Hard Brake (Wilkins Brothers Book 2)

Chapter 40

CAMILA

“Do you have your shoes tied, Anna?” I yell as I’m stuffing lunch boxes into their backpacks. Nico is sitting at the kitchen island with a book, of course, he is ready to go. Amongst the chaos, nothing ever seems to knock him off-kilter. He reminds me of Gruff, in a way, which is a bit weird since they aren’t related by any DNA. Just once in his life, I’ve seen him go off and we all know what happened with that.

“I’m coming, Mommy, but my left shoe has a knot. Can you fix it?” She comes limping into the kitchen with one shoe in hand. I let out an exasperated breath, but go ahead and take the shoe anyway. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to knot them, but it just happened when I was trying to do the loopy-loop.”

“It’s okay, Anna. It isn’t your fault that we’re running late today. I lost track of time today and hit my snooze button one too many times. Here, put it on.” I hand her the shoe ready for her foot and tying. She gets to work on that and by the time she’s done the backpacks and water bottles are all ready to go.

I lock up the house and set the alarm while the kids are climbing into the back of the van. Like most mornings, I take a second to admire the house that we call home and think about the things that led up to be here. The sun shimmers off my engagement ring and I smile. Life with Gruff has been things that fairytales are made of. Other people may think that our relationships progress far too quickly, but I feel like we just met fifteen years too late and everything is right on time.

I keep trying to bring up a wedding with him, but he tells me that we have all the time in the world. I know that we do, but I really want to get rid of the Perez name once and for all. Nico, Anna, and I have had a lot of talks about this, and both have verbalized to me that they would also like to have their names changed and they both want Gruff to adopt them. The only thing stopping that process right now is Gruff. I don’t even want a big wedding, seeing as though I’ve been married once before. I would love just a small ceremony with his family, the kids, and us. 

“Nico, don’t forget after school you need to get your homework done so you can go out with Tate.”

“I didn’t forget, Mom. He even sent me a text reminder this morning. I can’t wait to see what he found.” Soon after we moved in, Tate asked Gruff and me if he could build a go-kart with Nico. Since he’s in school now, he can’t spend as much time at the shop, so the next best thing was a project for him. First, he found the frame, and piece by piece they’ve been putting it together. 

“What do I get to do after school, Mommy?” Anna never wants to feel left out, my little center of attention. 

“I don’t know, maybe you can help me make dinner.”

“That’s boring!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, did you think I have fun and exciting plans every day of the week?”

“You’re an adult and you can do anything you want, why wouldn’t you?”

I laugh, “You have such a positive attitude about being an adult, Anna. Never lose that spirit, baby girl.”

Drop off went smoothly with the kids, we transitioned to driving through the drop-off lane shortly after they started the school. They both made friends right away and run out of the car, sometimes forgetting to say goodbye. There is such a lightness in their lives, it feels good to know that they are no longer under the copious amounts of stress that they were born into.

Per the recommendations of their therapists, they continue to go, but now just on a once a month basis. It seems clear to me that Anna will probably be okay to move on from therapy soon, but it may take a little longer for Nico. He carried a lot more trauma than Anna did. His poor soul had the stress of somebody three times his age. There are moments where I see the old him creeping out, but I think he has a lot of tools to use to suppress those thoughts. Having a healthy outlet like working on cars has made a tremendous difference as well as having friends and not living a secret life.