A Soul's tune ||Completed||✔️

Chapter Seven

'Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you',

Every one sang as Iris presented Travis with his birthday cake. The whole family had assembled for the celebration, even Mama Becs. Mama Ora carried in the cake specially baked for the celebrant.

Travis in turn clapped and cheered as he was presented with his cake, before he could be asked he blew out the single candle on the cake and clapped excitedly.

Everyone laughed at his cuteness.

Carlton, James son soon pulled Travis away from the cooing crowd to go play with water guns outside. Little George was one month away from his own first birthday followed his older brother outside to go and play.

Shelby volunteered to go and watch the kids.

As Iris served cake, she got distracted by a man she was very sure that she didn't invite for the party. But before she could ask around for who he was, Ian walked to the stranger and gave him a glass of wine.

Hmmm, she thought as she went back to finish what she was doing.

Serving the cake to each of the guests, she got distracted by the sound of thunder outside followed by a heavy downpour. Rushing off towards the back door where the kids were playing outside; she found her brothers each carrying a now drenched child into the house.

Quickly she snatched Travis from Matt and moved to a bathroom to run a warm bath for the child. After his encounter with his mother, the kid had developed a serious cold problem. Iris was determined not to have a crisis tonight; it was the kid's birthday for heaven's sake.

'There you go champ, take those off and sit in the tub. Mama would be right back', she helped him take his clothes off and then went to the joining room to bring a thicker towel to wrap him in.

After the warm bath she toweled him down, applied a menthol ointment and dressed him warm. By the time they had gotten back, the other kids were also washed and dressed as well each cuddling up to an adult. Mama Ora had Carlton, Shelby had George, leaving Iris to carry Travis.

James had the fire going in the living room alongside the heater giving the room a cozy feel. They were all engaged in one conversation or the other, but Iris couldn't shake off the fact that someone was looking at her.

Heaving a sigh she looked at the said person square in the eye, he didn't flinch or look away as though he was waiting for her to look up.

Her arms were getting tired but little Travis would throw a fit if she laid him down right now. She always avoided carrying him whenever he was sleepy and just put him on his bed; today seemed to be an exception. Trying to adjust without waking him up was proved futile when he screamed in protest.

Still trying to maneuver him so the both of them were comfortable, she was quite surprised when the stranger offered to help her.

Not knowing what possessed her she agreed, even though she knew Travis didn't take to strangers. She was even more shocked when he laid him on his chest, and rubbed his back gently. Instantly the crying stopped.

Traitor!

She was more surprised as the stranger sat down with Travis and Travis continued to sleep. She was going to ask him about how he did it, but definitely not now. The last thing she needed was Travis recognizing her voice and crying for her.

Conversation continued to flow around her internal struggles, but Mama Becs was watching the both of them. Something was brewing, a tune if you will. She just prayed the two people involved had their ears open.

'This way', she led the stranger to Travis' room to lay him down. She was thankful that the day was over.

As soon as they both left the room the stranger introduced himself.

'I'm Evan Kings. Your brothers invited me',

'Iris Sawyer. Thank you for today', she said as they joined the others in the living room. James and Shelby were already buckling their kids into their car.

Soon the couple left, followed by Mama Becs and Mama Ora who were driven to James' home by Matt. Leaving Ian and his parents behind; James Snr engaged Evan in a conversation regarding the business deal he had with his sons. Chris sat with her baby girl at her feet.

Iris always loved having her mum around, if nothing for the kind of love and care she somehow channels into brushing her hair every night. She was never patient and didn't think she would ever develop the patience for the nightly routine.

Heck even brushing the hair every morning was a swift business.

When her mum was done with her hair properly braided for the night, her parents retired to the guest room in her home for the night while Ian was to drive the stranger; Evan back to his hotel room.

Alone at last she started cleaning out the house as much as she could. The dishes were already washed and stacked; most of the decorations taken down. What was left was taking out the trash and packing up some of the decorations that were left.

Stepping outside she was surprised to find the guys still outside, sitting on the porch and laughing at whatever they were talking about. Choosing to ignore them she went ahead and dropped the trash where it was meant to be.

###

The next day baby Travis got a wonderful surprise. The royal choir came to the house with another cake; though Iris protested. Vivian asked her to suck it up as it wasn't her birthday.

Then they started singing a special song that they always sang for any of their member's birthday. Not too surprised Travis babbled along to the song; he had attended a lot of their rehearsals. The choir director has asked Iris to leave him be whenever he crawled out to the front of the choir during rehearsals, apparently he had picked up some tunes.

She'd caught him so many times doing his own renditions of the songs whenever he was playing.

As they celebration progressed, somehow Chloe taught him some easy moves and she found him shaking his booty alongside Chloe as the other choir members sang some upbeat songs. Travis was thoroughly exhausted when they left and apparently very happy. 

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