Chapter Thirty-Eight:
Extreme Makeover: Ollie Edition
As much as I wantedeveryone to move in with me as soon as possible, things needed done first. I brought them back to the house on a Saturday morning and let them loose to figure out who would be getting what room and which two would be sharing the attic, then called a contractor to come install two more full bathrooms. With eight people, five still didn’t feel like enough, but we were out of room and also had other things to worry about.
While the construction took place, I spent my afternoons finishing up Jago’s driving requirements by having him escort each of the kids with me furniture shopping. We took Carlo on Monday, Valentino and Alex on Tuesday, then little Rio on Wednesday. Jago and I went alone Thursday, then took Dinora Friday and Mia Saturday morning. By Saturday evening, I was exhausted and quite a few thousand dollars poorer, but the excitement I felt from each of them was worth it.
For Valentino and Alex, we’d kept it simple. They’d be up in the attic with a half-wall to separate them and a new bathroom of their own, so we’d gone with beds and dressers and a desk for Valentino to draw at. Dinora was fine with the bed that was already in the guest room, so we’d picked out new sheets, curtains, a bookshelf, and found her a nightstand with a drawer that locked. I pretended to be very interested in the throw rugs as she explained to the nice salesman why she needed such a thing, then very respectfully declined her invitation to do the rest of that shopping.
Little Hombre was growing fast which meant the toddler bed I’d kept in the kid’s room wouldn’t work, so we redid the entire room in a space-theme. We special-ordered sheets with dwarf planets and Valentino painted constellations all over his walls, which sent Rio into a half-hour long explanation about the Latin names and where they came from. We built a little tent over his bed so he could pretend to be camping out every night in search of the northern lights and filled an entire wall with books about things I didn’t understand.
His room was probably my favorite.
Carlo was getting the office, which meant he also needed a full re-do. He wanted bunk beds, and when I asked him why, he replied with, “In case if I wanna sleep up, and in case if I wanna sleep down.” It was arguably one of the cutest things I’d ever heard, so Carlo got himself bunk beds. His room was easy to decorate since all he wanted plastered all over his walls were posters of dinosaurs and soccer players, and that left us with Jago.
He was taking over the basement since he was the oldest and the one most in need of privacy. I was also told I’d be grateful for that since Jago liked to sing. It was already mostly finished, but he helped me build some walls to separate a bedroom for himself and we kept the rest pretty much the same: a pool table, a couch with a pull-out bed, a shelf with my baseball cards and some old records, and a 65-inch TV. I had a feeling the boys would be spending a lot of time down there, which suited me just fine – the more time they spent two floors below the bedroom I’d share with Mia, the better.
She outright insisted that we burn the bed that was in there and buy a new one despite me telling her over and over again that I’d already replaced the one Destiny and Angel had slept on. I wasn’t sure if she didn’t believe me or if she thought there was a chance I’d slept with someone else since, but I wasn’t in a position to argue with her. We donated all of the old furniture to the local resale store and found a nice big dining room table and enough chairs to sit us all and then some, and with that, I was pretty sure we were good. All we had to do was wait for delivery.
Almost a solid month later, it was finally time to move everyone in, and I was bouncing off the damned walls as I parked the moving van in front of Mia’s house to load up the boxes. I felt like a big, clumsy ball of energy as we packed everything up and took it over, and that feeling didn’t fade as we unpacked. Most people hated moving, but this time, for me? It felt a lot like a piece of a puzzle I’d been missing for years finally falling into place.
We ordered enough pizza to feed a small army and finally took a break when it arrived. It was late, but my heart was as full as my stomach was about to be, especially when Jago pulled me aside and nervously ran a hand through his hair. “So ... when can I meet him?”
“Huh?” I stared at him for a moment, then it hit me. “Oh, Tanner?”
He nodded sheepishly. “Yeah. Like do I just go over there? Do I wait for the school year? How do I do this?”
Luckily for him, I already had a plan. “We’ll take the next couple of weeks to get settled first, but we’ll throw a block party at the end of the month. I’m taking Titi and Rio up to Brisley to meet my family next weekend, but after that, we’ll start planning. Sound good?”
The poor kid looked like he was going to explode. “Is it normal for the—” he gestured to his stomach and rocked his weight from foot to foot – “everything?”
“Yeah,” I laughed, ruffling his hair. “Butterflies are normal. They’re good. Just remember what I told you though, okay? Plenty of fish in the sea. Maybe it’ll work out and maybe it won’t, but you’ll be okay either way.”
“I know that,” he rushed out. “I’m not like ... banking on this or anything. I just wanna meet him, that’s all.”
One way or the other, I knew Tanner would be good for him. Even if they didn’t start any kind of relationship, Tanner was out of the closet and relatively popular at school from what I knew, which meant he’d be able to guide Jago and give him someone to look up to as he adjusted to life in the light. “You got it, bud. One block party meet-cute coming up.”
I snuck back into the living room and stepped over the pizza boxes just as Dinora reminded those boys to say “thank you” to me, and I wasn’t prepared for what happened next. Five boys all yelled it at once and then hurled themselves at me, tackling me with full-body hugs and knocking my giant ass back onto the ground. The Ollie dogpile that ensued was a little chest-crushing and a lot ball-busting, but it did things for me and my battered little heart that I wouldn’t have thought possible. These were my people, my family, and they were all under one roof with me now.
“Okay, okay. Up,” I grunted out. “You guys need to get to bed and Mia and I have to make one more stop by the house and then return the moving van. You can play Crush the Oliver tomorrow.”
“Where is Titi, anyway?” Valentino asked. “Haven’t seen her in a bit.”
I got up once the boys moved and looked around for her, but didn’t see her. I shrugged and assumed she was putting her clothes away in the bedroom or putting her bathroom stuff away, but I went up to find out just in case. “Baby? Where you at?” I pushed open the door and heard her throwing up, and nearly walked away – I wasn’t good with puke, though I’d never met anyone who was – but the thought of her needing me had me inching toward our bathroom.
The door was ajar, so I gently opened it and poked my head in. “Mia? What’s going on?”
“Don’t look, Ollie.” She flushed it quickly and let her head fall against the closed toilet seat. “I shouldn’t have ate pizza.”
“Don’t blame this on pizza,” I said, trying to be playful but falling short as I knelt down next to her. “Are you okay? Do you need me to go take the van back by myself?”
“I’m okay. I think I caught a stomach bug or something. I don’t want to make you go alone, baby.”
I rubbed her back gently. “It’s not a big deal. My car is there anyway. Why don’t you go lay down and I’ll go?”
Her eyes were glossy as she gazed up at me and nodded, then I helped her brush her teeth and carried her to bed. “I’ll probably be fine after a nap. Lo siento, Papí.”
“Don’t be sorry, baby. Just feel better and stick to blaming a bug instead of sweet, innocent pizza. I’ll be back soon.”