182 - Cribs and Calls
182 - Cribs and Calls
Babies need love, and they don’t care where it comes from. They just need to know that they are loved and feel safe. If there are more people to love them, the safer they will be, and the more they will thrive. – Riffraff’s grandmother, Nan
In mid-January, Priscilla and Denver moved out of his sister’s house and into her childhood bedroom. Faith was working on coming home after being trapped in Europe due to the pandemic and Priscilla wanted to be closer to her moms. It worked out well for Denver since he had recently started working on the farm with Molly.
On the weekends when Porthos and Geo came home, they all slept in the room with purple walls. In March they came home for a long weekend and the three of them spent the majority of it with Sticks. She woke up from a midday nap to the sounds of her men moving furniture.
Sitting up, she rubbed her brown eyes and smiled as they quietly tried to move her small desk. “It’s anchored to the floor because it has power running to it.”
All three of them stopped trying to move the desk and looked at the bed. Unable to help herself, she started laughing.
“That,” Porthos says with a slight shake of his head, “makes a lot of sense. Everything else in your room moves around from time to time, but your desk has never moved since you built it.”
“Okay, so,” Denver looked at Porthos, “where are we going to put the crib?”
“I was going to put it in Eliza’s room,” Priscilla shifted on the bed, searching for a comfortable position.
“Where’s your sister going to sleep?” Geo asked.
Shrugging, she told them, “She moved in with Duke last week.”
“When did this happen?” Porthos demanded.
“You’re an idiot!” Denver told his partner. “Last week.”
“No, I got that. When the hell did they get so serious?”
“I guess last week?” Priscilla offered as her alarm went off.
“Is that for your call with Camille?” Denver asked as he moved over to help her get off the high bed.
Nodding she slid off the bed and he held her steady. Grabbing her phone, she turned off the alarm and then pressed a kiss to his lips. On her way to the bathroom, she kissed her other two men. After taking care of her ever-shrinking bladder, she moved to get her computer out of her chair.
“Sticks said that he would make me a hanging bassinet to go by the bed.” With the computer tucked under her arm, she headed for the door leading to the hallway. opening it, she saw the new crib and matching changing table.
It was a set that Sticks had just recently started producing. Elaborate scrollwork was above solid pieces at either end of the crib; thin slats filled the front and back. The changing table had the same elaborate scrollwork on the safety rails and the drawers and single shelf.
The dark hardwood was tinted with a light purple varnish. A mattress still in the protective plastic wrap was set against the wall. In front of it sat a cardboard box with a picture of a thick, curved changing pad with a safety belt.
Looking behind her at the three men that now stood behind her, the tears freely slipped out of her eyes and down her cheeks. As they so often did where their woman was concerned, they moved as one to engulf her in their arms. Porthos took the laptop and set it on the top of the changing table.
“It’s beautiful,” she said between soft sobs.
“We’re glad that you like it,” Geo told her and pressed a kiss to her temple. “We all worked on them. There’s pieces in both sets that we worked on.”
“Both sets?” she asked as she looked from one to the other to the next.
“Where do you think she’s going to sleep when we go to DC?” Denver asked with a smile as he caressed her cheek.
“I… I honestly had not thought about that.”
“Then it’s a good thing that we did,” Porthos murmured against her hair. “Come on, let’s go get you set up downstairs for your call.”
She nodded and let her men guide her downstairs. While Porthos set up her computer in Molly’s office, Geo and Denver went to the kitchen and got her two bottles of water and a small fruit tray that Case kept in the small refrigerator now dubbed the ‘Preggo Fridge.’
“Okay,” Camille said as they started the video call, “you’ve been crying. Are they good tears? Hormone tears? Or do I need to kill someone tears?”
Priscilla smirked as she blew her nose, something else that she seemed to do a lot more lately. “They’re good tears. The Handsomes made baby furniture for me.”
“Which means,” Porthos said leaning into the frame, “we know what we’re doing. When are we making some for you?”
Camille laughed as she sorted the mail that she grabbed on her way. “You do know that my husband kinda-sorta works for Sticks, right?” She stopped and looked at an envelope.
“That looks serious,” Geo said as he placed the fruit and vegetables on the desk for Priscilla.
Camille held up the envelope, “It’s addressed to Vin from MIT.”
“How thick is it?” Denver asked. Rolling his eyes at the other two men, he pointed out, “A rejection letter only needs one piece of paper. An acceptance letter with financial aid and housing details takes a lot more.”
“It’s pretty thick,” she held the envelope up on its side so that they could see how thick it was. “I can’t wait for him to get home. Okay, we have to talk about work so I’m not sitting here thinking about this.”
Priscilla laughed but complied by opening a spreadsheet that listed the clients they needed to discuss. About an hour into the call, Vin appeared in the doorway of Camille’s office and knocked on the frame giving them a goofy grin. Camille turned and motioned for him to enter the office while Priscilla waved at him from the computer screen.
“Hey, Auntie!” he smiled at Priscilla. “What’s going on up there?”
“I’m the size of a fucking house!” she complained with a giant grin. Unable to stand on her own, she accepted a hand from Porthos who helped her to her feet. “Thanks, babe.”
He placed a hand on her large belly and gave her a quick kiss before murmuring something against her ear. Smiling, she turned her head and stole a kiss from Geo. They both waved at Camille before leaving to go back to DC.
Priscilla turned sideways to show off the large belly. “Five more weeks, or so. The bad thing is, I don’t think I’m going to make it to your graduation. But I hear that you may be coming back up with your Oma and Opa.”
“I should hear from MIT any day now,” he grinned.
Camille cleared her throat as she grinned, holding up the thick envelope from MIT and Priscilla was glad that she got to see this.