Third In Line

Chapter Twenty Three - Old Boots

Will's wellington boots had clearly grown a little tighter since the last time he'd worn them. He kept them safely tucked away in the closet of their room at Bucklebury Manor, but even if they visited Kate's parents often it had still been almost a year since he'd had a reason to wear his favourite pair of boots.

He loved his tough old wellington boots, a Christmas gift from his daughters who knew how much he loved being in the countryside. Wearing them made him feel closer to home than he ever did in tailored suits and polished black shoes. He could step in a puddle of mud and laugh at the squirty-farting sound that the ground made instead of worrying about the mess it made of his trousers.

He could relax.

This was the families first holiday since before their South America tour, and since then they had either been staying in overwhelmingly humid hotels or cooped up in the Palace in the middle of London. The past few weeks had been bursting with meetings, stately dinners, public events and appearances in which he had to be perfect in every possible way.

However, he was now wearing an old pair of blue jeans, a loose fitting shirt, a green waterproof coat and his trusty old boots, but he could finally say it was good enough. Kate would probably get him to wear a cleaner shirt or make him comb his hair, but even she would have to say his outfit was perfectly appropriate for today's activity.

"C'mon Will! You keep going like this and you'll take up just as much time as the girls do when they're getting ready!" Mark shouted up the stairs, pulling Will's focus away from the handsome image in the mirror.

"Even Mark is ready, and he had two kids to get dressed!" Michael added, followed by a loud chuckle that echoed up the stairs.

"I'm coming" Will shouted as he closed his bedroom door and made his way downstairs, passing a family picture of himself, Kate, Ellie and Alex on the way. "Jeez, you guys hassle me more than the girls do at home!"

Mark and Michael were busy strapping the babies into the double stroller as Will planted his feet on the ground floor. Each of them were dressed casually in jeans and waterproof coats, excluding Jenny and Charlie whose blue and pink coats made them look like they were wrapped in bubble wrap.

"The girls only hassle you because they don't want you looking as good as them!" Mark joked, his voice quieter now that Will was downstairs with them. "We're hassling you because we're tired of waiting"

"Nope, they actually get tired of waiting too" Will corrected him. "Just a few days ago I came down the stairs expecting to be ready to leave first, but the girls were waiting there in the foyer, tapping their feet and staring at me"

"That must have been embarrassing for you" Mark teased.

"It was" Will admitted.

"Don't worry Will, it was the same for me until James was born" Michael said as he reassuringly patted him on the back. "I love my girls but for my sanity I needed someone to do guy things with"

"Yeah, just wait 'till you've got a son of your own Will" Mark added in his laid back L.A accent.

"I'm hoping we do have a little boy by next year" Will confessed. He and Kate had always been happy with their two daughters, but that didn't mean they had had enough of baby making. He had to admit that he had always pictured having three kids, while Kate always wanted two boys and two girls. Both of them had a dream that they wanted to fulfil, a framed picture in their minds of what they imagined their perfect family to look like.

We weren't ready to give up on those dreams, we tried again for a few more years after Alex but then we gave up. Who would have thought that on the one night we decide to finally try again, it would actually work!