropped me off, and he left.”

“That’s…it?”

“That’s it,” Leah confirmed.

“But, that’s so…wholesome,” I stated, causing Leah to laugh.

“Or it’s normal, Miss ‘I sexed Ben after knowing him a week’,” she retorted.

“Ouch. Touché. Wow. You really fucking trumped me there,” I scratched my head.

“Listen Mal, I will keep you up to date on everything related to me and Sharpie, especially the good stuff. I promise,” she told me.

“Okay,” I sighed. “So, how’d he end up driving you here this morning?”

“Well, he ended up calling me this morning, because it had ‘just occurred to him’ that I had no way to get back here for my car, so he offered me a ride since he was going to practice later this afternoon with Ben anyways.”

I nodded, disappointed at the lack of juiciness.

“You better give me something salacious soon,” I informed her, giving her a light shove.

“I’ll do my best,” she responded sarcastically. We exited the workout room, going back into the kitchen to join the others.

A few hours later, my parents had left informing me they’d ‘be in touch’ and the boys had already gone to hockey practice. I was sitting in the living room with the triplets and twins when Leah came into the room.

“Are you alright Amalia?” She asked. “You look spacey.”

“Oh…yeah I’m fine,” I said. “Just thinking about my parents.”

“Because?”

“Just trying to figure them out,” I shrugged. For the past hour or so, I had replayed certain scenarios in my head, from my parents telling me their future plans for me when I was a child, to telling them I was pregnant, to them showing up recently. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe they were sincere about bringing me back into their lives, I was just debating letting them back into my life so easily.

I knew I still had to have a long talk with them, and I was dreading it. Honestly, they were exhausting, and the situation wasn’t going to be easy to work through. I did want to work through it though, since they were my parents, I just had to find the motivation.

Ben burst through the door a while after, a few of the guys trailing behind. I rolled my eyes in amusement, wondering if they ever took a break from each other.

“Hey babe,” Ben said, walking over and giving me a quick kiss.

“Hey. How was practice?”

“Eh. Same as always,” he shrugged. “Is there food?”

I laughed and pointed to the kitchen, where he and the other guys followed. After they had finished, the boys all came back into the living room where I was rocking the triplets. Beau and Maddie were playing with their toys quietly in a corner, but their attentions were diverted when Burish and Dustin Byfuglien started wrestling on the ground.

“What on earth…?” I muttered, looking at them. Ben and the others watched on in amusement as I raised an eyebrow. “Ya’ll better not break anything.”

A few moments later the match ended when we heard ripping fabric.

“You ripped my shirt!!” Adam said, astonished. Dustin was still on the floor, writhing in laughter and the other boys started joining in. Adam ripped it the rest of the way, leaving it on so it looked like a jacket.

“Ewwwww,” Madeline suddenly interjected. “You is gross uncle Adam.”

“That’s exactly right,” Ben agreed, looking at Maddie. “Mads, if a boy ever tries to take off his shirt in front of you again, you tell him that he’s gross and you don’t want to see it,” he added sternly. Maddie nodded and ran over to him, leaping into his arms. “Understood?”

“Derstood,” she nodded, putting her face in his neck. He kissed her temple and looked back over at Adam, telling him to stop scarring his children.

His children.

Before I could bask in the moment, Mason started getting fussy and I had to go pick him up. The rest of the night went similarly, with the guys wearing the twins out and me and Ben caring to whatever the newborns wanted. Eventually the twins passed out on the floor, so I took them upstairs to change them and put them to bed.

I turned around after tucking them in, and I gasped when I saw Ben standing in the doorway.

“Jesus,” I muttered. “You’re like a fucking cat.” He smirked and pushed himself off the wall and began walking towards me. He accidentally hit the door knob, cussing quietly at the bruise he was sure to get and also at the door that also swung open and hit the wall loudly. I closed my eyes in exasperation. “Sometimes.”

“Shut up,” he mumbled, rubbing the sore spot on his arm and glancing at the twins. They were still asleep, so that was good. “The guys all left, and I brought the triplets into our room. I sent Leah home too.”

“Oh. Awesome. Okay,” I nodded, walking over to him. I looked over his forearm, shaking my head at him. “Only you.”

“Shut up,” he repeated, kissing me swiftly. I grinned into the kiss, and I felt him smirk when I responded. “You know,” he said, pulling away. “There’s still a bed in the nursery we converted.”

“Seeing as my parents stayed there, yeah I know,” I supplied.

“Smart ass,” he commented.

“You love it,” I smiled, leaning into him.

“I do. I love you,” he kissed me again, roughly this time. I pulled away and was barely able to say “I love you too,” before he kissed me again, hoisting me up and pulling me toward the nursery.

“Wait…” I muttered against his lips. “The…triplets…”

Ben didn’t reply, instead he just pulled the baby monitor out of his back pocket and kicked the door shut behind him. He set the monitor down and laid me on the bed, silencing any more of my fears.