Heaven & Earth: The Somewhere Under Heaven Series

Reconciliation

Rob's POV

Welcome to Rock Bottom. Population: Me.

My mum and sisters are right, I need to sort this out.

I walk around the house and I can't help but think of all the memories. The blanket forts that Katie and Ash would have with Jax when we took him in..the time the kids decided to slide down the stairs using cardboard boxes...the day Ash's voice cracked...Katie blossoming into the young lady she is today...and of course my own love story with Casey.

I walk down the stairs and I look at the foyer and remember the day I carried Casey over the threshold saying this was going to be where our world was going to transform forever. We came back to the States because she got the offer to teach at Moore but in the end, it would be the kids that would make us stay. Sure we had three years in England while we were working in Europe and the house was being renovated but after Case got the offer to teach at Rider, we came back and it seems we were here to stay.

I continue looking around the house and the memories still come back. I still remember the spot in the living room where I helped the kids when they took their first steps. Then there was the day when I was sitting in the kitchen with Katie and she said her first word. I found the video on my iPad and I watch it for a brief second watching my princess sitting on the table looking at me and she finally says "Daddy." I remember having tears in my eyes as she said it because I knew that I was her hero. I then find another video which was of Ash saying his first word which oddly enough was "Swoop." I figured out why...he was playing with the plush Swoop that Casey gave the kids when they were first born because she insisted that her kids were going to bleed green just like her.

I look up and notice the piano and remember how I when Katie was four, I taught her how to play piano. A couple years later, she looked at my guitar and asked me to teach her how to play so I patiently taught my six-year-old, left handed daughter how to play. Okay, the biggest challenge for me was teaching a lefty how to play guitar but somehow I managed because she's just as good as her dad...maybe even better.

I then think of the times when the kids were in bed and I would be on the couch with Case in the living room and we watched a movie. My favorite thing in the world was always when Casey would move in a little closer and I can feel her breath up against my neck. She'd let out this little yawn and I knew, she was at her most relaxed and I relished in every moment she would lie there, wrapped in my arms letting me play with her hair while she drifted off to sleep.

I then think of the time I found out Case was pregnant with the kids. With Ashton, she texted me a photo of the ultrasound with a message saying, "Hope you're ready to become a daddy!" I would stand out on the porch, waiting for her to come home and when she did, I rushed over to her and kissed her midsection before I scooped her up and carried her into the house.

When she got pregnant with Katie, it was different. She came home with the ultrasound photo, handed to me, and I knew. I was hoping we had a girl that time and when I saw my little princess on the screen at the next ultrasound, I couldn't be happier.

I need some fresh air so I went out to the yard and started a fire in the pit. More memories come through my head of us sitting in the yard with the kids laughing, toasting marshmallows, and of course Case getting the kids to chase fireflies. I look over at the tree where we put the treehouse and smile at the memories of climbing up there to tell the kids it was time for dinner. One memory pops into my head and that's when Ashton was 12 and I caught him with a dirty magazine. After joking about how I got expelled from a school for stealing them and selling them to friends, I would sit in the treehouse with Ash and I'd tell him the facts of life and how to treat a girl like she's one of a kind.