Unexpected

I roll over to my side and look at the clock, and it's eight thirty. Shit! I slept in again. I roll to my back, and something is there this time. I move to my side and roll again, and it's Benny blocking my way. Alex is on the other side of him staring at me. I smile and reach over and cup the side of his face wiping his cheek with my thumb.

I quietly whisper so I don't wake Benny, "Good morning gorgeous!"

"Morning my love." He smiles back to me, "we slept in."

"Aren't you late now?" I ask with concern.

"It certainly looks that way, Jack is there and so is Jase they can handle it. You want more family time, so that is what you will get. I spoke with Jack and Jase last night, and they were both happy for me to come in later and said they'll call if there is a problem. I just want to have a lay in with you and our son for a little longer." Alex says with conviction.

"I love you so much Bubby, thank you!"

Benny is waking up, his little sleepy face looks at me, and in a cute little gravelly voice he says, "Hello Poppy!"

Alex takes my arm and pulls me to him, squishing him between us.

"Daddy," he screams, "I can't breave." He breaks loose and climbs on top of Alex and tries to tickle him. Alex does the best impersonation of a man in torture he can. He then grabs Benny and throws him between us and lifts his pajama top and blows raspberries on his belly. Benny is laughing so hard I think he might wet his pants. I climb over Benny and hold Alex down.

"Quick Benny get him back, I gotta hold on him. Go for it kiddo!" I'm laughing.

Benny climbs on his chest and is trying to blow raspberries on Alex's belly. Alex is laughing, "No more, no more it tickles." He screams laughing. Benny is giggling that really cool toddler belly laugh. We all end up laying side by side, Benny and I either side of Alex. He kisses me on the forehead and does the same with Benny. "I love my men," he says affectionately. We lay and calm down for about ten minutes.

"Okay, I'm going to go and start the coffee, Benny you go and turn the shower taps on and Alex you make sure Munchkin gets the temperature right. We'll have a shower and get ready for the day. Ready," All hands went in, "break!" Benny and Alex are giggling again. I love it when my boys are happy like this.

I met up with them in the shower, Alex is washing Benny's hair. By the time I undress and get in we are all ready for a wash. I hand the big boy a cake of soap, I give the kid a piece of soap, and I have the other. We are all washing ourselves and Benny drops his soap, as he's moving to look for it, he steps on it and slips and grabs the first thing his hand can. Alex's pubic hair, I saw the pain in his eyes. He quickly picks Benny up without making a noise, I get the soap and give it back to him. Alex put him down and leans against the wall holding himself. Benny is clueless as to what has just happened. Benny is washing away and looks up to Alex and says innocently, "You okay Daddy, you look funny?"

"Daddy's fine bud, you keep going we like clean boys," Alex says.

"I'm sorry," I mouth to Alex trying to hold in a laugh, he scowls back at me.

"I think it's time Daddy has a shave," he says mischievously rubbing his chin. I pout at him because I know he isn't talking about his face.

<>-<>-<>

Alex leaves for work and Benny, and I start with our busy day. First up horse feed, next pick up the lunches for Alex, Jase, Jack and Beth and deliver them. This is a treat for Benny, he loves going to work with his Daddy, all the men make a fuss of him. He looks so cute walking around from man to man while they eat their lunch, dressed in his hard hat and tool belt and Ace in tow. They let him fix their lunch boxes and things with his plastic saw, hammer and pliers.

I call out to him, "Come on Munchkin we have to get a move on, Uncle Cal's waiting." The little shit twists his body to me and holds up a finger as if to say in a minute. The men laugh, I shrug and throw my hands in the air. He finally decides his job is done and runs up to me.

"I ready now Poppy, we can go see Uncle Cal now," I laugh and pick him up.

Alex gives me a quick peck goodbye, and Beth gives me a hug. Off we go to see Uncle Cal, we have paperwork to sign. It didn't take very long, it was the beginning proceedings for Benny's adoption naming Alex and me as his legal parents. His assistant is an older lady named Margaret who adores Benny. Margaret made up papers for Benny to sign alongside mine. He loves being treated like a big boy. Once he has signed, she says very seriously to him, "Thank you very much, Mr. Blundell, a copy will be sent to you in the mail." She then shakes his hand. He reaches up and hugs her and kisses her cheek.

"Are you flirting with me young man?" she asks smiling.

Benny giggles and nods his head yes.

"My, my, aren't I the lucky one today." She says fondly and walks off with the papers.

It was all Callen, and I could do, not to laugh. We say our goodbyes and Margaret gives Benny a candy on the way past her desk. Lucky duck, I never get candy anymore. We hit the grocery store and do the shopping for dinner tonight, another big one. I'm at a loss as what to make, so we kind of hang around the meat section waiting for inspiration. Finally, I take the easy way out, Steak, twice baked potato, and asparagus. To top it off a chocolate cake for dessert with cream and strawberries -- yum my favorite.

"Poppy, can I please get somefink for Haley?" Benny looks at me with his puppy dog eyes.

"Why? What did you have in mind?" I ask him.

He shrugs his shoulders looking at me. "I love Haley. I wanna get her somefink."

"Okay, how about some chocolates?" I say.

"Hmm... Nah... some fowers?" he asks looking up at me.

"I think I know just the place. As soon as we finish here, we will go get Haley flowers." I say and push the cart toward the checkout.

We get to the florist, I find the man who helped me the first time I went in there. He remembers me and is excited, "Oh my, I remember you how did it go?" he asks all excited for the details.

"Wow! You have a good memory, well this is our son Benny, and we are getting married in August, so I guess it worked." I laugh. The man went into full frenzy excitement.

Once he calms down he says, "Make sure you come and see me for your flowers, I will take good care of you. Well, what brings you here today?"

I nudge Benny to speak up, he steps forward and puts his hand out to shake, "Hi I'm Benny, I want to get my Haley some fowers... and... and... a fower for her Mommy pease." He looks up at me to see if he did it right. I nod my head, and he smiles.

The gentleman put his hand to his chest, then shakes Benny's hand. "Oh my, hello Benny, my name is Donald. You are quite the charming young man aren't you?"

Benny nods and smiles. Donald is over the moon to meet our Munchkin. "How about a lovely mixed bouquet, say twenty dollars worth, and a nice Gerber Daisy in a bright yellow for her Mommy?" he suggests to him. I nod to Donald behind Benny so he can't see me.

"Yes Pease," Benny says.

"I'll take another of those orchids you gave me last time. I know Alex still has all the pieces to put it together."

Donald smiles at us both, "What a lovely little family," he toddles off to get our purchase ready. When he come back, he had done up a very girly bouquet and wrapped it beautifully for him. The Gerber Daisy has a nice ribbon on it and covered clearly. And my orchid is a beautiful white with pinky purple tips.

Benny makes sure he carries his flowers very carefully to the truck. We drop off the flowers to Haley and Maria, they are over the moon to get such a lovely unexpected surprise. He had a grin from ear-to-ear, the way the girls made a fuss over their gifts and thank him umpteen times. When we finally get home, there is a strange lady in the house vacuuming. She saw me and stops the vacuum, with her swift pace and takes my groceries.

"I Nadia, Mr. Alex say you no do housework, I also prepare and cook. What you make?" she asks in broken English. I think she might be Dominican maybe.

"Uhh... Hi, I'm Tracy, and this is Benny. We are having steak, twice baked potato and asparagus." I say in disbelief.

She shoo's us out of the kitchen, finishes with the groceries and goes back to the vacuum. I display the orchid the way the original was when I first bought one for Alex, and leave it on the kitchen bench.

I hear the front door open, Cory and Shane come around into the living room.

"Hey Uncle Trace," The boys say in unison.

"Hi, guys, what are you up to?" I ask.

"Chase is meeting us here soon. Since he is coming for dinner, he said he will come early and work with us beforehand. We've just come to ask Uncle Alex if we can use Scar." Cory enquires.

"He hasn't had much of a chance to ride him lately, so I'm sure it's fine. No trail rides without an adult got it?"

"We know, I can't wait till we're older." He mutters and I chuckle. "We're going to go and tack up and practice a little if that's okay."

"Go nuts, make sure you have fun," I say as they leave for the barn.

I pull out my phone and dial Alex, "What!" he shouts in my ear.

"It's just me, is everything okay? Should I call back?" I ask hesitantly. I wonder what the hell has gone wrong.

"No Honey, I can talk," He says with a big sigh.

"What's happened?"

"Dom was just here, they caught the assholes who messed up the job site a while back. They are just kids, but they are claiming they were paid to do it by none other than my asshole father. The only problem is there is no proof except for what the kids are saying and they don't want to question him in North Carolina in case he doesn't show up for his court date which is in a couple of weeks so he can't do a runner." Alex says in a huff.

"Oh geez, I'm really sorry Alex. How old are the kids?"

"That's the thing, they're only young like nine, twelve and fourteen. Brothers, I think he said. I'm going to kill my father. Don't get me wrong, I'm pissed at them kids, but they are only kids, and I want to know why they did it for money. They could have been hurt, seriously injured or killed the idiots." He let out a huff and continues, "Who takes advantage of little kids like that -- seriously. I'm going to talk to Cal and see if he can find someone at his firm to help so I can talk to them. I want to know their situation. I can't stand it when people don't look after their kids." He let out another deep breath. I can hear it in his voice. I've noticed since I've been back, and now that he has Benny he takes it to heart when people are cruel to kids. I guess his upbringing has something to do with it. He seems to have moved past that and now wants to save them all. He's not an advocate by any means, but when it comes across his path, he's a man to be reckoned with.

"Well let me know if you want me to do anything, you know I'll be behind you no matter what the circumstances, I love you Bubby you're a good man," I say lovingly.

"Thank you, Hon, I love you too." He says. I can hear him finally smiling. "Now why did I get lucky enough for you to ring me?"

"Oh... Um..." Shit, why did I ring? Oh yeah, "Nadia? Don't you like the way I do the housework?" I say laughing.

"Are you mad?" he asks.

"Hell no, just surprised. We don't really need a housekeeper though." I say to him.

"Tuff you've got one, now go ahead and order your gear. It's been long enough, and you're flailing, you are too talented to become a house husband. Plus after your speech, about making a contribution to us as a family financially, I'm making sure you can do what you love. I know you are trying to find a place away from the house, but the big new shed that's nearly finished is your new work shed. It uses the driveway to the horses but veers off to you at the bend. It has also been set up and split one side for wood and the other for metal, so we won't have a fire," he says laughing. "I've also organized for the wood shed to be repaired so you can dry your wood supply in there."

"Bubby, it's too much. You can't keep changing your house and property to fit just me, I can't let you do that. And can we afford a housekeeper?"

"It's

OUR

house remember, and of course we can afford her, I just never saw the point before. But you do everything around here Honey, and it's not right. I'm always too tired to help after coming home. I know that's going to change, but we are at a point where we can afford it. Plus Cal has one also because he and Jay are so busy. He is the one who helped me find her. And as you pointed out, more family time together, I don't want to miss out on Benny and Cory growing up. They are both at a fun age, and we can enjoy them, and I want to do that." He says passionately.

"God I love you, I can't believe this is my life Bubby. You make me so happy -- Thank you." I say a little choked up.

Silence... I look at my phone to see if it's dropped out, but it's still ticking away.

"Bubby, are you there?" I ask.

"Thank you," he whispers, "I'd better go, love you." And he hung up.

Even though my eyes were misty, I couldn't help but chuckle. Alex gets off kilter when he's forced to show his emotions in front of people. Don't get me wrong he's affectionate always, with me no matter where we are and who's around. But showing any actual emotion of sort is out of the question in front of others. He won't even do it in front of Cal.

It just occurred to me I hadn't seen Benny since we got home. I went to his room, and there he is the poor little bugger. He fell asleep in the middle of his Lego's again. I pick him up and put him in his bed. He stirs a little and then goes right back to sleep. God, I adore him. I want about another ten of him. I need to speak to Alex about it, I wonder how he feels. Maybe after the adoption and wedding, we can look into it. Well, not ten but I could definitely handle another kid.

<>-<>-<>

"So what you're saying is that Chase uses this as his home base, keeping his horses here and still mentoring Cory and Shane. But he can take on other clients and be paid for them. We get another dozen or so horses for general riding lessons in groups for which Cory will give and Shane when Chase determines he's ready. As well as trail rides on weekends." Alex asks to confirm he has the gist of what I'm saying.

"Yes."

"How would we make it a financial business though Babe, there's the upkeep of the horses. Billy couldn't manage it all on his own?"

"Well, that's the thing it will take all of us, and there will be a hefty initial outlay. I assume we'd need a new barn. A place for Chase to live, maybe a bunkhouse and some more pens, rings whatever you call them. An outdoor arena. But primarily a riding school. However, Chase, you're a horse trainer right?" I turn to him, and he nods his head.

"Chase can take on clients and train horses, the business will get a small percentage, plus they will be boarding the horse here which the company will charge them for separate from Chase's fee. We can also start a junior rodeo school and have Chase as the instructor should get us the clientele to make it viable. That will bring income, the general riding school in the afternoons after school will also bring an income. Trail rides on weekends same.

"With Chase as the instructor at the Junior Rodeo School, they could be either group or private lessons that's up to him, he'll be able to pick and choose. We could even make it exclusive see how much he wants to take on as the instructor and the kids will have to try out to have him. That way he still has his hands in the rodeo circuit and still gets to make a name for himself. If we run the whole thing as a business with no freebies to any of us or quid pro quo, it should all workout."

"What do you mean freebies and the like?" Chase asks.

"Okay, umm... We pay you to mentor Shane and Cory like any other paying customer. You pay rent for the house we provide, plus you'll have your own utilities it will be your place as if you would anywhere else you chose to rent. Everyone that comes pays into the business, we work out what you're owed, and that is your wage. If we do it that way you won't have any of the corporate tax implications and it keeps everything above board. The company will be split five ways, between the five of us so, in the end, we are all responsible. You will have the right to look at the books anytime you want. Of course, it will be broken down for you when you get paid anyway by the job.

"If anything is needed for you to do your job, the business pays. When you have to go away for the rodeo with the young kids, it's business not off of your own back. If we do it as an exclusive school, it will be expensive, you being the instructor. I just ask that you have two groups you can decide of course. Have one group of kids that don't quite have any experience but have the riding potential, and the others need the extra hand to become the best they can be. Once you start making a name, I think folks will approach you or us to see if they can be excepted into the school. Something to that effect anyway. It will obviously be different for each job you perform. We can talk about what you want to earn and what you get paid later. The only other problems will be legal and insurances. Oh! And the extra hands I have a couple of thoughts on that.

"Chase will be the boss man over the rodeo school and training. Billy can manage the general riding school and Cory his right-hand man of which he will earn a wage also, as well as Shane, can work around the horses until Chase deems him ready to teach general riding." Alex is nodding along as I talk, Jase's eyes have glazed over, and I can almost hear Callen's brain ticking with legal implications.

Silence and they're all staring at their empty plates. I remove the dirty plates to the dishwasher and give them dessert while they all ponder what I have suggested. Dessert is quiet, so quiet I can't stand it.

"Look, guys, I know it's a lot to start and take on but if we do one bit at a time, find a rhythm and then add the next I think we can make a go of it," I state looking around at them.

"What about you starting your new business?" Alex asks cautiously.

"That's not going anywhere, I fully intend to go ahead with it. I can accept only what I can handle until we have all of the horse stuff up and running." I hope that answers that question.

"Do we have enough land for all of this?" Jase inquires.

"We have for now, but the opportunity does exist to lease or buy the land for us. The chap who bought my business owns it, and we've spoken a couple of time about it. He's in no hurry to put it on the market, so we have time. He has promised we will have the first option to buy when he does, or we can approach him if we ever want to buy it. It will be ideal for trail rides and campouts for schools or corporate retreats. But one thing at a time." The others all nod their heads.

"You're just going to hand me a business, I don't think so. How much is my buy into all of this." Chase asks concerned.

"Nothing initially, I haven't spoken with Cal yet. But my thinking is we have the trust as the benefactor, and we pay the money back with net profit once it hits with a small interest on top to make up for what we lose in interest."

"If I agree to this, it will only be after we have all the quotes for the buildings, insurances and tax implications. What we would expect our initial outlay to be, and what the wages are estimated at. We will need to consult with the accountant about the viability of the idea as a whole as well as hire a publicist to see what we can do to generate business." Cal says sternly.

"I know looking at it as a whole is daunting, but if we start somewhere small like Chase and his horse training as well as mentoring our boys, for now, there won't be that many changes. Even if we don't go for the whole plan, I would like to extend at least that much. Chase is looked after but so are the boys and Benny when he's older."