by Sadie King © July 2024
Six Years Later…
“Hold it. Hold it. Ten more seconds, soldier.”
The boy in front of me grunts and pushes his racing car pajama-clad butt into the air. His knees are still on the carpet, so it’s not the best plank I’ve ever seen, but for a five-year-old, it’s not bad.
His little sister has better form. Her determined face scrunches up as she watches the timer on my phone count down to zero.
My phone’s on the carpet between us, and she watches it with the same steely look of determination that I’ve seen on her mother. She’ll make a fine soldier one day.
Her butt is also sticking up in the air, but at least her knees are off the floor. And so is one foot as she combines plank with moves from her ballet class.
The timer reaches zero, and I release my abs and sink to the floor.
Brianna takes my momentary slump to the floor as an invitation to climb onto my back, and her brother scrambles on behind her. I raise onto my knees, and I’ve gone from work-out to horsey ride seamlessly.
The door to the living room in which I’ve commandeered a corner for my home gym opens, and Charlie shuffles in just as I’m cantering around the room on my hands and knees braying like a donkey.
The kids are shrieking with laughter, and Brianna slides off my back and onto the carpet in fits of giggles.
“Did we wake you?”
Charlie sinks onto the couch, yawning and shaking her head at the same time. Her hair is mussed up, and she’s in her flannel pajamas and fluffy pink house shoes.
I shuffle over to my wife, still on my hands and knees, and deposit Nathan onto his momma’s lap. He isn’t too old for a cuddle from his mom, and soon she’s got both of them on her lap.
I stand up and do my stretches, then put my weights away.
Brianna waddles over to help, rolling the 1lb. weights across the floor that I keep around so she and Nathan can join me in the workout when they want to.
It turns out kids and soldiers both like early mornings, so it’s become our routine. I get up with the kids, do my workout which they sometimes try to join in on, while Charlie sleeps in. She’s still the one they go to in the night, and I can never tell how many of us I’m going to find in the bed when I wake up in the morning.
We decided to stop at two kids. It’s the perfect family size for us and means we can take one each on our bikes.
I had child seats fitted to both our bikes, and we like to get out as a family and ride.
Charlie is the sales manager of the brewery now. We work alongside each other, and she’s helped bring in more business.
Every year we take a road trip to the Phoenix Beer Festival. We stay at the Red Goose inn and have gotten to know Vinny and Sharon over the years. We always watch Dina sing, and even her growly husband has mellowed since we started bringing our own little family along with us.
But my favorite thing is mornings like this, when we’re at home with just the four of us.
By the time I’ve packed my gym equipment away, Charlie’s got a child on either side of her, and she’s reading them a book about a giant sandwich.
It’s Nathan’s favorite, and he says some of the words along with her.
I go into the kitchen and pour the coffee that I started brewing twenty minutes ago in anticipation of Charlie waking up. She smiles thankfully as I set a steaming mug down on the coffee table.
“Can we draw, Mommy?” asks Brianna.
“Of course we can.” Charlie pulls open the drawer under the coffee table and pulls out scrap paper and crayons.
“What are you going to draw today?”
“A motorbike!” says Nathan.
“A snake,” says Brianna.
“Who wants pancakes for breakfast?” I ask.
Me!” shout the kids.
I leave Charlie sitting on the floor with our kids doing their artwork and I head into the kitchen, humming as I go.
Charlie’s an excellent mom, and I don’t mind making the breakfast so she gets time with the kids.
Later we’ll head into the club for our monthly club dinner. The kids will run around with the ‘cousins’ as we call the other kids in the club, and we’ll share a meal with Raiden and Isabella and all our extended club family.
I love those club dinners, but I also love the quiet Sunday mornings when it’s just our little family, hanging out and making pancakes.
I never knew this ex-sergeant would find happiness in such small things.
A weekend fling, a secret pregnancy and an ex-military biker who crosses the country to find his woman.
Read Wild Weekend next and find out what happens when Judge’s weekend fling with a woman from the Underground Crows MC has him questioning his entire world view.