Downtown Idea

53. Walls

Glasgow was like a dream. Jonas's farm was a safe haven of sorts. There was little cell service in the whole little town he lived in and his farm was a black hole with no service at all. I had to walk down to the little drug store downtown when Calum wanted to FaceTime with Brodie. Jonas has a landline so phone calls were decent but Calum wanted to actually see his son sometimes.

The months went by quickly. January was Brodie's first birthday and Calum mailed him a present - a big bag of mega blocks that he loved playing with - and Jonas's sheepdog has puppies so he gave one to Brodie which he thoughtfully called Dino after his favorite green stuffed dinosaur.

March brought Zoe to Glasgow. 5sos was on tour and Ashton didn't want her to be in LA alone. All the McClaggens were back in Scotland for a bit and I was here for it.

Little Lady Louise was born on Jonas's couch in June. It was not ideal but the doctor wasn't around so I had to be the one to bring this kid into the world while Jonas called Ashton. It was unpleasant but Lady Louise was gorgeous and loud and amazing and everybody but Zoe was crying over her.

When Ashton got to Jonas's farm it was nearly noon. He brought Luke and Calum with him which was expected. Luke wanted to see Jonas probably and Calum was probably dying to see Brodie. I was outside feeding the chickens with Brodie when they pulled up. I hadn't been hiding on purpose really. It didn't occur to me that Calum would come along honestly.

When he found us he envelopes me in the tightest and warmest hug I had ever gotten from him. I laughed at him and hugged him back. I hadn't expected this from him. I didn't know our carefully growing friendship had reached this level.

"You okay?" He asked, which made me realize he wasn't hugging me to say hello. He was hugging me because he was worried.

"I'm fine. Zoe was the one in labor not me." I teased but he was worrying me a bit being this way. "I'm okay I swear." He nodded and kissed my cheek and nose and forehead until I pushed on his shoulder.

"Daddy!" Brodie got his attention and ran to him, grabbing onto his leg with a big grin.

"Oh my god you're so big!" Calum gasped and lifted our 18 month old up into his arms. He hugged him so tight and Brodie snuggled into his shoulder. "I missed you so much! How are you? Have you been good for Mama?" Brodie nodded and Calum kissed his forehead.

"Chickens Daddy!" Brodie day up and pointed to the chickens that were roaming around snatching up feed I had tossed out to them a few minutes ago.

"I see them." Calum giggled. Brodie giggled back and started making clucking sounds so Calum started doing it with him.

"You two are a couple of weirdos," I said laughing at them. "Come on, I gotta go see what Jonas wants to do about lunch." I waved Calum behind me and he followed me back to the house carrying our baby with him. Dino - who I should mention was six months old and huge now - hopped after us.

Dino followed Brodie everywhere. He was his little protector. I let Brodie wander around the farm all he liked usually. It wasn't too big and there wasn't anything around that could hurt him. Brodie mostly hung around the barn and the animals anyway. But Dino was still there to bark at anything that might threaten the life of the small boy.

Except he was scared of the sheep so when Brodie went to annoy them he hung back and cowared on the other side of the fence. The sheep dog puppy was scared of the sheep - go figure.

I couldn't find Jonas or Luke anywhere. I figured that was probably okay. I didn't really want to interrupt anything they might be catching up on anyway. I didn't want to bother Ashton and Zoe with Louise so I just made sandwiches for me and Calum and Brodie. Ashton came down in the middle of us eating and I told him he could help himself to whatever he wanted. He took care of himself and Zoe. Jonas would do whatever he wanted anyway so I focused on what I was going to do about hanging out with Calum.