Family Ties

Just Us

Hannah's POV

"Be careful!" I laughed as I watched Harry wrestling with the twins in the living room of the lake house.

They were climbing all over him like a jungle gym as he tickled them and they squealed. It always amazed me how much energy they all had in the morning, and it was obvious I was the only one that wasn't a morning person.

"Okay, come get your breakfast." I said as they three of them stopped wrestling and the twins came scurrying over to the table, hopping up into their seats while I dished up their breakfast.

Harry smiled at me as he made his way over, straightening himself up before he leaned down and kissed my cheek. I handed him two plates and he took them both over and set one down in front of each of the kids, who both thanked him politely before they picked up their forks and started eating.

"Good manners, guys. That's what I like to hear." I smiled at them as I grabbed Harry and I's plates and took them over to the table.

Harry and I had decided that it was good for us to each spend some quality time with each of them, so today he was gonna take Hank fishing while Mace and I stayed back. She had yet to decide what she wanted to do, but I'd told her it was her day and we would do whatever she chose. It was easy to see that each of them were excited to have some individual attention, and Harry and I planned to make it a point to have little dates with each of them once a week where they would get some extra attention from each of us.

"Did you decide what you wanna do today, Monkey?" Harry asked Maci as he took a bite of his breakfast, chewing as he waited for her response.

"I wanna do lots of stuff!" She said excitedly, without giving a real answer.

That was Mace though, too much stuff and too little time. She was always so excited to do things that she could rarely narrow it down to anything specific.

"Well I'm sure you girls will have a fun day." Harry smiled before turning to look at Hank. "You ready to catch some fish, buddy?"

"Yep! I'm gonna catch a whole bunch, and then we can eat them for dinner!" He said excitedly.

I reached over and ruffled his hair, loving how excited he was. He'd really missed having a dad around, and it was obvious to me that he was in all his glory now that he had Harry to take him to do things. Harry had always made an effort to take him out and do things with him, but it seemed a bit different now that we were officially raising them. If Hank grew up to be half the man Harry was, I'd consider us successful.

We finished breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen before Mace and I waved the boys off from the deck while they headed off on their adventure. Harry pulled the boat away from the dock after giving Hank a thorough safety talk, making sure he had his life jacket on and telling him that he was gonna learn about boat safety. Hank ate it up, always loving it when Harry taught him things, and he was practically jumping out of his seat by the time they finally left. We watched them take off into the middle of the lake until they were nothing but a small speck in the distance, before I turned to Mace and crouched down to her level.

"Okay, they're gone. What's it gonna be first?" I smiled.

"I can't pick!" She giggled. "I wanna go swimming, and walk in the woods, and I wanna make cookies for Hank and Daddy for when they come home, and I wanna paint our nails and ride bikes, and-"

"Alright, babe." I chuckled. "Why don't we start with one thing at a time."

She brought her little hand up to her mouth as she giggled, obviously extremely excited about what the day might hold for us.