𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐈: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐃𝐀𝐘
warnings: none
word count: 2.6k
“Alright, everybody! Wake up! Time to get ready for school!”
Cameron Nolan dutifully rushed through the house and knocked on every still closed bedroom door available. For effect, he opened them at the same time and let some of the light stream in.
Entering his own bedroom, his husband was still lying in bed, turned to the other side.
“Mnh-nh,” he grumbled when Cameron tried shaking him awake.
“Yes-nh,” he softly coaxed. “Come on, get up. You’ve gotta set a good example. Also, the kids need breakfast.”
“You make breakfast,” Dylan grumbled, but he threw back the covers and sat up, nevertheless.
Cameron laughed softly. “Yeah, right, after that pancake-disaster when we were still dating?”
“It’s offensive you would even call what you made pancakes,” Dylan retorted, and pressed a sweet good morning-kiss to his husband’s lips.
“See?” Cameron grinned, “That’s why you’re the cooking man in this relationship.”
“Mhm. And what man does that make you?” Dylan asked, as he shuffled to their bathroom. He squinted at the lights blinding his eyes.
“The successful lawyer husband that will probably have to bail you out of jail at some point in our relationship.” Cameron came up behind Dylan as he brushed his teeth and wrapped his arms around his husband’s waist.
“Also, your arm candy at times.”
Dylan leaned forward and spit into the sink. He turned in Cameron’s arms and grinned at him. “That’s more like it.” Cameron smiled, and they both met in a loving peck.
“Alright, now I’m gonna go and make some edible breakfast for our kids.” Dylan wiggled out of Cameron’s arms. “Could you get Jake, please?”
Cameron pouted. “But I need to get ready!”
Dylan threw him a look. “Babe, you just need to get him awake and carry him downstairs. You’ll manage.” Another peck as he passed him by.
“Love you, you’re the best!”
Cameron groaned.
The Nolan Residence might be one of the most contradictory buildings in all of Westport. On one hand, the house included half a dozen different leisure spaces, like a cinema hall, pools for different occasions and moods, and hell, a small museum with collectibles from all over the world – most of them brought home by Dylan.
On the other hand, and here comes the controversy, they cooked their own meals. Crazy, right? In a town like Westport, it was. Why would you even have money if not to pay people to do the most basic tasks for you?
No, one of the first things that Dylan Nolan had established when the family first moved here, was that they would indeed not just lazily lay around and do nothing but look pretty.
Dylan Nolan liked cooking; he loved it. He caved, though, on one point, when they would have guests over, they would indeed hire a personal chef. Too much stress, Cameron had argued. It was a compromise.
Just as Dylan prepped some neatly cut strawberries next to the fresh waffles, footsteps neared the kitchen, and his daughter stood next to him. “Morning, Dad!” She greeted, and muttered a “Thanks” after he carefully placed the plate of waffles in her hand.
“Alright, that’s one,” Dylan counted, when she sat down at the table. Just then, Cameron walked in, a babbling two-year-old in his arms.
“Here you go, number two,” he said, and placed tiny Jake in his highchair opposite his sister.
Dylan also positioned a much smaller portion waffles in front of the toddler, cut in easily accessible pieces.
“Who’s taking them to school today?” He asked his husband, who had changed his clothes into an elegant suit.
“Can’t,” Cameron answered, “Some couple is suing their housemaiden because she made their morning coffee too hot. Say it was an attempt at ‘severe or even fatal injuries’.” He shrugged.
“You know, sometimes I ask myself why we moved to Westport,” Dylan remarked, “And then you tell me about court cases like this, and that makes me remember.”
Cameron smiled and pressed a kiss to his husband’s cheek. “As soon as I see the check, I stop asking any sort of questions, babe, believe me.”
Dylan tilted his head, agreeing, and frowned. “Alright, we have kids one, two – where’s number three?”
Without waiting for an answer, he strode over to the bottom of the staircase and shouted, “Cooper! Come down, breakfast’s ready!”
“Well, alright then.” Cameron leaned over and pressed a kiss into each of his children’s hair. “Have a good day at school today, sweetheart, have fun.”
“Thanks, Papa!” Kendra spoke. “You too, at work.”
“Will do ma’am.” And with a last kiss goodbye to his husband’s lips, Cameron Nolan was out the door.
“Papa!” Jake babbled after him from his seat.
Dylan put his hands on his hips and threw a look on his watch. “Samira should be here any minute to watch over Jake while we’re away. Kendra, are you all ready for school?”
The young girl nodded her head, and swallowed her last bite of waffles. Dylan raised an eyebrow.
“Really? Homework packed, Teeth brushed, two matching socks?” He added. Kendra rolled her eyes.
“Dad, I’m twelve!”, she complained. “You don’t have to check me every morning.”
Dylan lifted his hands in defense. “I’m just saying. It’s nothing that didn’t happen before.”
Kendra groaned but jumped off the chair and put her plate in the open dishwasher anyways.
“Alright, go put on your shoes.” Another glance at the watch. “Looks like your brother is coming with us, Samira is late. And where the hell is- Cooper!” He yelled again, this time before he even reached the staircase.
“Cooper Bradford! Our estate is like five minutes farther from the school than yours, and I don’t wanna be late! I really do not need to have that talk with Principal Ablin again! That guy makes me want to smash all my eardrums in with a plastic fork.”
“But Dad, you only have two eardrums.”
“I know sweetheart, it’s just a thing that Daddy says. Cooper!”
“I’m here, I’m here!” The thumping footsteps announced Cooper’s arrival before Dylan could see him.
“Finally! Boy, what took you so long?”
“I’m sorry, but my hair wouldn’t blow-dry right.” Cooper apologized, emphasizing his statement while fixing a loose strand. “Beauty like this takes time.”
Whatever you think of doing, don’t do it, Dylan reminded himself. “Alright, whatever. Waffles are over there, take some and then-“ Another glance at the watch. “Nope, forget it, you’re gonna have to eat the waffles in the car. Now, put on your shoes!”
Cooper rushed to the kitchen isle, snatched himself two waffles, and then sped to his sneakers. Dylan grabbed the car keys from the shelf, lifted Jake into his arms and walked out the door. In the time it took Kendra and Cooper to finally leave the house, he had already secured his youngest son in his car seat.
“Kids, you have to squeeze in the back. And-- uh-uh.” Dylan blocked Cooper’s way with his body and raised his eyebrows. “I warn you, Cooper Bradford,” he said. “One crumb of that thing-“ he pointed at the waffle, “- in my car, and you clean it. You understand?”
Cooper nodded eagerly. Maybe a bit scared.
Good.
When Dylan stepped away, the boy made a show of entering the car extra carefully.
“Alright, people! Everyone’s seatbelts fastened?” Dylan asked after he, too, sat down in the driver’s seat.
“Yes.” Came the unison answer from the back. At 8:05, the car finally left the driveway.
Bringing the kids to school was, by no means, as terrible as it could be. Both Kendra and Cooper had passed the age where he had to escort them to the doors, and had not yet reached the age where they would be embarrassed to be seen with their parent – or, in Cooper’s case, a guardian.
“Alright guys, have a great day at school!”
“Thanks, Dad!” “Thanks, Dylan! Goodbye!” Both car doors slammed shut, and only when he saw Kendra and Cooper take their places between their friends, he looked at Jake through the rearview mirror.
“Alright buddy, and what are we going to do now?” The loud honking of a car horn sounded over his youngest son’s silence.
“Alright, I’m going, Jesus Christ!” Dylan yelled back, at no one that could hear him, and made his way out of the line. “Be glad that my kid’s in the car with me, otherwise I’d swear at you.”
They turned out to run some errands. Cameron had wanted to change the curtains for a while, and Dylan took Jake with him to look at different samples of fabric and color. Jake was a big help, obviously, babbling at some beige tones, and pointing at a blue one with stripes yelling, “Papa!”.
Dylan sent his husband a picture of the fabric with the caption
Your son recognizes you by your tie patterns, by the way
When they returned home, Samira was there. She apologized a thousand times for being late, and Dylan told her that it better not happen again, because by God, this wasn’t the first time she had shown up late. And he couldn’t keep an unreliable babysitter hired, it’s not like there was a guarantee that he was always able to watch over Jake, that’s the exact reason she was here. Also, he wouldn’t say that the salary he paid was bad for the job she did.
Around the time Dylan wanted to get lunch started, his phone started ringing. It was Kendra on the other end of the line.
One of their teachers got sick, so her and Cooper got to go home earlier.
Amazing.
Don’t judge for that lack of excitement.
So, he put lunch on hold, told Samira to keep a close eye on Jake, and rushed to the car, which he then rushed to Westport Unified.
Like very sophisticated and well-behaved children, Kendra and Cooper were patiently waiting next to the parking spot when he pulled up and got in the car. Unlike very sophisticated and well-behaved children, they were both arguing as they did so.
Dylan took off, trying not to pay too much mind at the visible physical fight that was going on over who had claiming rights over which side of the car seat.
He had to notice with a disappointed frown that the house still looked the same when they came back, and no cleaning fairy had taken it upon herself to fix that mess of sneakers, or put away the newspapers sprawled over the coffee table.
Times like these, he cursed his own stubbornness to not hire someone for this.
Dylan made his way to the kitchen to pick up where he left off: preparing lunch. Too bad that his two devil tornadoes had something other in mind.
“Da-ad?” Kendra drawled, and batted her eyelashes at him. Dylan looked up from his cutting board. He raised his eyebrows questioningly.
“Could we get the key to the gaming room, please? Coop has a new game he wants to show me!”
Oh, so suddenly he was Coop again. Dylan put his knife down and perched his palms on the countertop. “Absolutely not,” he said, and their faces fell.
“You can’t just come home from school and demand to play video games the second you’re here. That’s way too much screen time for kids your age.”
“Well, we don’t have anything else we could do.” Cooper argued.
“You know what?” Dylan whirled around and pulled something from a lower shelf. He slammed a handful of books right in front of them. “Pick one. You’re both gonna go outside and read. Until I’m done with lunch. After that, I want your honest to God opinion on what you thought of it.”
“And what if we don’t want to?”
“Well, then I don’t care. Go outside and read. And, for the love of God, choose different places in the yard. Otherwise, that’s going to end in a disaster.”
With that, Dylan turned around and started cleaning the marble kitchen isle. Whatever they did from now on was not his problem anymore.
Cooper gave the books in front of him a suspicious look. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those.” He picked up the one titled ‘Death on the Nile’ and turned it in his hands.
Kendra shrugged and pulled ‘The Body’ closer to her. “This one has horror. I’ll take it.”
She made her way to leave the house but stopped dead in her tracks and turned to Cooper one more time before she left. “Oh, and just so you know-“ She grinned, “I’m also taking the lakeside.”
Cooper gasped. “That’s not fair!” He objected, “That’s the pleasant side of the garden. I’ll have to take the streetside, where my only view are old houses and cars rushing by.”
“Not my problem. Called it first.” Kendra shrugged, annoying grin still plastered on her face, and went outside.
Cooper clenched his jaw and looked down at the book still in his hand. ‘Death on the Nile’.
Maybe it includes a guide, he thought.
With a last glance at his Godfather working in the kitchen, he, too, left the house. The path to the streetside of the estate was earthy ground, mostly created by children’s feet running through the grass way too often and keeping it from growing.
Cooper knew the way like the back of his hand.
On the end, a small bench was placed, it had been there since he could remember. Every crack in the old wood seemed to tell a story, the small K and C evidence of two children that were as close as siblings immortalizing their relationship forever in the hard material. Cooper sat down, cross-legged on the bench. The book weighed heavy in his hand, geez, it had many pages. But hey, nobody said he had to finish reading it. Just bridge over the time until Dylan had lunch ready.
The sun was reaching its highest point of the day, and burned down his neck, but Cooper didn’t notice. He was too busy gasping at the sudden death of Linett Ridgeway. He didn’t even realize when other people or cars passed him by.
Back in the house, Dylan had freshly bought pieces of meat sizzling in the pan. The salad had already been placed on the table, and Samira had been nice enough to set the dishes before she had gone home again for the day. Only thing missing were the fries, God, no meat without fries for his children.
Dylan grabbed next to the pan, where the sack of potatoes was placed, but his hand reached into emptiness. Confused, he looked around. On the kitchen isle, next to the salad dressing, under his cooking book. He laid his head back with a heavy sigh.
“Don’t tell me I forgot that goddamn thing in the car,” he muttered. Tell you what, something like that only happened to you when you had three kids to take care of.
Grabbing the car keys for the too maniest time today, Dylan left the house and made his way to the garage. The Ford Mustang was usually parked neatly next to Cameron’s Jaguar XF, that meant, when he was home.
With a sigh, Dylan opened the door to the backseat, and “Yes” found the sack of potatoes he’d been looking for. He was just about to close the car door again, and leave things be, when he saw it.
Dylan did a slow double take, but it was still there when he looked a second time. Throning on the cushions of the left side, basically laughing at him, was a smudge of whipped cream. On the floor, waffle crumbles spread all over the plastic mat.
Dylan slammed the car door shut with way more force than necessary.
“Cooper!”
I don't know why all the trees change in the fall
But I know you're not scared of anything at all
Don't know if Snow White's house is near or far away
But I know I had the best day with you today
-The Best Day, Taylor Swift
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