Gerard was anything but a regret for me. He was one of my four biggest blessings in life, in fact, but it was no question that I was now done with the child-bearing times of my life.
We didn’t speak for a time as we watched our boys in the pool.
Heath had a giggling child in each arm and carted them around like they weighed nothing.
Neither boys were small. Gerard was bigger, Cameron taller, but they were both large and heavy for their age. When I picked either of them up, my entire body had to brace itself, and my back bowed with the burden, but they both looked like they weighed about as much as a feather when Heath was holding them.
I don’t think anyone quite expected it, but Heath was very good with kids. He was a devoted father and uncle, dedicating a great deal of his time to both boys.
He said they calmed him, which was surely strange as they were both bundles of nonstop energy.
But it was good, because he was retired now from working for the government and taking some time off to stay at home with Gerard while I got back into pursuing my passion for photography.
He talked about different jobs he could do with his vast experience and many specialized skills. He’d likely start up a security firm, sometime down the road.
But he wasn’t even worried about it now. Now, he was enjoying some much deserved and hard earned time with his family.
I was distracted briefly from my musings as Cam made a mad dash out of the pool, running for the grassy lawn, Gerard hot on his heels.
Iris and I shared a look. They were at it again.
Our sons were close cousins, near inseparable, so this was a fairly regular occurrence. They had near opposite personalities, but they were still best buddies.
“Gerard!” Heath barked, and our son stopped what he was doing, which happened to be pinning his cousin down for no good reason that I could tell.
“Help, Uncle, help!” Cam called out between giggling fits.
Heath pushed his huge dripping body out of the pool, and my jaw went a little slack with desire.
Iris noticed. “Ew,” she said, though she was just giving me shit for fun, because she was surely used to it by now. “You know that’s my brother you’re ogling, right?”
I ignored her, watching Heath playing with the boys. He made a show of rescuing Cam, but as soon as he got low enough to the ground, the boys both turned on him, tickling, pushing him down, using every dirty trick in the book to try to pin him.
He let them, but only for a moment, straightening when he’d had enough, grabbing a kid in each big arm, striding across the lawn, and throwing them back in the pool, much to their squealing delight.
“He needs help,” Iris mused.
I looked at her, and it took me a moment. I followed her stare to see that she wasn’t talking about Heath.
She was talking about Dair’s friend, Turner.
He was chatting with Dair and my older boys, the four of them huddled together. I couldn’t catch any of what they were saying from here, but it had apparently gotten her attention.
I’d known Turner briefly, on a professional basis years ago, and we’d become friendly again recently due to the weekly barbecues, but my knowledge of him was still superficial at best, and mostly came from what Iris shared with me.
Turner was one of Dair’s closest friends and colleagues, though they couldn’t have been more opposite if it’d been their goal.
Turner was sarcastic, snarky, and arrogant. A total and unapologetic womanizer. He was very vocal about the fact that he never intended to settle down.
Apparently Iris had a problem with that.
“Help with what?” I asked her, just to clarify. Sadly, though, I knew her well enough to guess with some baffled accuracy the strange and gleeful inner workings of her brain.
“Finding the right woman. I have a plan.”
I sent her a sideways glance. Her smile was positively diabolical.
Well hell.
I wondered if I should warn Turner, but I quickly decided against it.
When Iris made plans, woe betide any poor soul that got in her path.