Game Changer

Chapter 20

"I can't believe we haven't seen you guys for two weeks. What have you guys been up to?" I heard Nadia ask Janie who just came in the door with Emma.
"Working, working and more working. Oh, and sleeping." The girls laughed. Piper ran out to the entry way and started jumping. "Memma!" She said over and over.
Emma started jumping with her "Pipa!" Emma started saying. Their names for each other were so cute. I couldn't get over it.
They ran off to Piper's bedroom hand in hand. Piper had some toys out so
"They're so cute!" Janie said. "Speaking of cute, where are the other three? I miss my favorite twins!"
"Come on in, Greg's got them in the living room."
"Hey Janie!" I said when she came in. "You look great!" I told her. Truth is, she just looked big. She looked like she could pop at any moment.
"Thanks." She said. "But I know I look like I could explode. I sure feel like I could, anyway."
"Pssh, you look beautiful as always." Nadia interrupted. "I wish I looked that great when I was pregnant."
"I'm sure you looked gorgeous, as well my sweet." I said, kissing her cheek as I got up from the sofa. "I'm going to take Owen into the kitchen and start making dinner. Let me know when Mike gets here!"
"Okay honey!" Nadia said as I left the room.
I could hear them talking from the other room, Nadia was asking Janie about her pregnancy. "I've only got a month left." I heard Janie say.
"I miss being pregnant." Nadia said to her. "I loved it, I never felt so beautiful."
"Do you think you'll ever have another baby?" Janie asked Nadia.
I didn't want to hear the answer, so I went to check on the girls down in Piper's bedroom.
"What are you two doing?" I asked. As I rounded the corner with Owen. "Oh, you're reading a book?" I asked.
"Princesses!" Emma said and held up the book to show me.
"Do you want a movie?" I asked them. They both ran over to me. I picked up all three movies and they decided on the princess one, of course. It was a given, as that seemed to be their thing.
"Tell me if you need me, right Piper?" I asked. She nodded. "I love you!" I told her as I left.
"I love you daddy." Piper said, both girls giggled. I saw them pick up toys and head back over by their book.
"Let's go finish dinner, mini man!" I said to Owen. He giggled. I put him in his high chair and rolled him over by me. I gave him a spoon and a bowl to play with while I cooked. He was over joyed to just be there.
I decided to make chicken cordon blue and rice. I got all of them in the pot of water, and I heard Mike come in. The girls directed him to the kitchen and he walked in.
"Hey!" I said. "What's up? How was work?" I asked him.
"Wait, which one do I answer?" He asked, laughing. "Work wasn't bad. I have two weeks off now, which is nice!"
"Nice. In that case, want a beer?" I asked him.
"That would be great!"
I handed him a beer and I grabbed one for myself. "What's up little man?" He asked Owen. Owen smiled and bounced. "Where are Piper and Em?"
"They're in Piper's room, I was actually just thinking I should check on them. Wanna go see them?" I asked, "just let me turn this burner down."
We started down the hallway to Piper's room. I was going to surprise them with Mike being there, but when I went in the room, I saw that they were both asleep. "Mike, come look." He came around the corner and looked at them. They were hand in hand, laying on the floor, they had a book and two dolls in front of them. And they were laying on a blanket.
"Oh my word, look at that. They're so sweet." He said. "The Angels." I covered them with another blanket.
We went back to the kitchen and the chicken was ready to be put in the oven. I put them on a baking sheet and started the rice.
We went into the living room with the ladies while we waited for those to cook.
"So, Greg." Janie said as I sat down. "You haven't found a job yet, have you?" She asked me.
"Nope, I haven't." I said.
"Well, you know the restaurant we ate at a couple weeks ago?"
"You mean the one that your brother owns?"
"Yeah, that one. He needs a chef, and I told him I knew someone. So if you're interested, the job is yours!"
"Really?" I asked, I was kind of in shock.
"Really!"
"I'd love to!" I said. I looked over at Nadia, she was silently smiling. "If that's okay with you!"
"Of course! It's what you always wanted to do!" She said.
"Then I would love to!" I said.
"Great!" Janie said. "I'll have him give you a call."
"Thanks so much!" I said to Janie.
"It's no problem at all. I'm glad I can help."
"Speaking of help, thank you guys so much for everything you've done for us since we moved here. I think you ladies need a night out, and me and mike will have a night out."
"Sounds like fun!" Nadia said.
"You don't need to do that." Janie said.
"Well, we've been keeping a secret from you." I told them.
"You're not drug dealers are you?" Mike asked, sighing.
"No, but we're millionaires." I told him. Janie's face was priceless. "We didn't want to tell you guys right away, because we were scared that you may try to use us for our money; we wanted to make sure we were friends first." I explained.
"That makes sense. We'll never do that, though." Janie said.
"I don't at all expect you to now that I know you!" I told her. "You guys are incredible."
The oven beeped so Mike and I went back out to the kitchen. We left Owen with the women.
I plated everything and called the women to the table. They went to wake up the girls and I went and got Owen. I put him in his high chair and pulled him over to the table. I decided we would let Piper sit in a big girl chair like Emma for tonight. We put the twins in their bouncy seats in the other room since they were asleep.
"This is incredible, Greg." Janie said.
"Thank you!"
"My brother will love having you in his kitchen." She told me. I just smiled.
Piper and Emma were stuffing their faces with their food, they thought it was so much fun to be in big girl chairs.
We finished eating and Nadia said she would clear the table. Janie said she would help.
Mike and I took the kids in the living room.
"What do you say we go for a walk?" Janie asked when they came into the living room.
"That sounds like fun." Nadia said. "What do you guys think?"
"Why don't we wait until tomorrow and go to the zoo?" Mike asked.
"That sounds like a good idea!" I agreed.
"That could work, but we should go later in the day, I don't know how much walking in the heat this pregnant mama can deal with!" Janie said.
"I'm okay with that!" I told her.
"Me too!" Nadia agreed.
"Great!" Mike said, we all started laughing.
"Want to have a movie night here afterwords?" I asked.
"That would be fun!" Janie said.
"This half of the sofa pulls out, so you guys can stay for the night, that way me and Mike can have a few drinks!"
"Do you want to, Mike?"
"I'd love to!" Mike said. "We never do anything since I started working for the police department. All of a sudden no one wanted to be around us."
"Tell me about it." I said. "I never really made any friends where we used to live, I only had my cousin, who is a little bit of a nut."
We all laughed.
"Well at least we all have each other now!" Janie said.
"Exactly what I was thinking." Nadia said.
"We ought to head out now, I'll call you around two tomorrow, Nadia!" Janie said.
"Alright!" Nadia said. We walked them over to the door. Piper hugged Emma and said goodbye, and they were off.
•••
"Hey gorgeous!" I heard Nadia say on the phone. She started laughing. "Yeah, sure!" She smiled. "See you in a few minutes!" Nadia said to Janie and hung up the phone.
"Emma is coming over for a couple of hours. Janie forgot about her doctors appointment, and it's easier to go without Emma, so Piper is having a visitor."
"Cool!" I said. "I'll go get her dressed!"
"Okay, thanks hun."
I went up to piper's room and got an outfit from her closet. I put a pink romper on her. "Emma is coming over!" I told her.
She started jumping up and down. "Mamma!" She said smiling.
"Do you want to go to the store and get a toy with Emma?"
I took her continued jumping and screaming as a 'yes'.
Let's go, I think I hear her. I said.
We walked out to the entry, Emma had just come inside and Janie had left. "What do you say we go shopping?" I said to Nadia.
"For what?" She asked me.
"Clothes, for Piper and Emma. Piper wants to go shopping!" I told her.
"How about you take the girls, and take Ava, too. I'll stay here with the boys and clean the house up.
"Okay." I said. "We'll be back in a while."
We went to the department store. We went strait to the clothes. We had already discovered that the girls wore the same size clothes because of a food accident, so I knew exactly what size we needed. They picked out a purple romper with flowers on it. I got one for Ava, as well. We went over to the boys section and the girls picked out blue shorts with an orange striped shirt for Owen and Asher. I saw blue hats with crabs on them for the boys, too. When we were walking away, the girls spotted flower headbands. I saw some that matched their rompers perfectly, so I grabbed three.
I decided to walk back to the registers by going through the kitchen appliances. That wasn't a good idea because I saw some things I just needed to buy.
I got an old fashioned popcorn machine, a cotton candy spinner, a slushy machine and a hot dog machine.
As we were leaving the aisle, I saw an oven and spinner made for pretzels. I couldn't resist, so I got that too.
I paid for everything and got it all in the van. The girls helped me bring the cart back and I got us all in the van. "How was that, my little ladies?" I asked them. They both looked thrilled. "Was it fun?" I asked.
"Yeah!" Piper yelled and bounced.
We arrived home and I brought the girls inside. I brought the bags of clothes in first and set them down.
And then one by one I brought in the boxes of machines. "There was a sale." I explained to Nadia, who was less than impressed with my shopping spree.
"I see that." She said. They're cute!" She told me.
"I'm glad you think so. They'll be great for our movie night!" I said.
"Did you get what you need to put in them?" She asked. I just stared at her. "I am going to take that as a no." she said laughing. "It was a good thought, though."
"I'll go back and get it." I said.
"Nah, I need to get out of the house. You put the machines together, I'll get the food." She said, still laughing at me.
"Okay hun." I said. I was laughing now, too.
•••
By the time Nadia had gotten home, I had all of the machines together and sitting on our counter. "We're going to need to put in a kitchenette in the basement and a movie screen." She said.
"That is a great idea!" I agreed. "Did you get everything?" I asked, looking at the bags in her hands.
"I think so." She told me. "Oh, and I got pre-made dough for the pretzels." She told me.
"Perfect." I said. We took everything out and set it up next to the machines.
The hot dog one was my favorite. Half of it cooked the hot dogs, while the other half steamed the buns.
We got everything ready for the night and I helped her clean up the living room.
Just as we went to sit down, my cellphone rang. "Hello?" I said, I didn't recognize the number. "Oh, hey. It's ready? Perfect!" It was the man who made Piper's bed. "I'll be over in ten minutes to pick it up. Thanks so much!" I hung up the phone and went back to the living room. "Piper's bed is ready, I'm going to run real quick and get it! I told Nadia.
"Okay hun!" She said. I brought the car seats out of the van inside so I could fold the seats down.
•••
When I got back, Janie and Mike had pulled into the driveway at the same time.
"Great timing!" I said to Mike. "I need your help bringing this inside"
We carried it inside and we all got ready to leave. "Wait!" I said before we headed out the door. "Me and the girls went shopping, the kids all have matching outfits!" Janie laughed at me. I brought them into the living room. I handed Janie Emma's outfit, and I gave Nadia Piper's and Owen's. I dressed the twins and we were all ready to go.
I packed both double strollers in the back of the van, and put the car seats back in. Mike and Janie forgot their stroller, so we let them take ours.
When we had everything and everyone packed up, Piper decided she wanted to go with Emma, so Janie and Mike said that would be okay. We all headed out to the zoo.