if he were honest, he never saw himself ageing beyond thirty. foresight wasn’t his particular specialty anyway, but he and sab used to joke that unlike alistair they were there for a fun time, not necessarily a long time. it wasn’t nearly as funny of a joke now that it came true for his sister. it was funny though, that he now had a wife, three children, and one on the way, when he’d never expected to settle down at all. partially because, well, he’d never truly been able to move past ophelia.
but now he sat at their dinner table, basked in the glow of thirty-six candles ( that forest painstakingly counted, ‘ THREE times, daddy ! ’ ), and if he was honest, there was little else he could imagine that was better than this ( alistair’s text of his kids singing happy birthday, followed by a ‘ we love you ’ text, was very, very close second ). mint, moss and forest weren’t his biologically, but they were in every way that counted, and brody wanted to live in this moment forever, where forest screamed the birthday song with gusto, and minnie held his hand under the table, and moss wore his mother’s grin as he sat across from them.
after the song was finished, the lights were back on and he’d cut the cake ( and pressed sloppy icing flavoured kisses to their kids’ cheeks and one on lia’s lips ), he sat eating his slice in relative silence. it was only when he noticed minnie worriedly twiddling her fingers and moss shuffling his feet incessantly, that he looked up to lia to try and see what was happening. “ is everything okay baby ? min ? ”
it had been nearly three years now, and still, from time to time, lia found herself having to check in with herself to make sure she wasn’t d r e a m i n g. that she wouldn’t wake up one morning, sprawled out in her old bed, bruised and hungover, california sun peaking in through the blinds. but the mornings came and went, and the backdrop never seemed to have changed overnight. sometimes she’d wake up on her own, sometimes her husband would still be in bed with her, and sometimes, they were joined by any number of their three kids. regardless, fact remained, they were safe here, and for that she was grateful.
the kids had been muttering amongst themselves about finding their father a birthday present for weeks now, but no suggestion had seemed to live up to their strict criteria. they’d wanted to get him something he’d want, first and foremost, but also something he didn’t possess already, and as it turned out, getting a balfour a material possession they did not already have, proved a momentous task. to lia’s suprise, it had been moss who’d come up with the idea; he’d been the slowest to warm up to his stepfather --- and while he hadn’t talked to either of them about it, ophelia suspected it had everything to do with being anxious to let another man into his life in the wake of his biological father’s death, and nothing to do with who brody was as a person or as a parent. the minute the kids had presented their decision to her, she knew it was the right thing, and almost before moss had finished speaking, she’d been on the phone with her brother-in-law, trying to persuade him into getting the family lawyers on the case.
while there was virtually no chance of it happening ( as lia had repeatedly assured them ), the kids were still restless with dread that he might turn them down. that he, for whatever reason, wouldn’t want to be their dad. “ huh ? ” she replies, as she forces herself out of her own thoughts, eyes gazing over at him. she’s got fizzy on her lap, who, in contrast to the elder two, is practically starry-eyed with excitement, so much so that she has had to prevent him from spilling the secret not once, but twice. “ everything is perfect, honey. but i think, ” and with this, she looks over at moss, who gets out of his seat, almost as if on cue. “ the kids would like to give you your present. ”
moss leaves the room, only to return a minute later, thick a4-sized manila envelope in hand. “ i know you said you didn’t want anything this year, dad, ” he speaks, and the nervousness is audible in his voice as he strings the words together with caution. “ but we wanted to do something special. ” and with that, he places the envelope on the table, taking a step back, placing himself behind lia’s chair, as if to shield himself from any incoming heartbreak.
