Page 20 of Dreams Do Come True

“Is everything alright?” she asks, looking concerned.

“Lyric had a bad dream and River woke up because of the noise,” I explain, while rocking River, hopefully back to sleep.

“Poor things. Here, try this for River,” she says, pulling something out of her pocket. The something is a dummy. She takes the plastic cover off the rubber part and pops it in River’s mouth. He stops crying and starts sucking on it. She clips the dummy onto his little blanket.

I breathe a sigh of relief. “Thanks.”

She grins and walks over to Kean. “Do you want one for Lyric?”

Kean looks undecided, looks at me, then back at Jess, “I don’t know, what would you suggest?”

“If he’s not had one before, probably best not to start using one now.”

“He might be a thumb sucker,” I say, remembering I saw him sucking his thumb when we first arrived and when he sat on my lap earlier.

“If he is, when he’s more settled, try and break him of that habit,” she suggests.

“We will,” Kean assures her.

She rubs Lyric's back. “Do you need anything, Lyric?”

His lip trembles. “Mama,” he whispers, as a big fat tear rolls down his cheek.

“I’m sorry, Lyric, that’s not possible, but you have both these lovely men here to look after you,” she says gently.

“I’m Kean, my partner is Titus, sorry we should have introduced ourselves earlier.”

Jess smiles. “Don’t worry about it. I recognised the ‘I’m still in shock’ look.”

“Pretty sure we’ll be wearing that look for a while,” I point out.

“Nope, pretty sure your new, soon-to-be look will be exhaustion,” she replies.

Both Kean and I smile at that.

“Yeah, I think so too,” Kean says.

“I’ll leave you now. Shout if you need anything. If not, I’ll be back later with River’s bottle.”

“Thanks, Jess,” we both say together.

I look down at River, who is now fast asleep and lay him back in the cot. I then go to the baby bags Monica brought in. I should have looked earlier, but better late than never.

I have just opened the bag when a smell hits my nose. I look over at Lyric and Kean.

“Dude!” Kean exclaims, looking Lyric in the eye. “How can one little boy make such a big smell?”

Lyric holds his nose.

“I don’t blame you, little man, that really is stinky.”

“I’ll get you a clean nappy,” I helpfully say, because going by the smell, that nappy is going to be nasty.

“Oh no, honey, this nappy’s yours,” Kean says, grinning evilly at me. “We’re sharing all the duties, remember?”

I get a clean nappy out of the cupboard while huffing. “I don’t remember saying or signing anything saying that.”

Kean lays Lyric on the changing table. “Shall we have Titus change your stinky nappy? He has to learn to take stinky nappy duty in his stride.”