Always Us

mr. handyman

"A little to the left."

Sienna tilted her head to mimic her mom. "A little to the left."

"Lef!" Gianna chirped from the comfort of Olivia's lap.

Spencer looked over his shoulder, his eyes empty and focused on his dear wife. "You sure this is where you want it?"

"Mhm," Olivia hummed, threading her fingers through her baby's curls. In response, the toddler buried herself deeper into her mom's arms.

Spencer turned back towards the wall, but not before letting an eye roll slip. This was her fourth change of heart or whatever she wanted to call it in the past week.

"Spencer, I just asked you for a simple favor," Olivia said after a prolonged moment of silence.

"I know, Liv."

"Okay. Just checking."

Sienna's eyes darted back and forth between her parents. This type of tension was rare.

Spencer turned back around. "Do they all need to be in here?"

"Hey!" Jackson called from the corner of the room where he was swirling around with his toy planes, sound effects and all. "That's not nice!"

Caleb stopped analyzing the roll of tape in his chunky hands and held it up to his dad.

"We're having family time."

"There's better—" His two-year-old son tapped the roll against his leg. "I don't need that."

"Spencer, he's just trying to help you."

"I don't need tape to hang up a mir—"

"Daddy!" Gianna yelled, pointing at her twin's disappointed look.

Spencer crouched, sighing. Not only was he moving this mirror for the fourth time in three days, but the task was also taking four times as long as it should with the constant interruptions and noise. "We don't need the tape right now, Caleb. Thank you though."

The baby boy's chest heaved threateningly.

"Take it from him," Olivia encouraged.

Spencer took a calming breathing and held out his hand, but his son no longer wanted to share. The father side-eyed his wife across the room.

"Come here, Caleb," Olivia called.

The two-year-old wouldn't budge.

Olivia waved at the air. "Just let him be."

Keeping his mouth shut, Spencer stood and resumed his efforts to hang up the mirror in his youngest daughter's room. For the fourth time.

While Spencer measured and leveled and the kids babbled and chattered, Olivia kept a keen eye on Spencer's mirror placement, and Caleb kept his post by his father's leg.

"Actually," Olivia started, and Spencer's fist clenched on the drill. "Do you think it would look better on that wall?"

"I think it'll look good wherever you want it," he replied shortly.

She didn't waver. "Well I'm asking you what you think."

"I want it up on the wall, Olivia. Any wall."

Within seconds, Olivia was storming across the room. She had tried to remain peaceful in the presence of their kids, but he had been acting like one of them all morning, and she had had enough. "If you didn't want to help me, you could have just said that," she snapped, snatching the tape measure from her husband's hand. "I'll fucking do it."