“No, Liam, they’re not cool yet. You’ll burn your fingers if you touch the pan and the cookies,” Matthew said.
“They LOOK cool though.”
“Maybe, but the insides of the cookies will still be hot even if the outsides are not.”
“Why?”
“Because they’re not exposed to cooler air. Do you want a glass of chocolate milk, or do you want to burn your fingers?”
“Milk!” Liam exclaimed.
“I want one too!” his sister piped up from the living room.
“I think we can do that.”
“I want to lick the spoon!” Rose cried.
“Nuh uh! I want to lick it!”
“We can have two spoons,” Matthew said.
The backdoor opened and Matthew looked up. “There you are. Where you been?”
William shook his head. “Squirrels again. The damn dog pulled the leash right out of my hand.”
Matthew bent down to give the oversized lab a scratch. “Oh you silly boy. Me thinks he still needs more training.”
“Yeah he does. If one of the kids walked him and it happened, they could get hurt.”
“That’s true…”
“Daddy Will we’re making chocolate milk!”
“Oh are we? Well I get the spoon then!”
“Nuh huh!”
“Uh huh!”
“Daddy Matt said there’s two spoons!”
There was so much noise with the TV and the kids and the dog barking at a squirrel outside that they almost didn’t hear Will’s phone ringing.
“You make the milk, love, I’ll get this. …Oh it’s our social worker.”
Matt stared at him. “What does she want?”
Will put his finger in his ear. “Hi Sarah. How are you? …Well that’s good. They’re fine. We’re making cookies for Liam’s school party. Yeah they’re doing great. ….What? When?” There was a long pause. “…Oh dear. Oh heavens. Ok. Um. Ok. Wow.” Will could feel Matt’s gaze burning a hole in his back. “Let me talk to Matt and I’ll call you right back ok? Thank you.”
“What?” Matt hissed. Will put a finger over his mouth. “Get the kids in front of the TV, then we’ll talk.”
Matt gave his husband a look, but finished up getting the kids sorted and plopped them down in front of the TV with their milk and a snack. Will was sitting on the window seat when Matt came back into the kitchen. The dog was sitting by his side getting his ears scratched.
“Well, what is it?” Matt insisted.
“The parents of our kids had another baby.”
“…What?”
“And by baby, she’s two now. And Sarah said Steve and May were doing fine so Children’s Protective Services let them keep her.”
“Her,” Matt repeated.
“Yes. But now the baby is in the hospital because one of them methed out and pushed the baby down the stairs.”
Matt gasped and covered his mouth. “Oh my god.”
“She’s got a broken collar bone and a broken arm but they think she’ll be ok. They need an emergency foster carer as they investigate and because we adopted Liam and Rose…”
“They called us.”
The two men looked at eachother.
“Yes?” They each said at the same time.
Matt chuffed through his nose and ran his fingers through his hair. “I guess that settles that.”
“Are we ready for another toddler?” Will whispered.
“We may need to pull things out of storage…”
“And baby-proof the house.”
Matt looked out the window. “It’s good to know there may be a third. If you get that promotion in January, and we move to Raleigh, we’ll have to budget for a bigger house.”
“Oh yeah. That’s true,” Will said. “Three kids though. Woah.”
“Yeah. Crazy to think about.”
“Well, this could all be temporary…”
Matt looked at the two watching TV. “So were they.”
Will squeezed Matt’s hand. “Men plan, god laughs.”
Matt snorted. “Oh please stop quoting my grandmother’s tea towels.”
They dissolved into giggles.
“Alright, well, let’s talk to the kids about it then we can call Sarah back ok?” Will said.
Matt nodded. “But first I am stealing a cookie.”
“Oh good plan.”
Two hours later, they were at the hospital visiting their new daughter.
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Captions are fictional.
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