“I’ll get his bottle.” I get to my feet, catching my stool before it can fall, and lean it against my desk.
I’ve always had a mini fridge in my office. Now, it’s filled with breast milk. Not weird at all.
I have the biggest office in the building. It comprises three rooms. The one in the far back might as well be an icebox since it houses all the sensitive electrical grid that runs Van Doren Estate’s security, technology, and shit. It’s not the only grid. Just the primary grid. The one I use when I want to play trial and error.
The actual main grid is underground in our bunker. No one can harm it if they can’t find it.
The second room is filled with electronic devices. I have an employee whose sole job is to keep everything updated with its latest firmware, software updates, and my security updates. Not to mention, they program whatever each department needs.
I take one of the bottles of milk from the fridge and twist the lid off before setting it in the little bottle warmer. I make sure the appropriate amount of water is in there still and then hit the On button.
“I can’t imagine how people did this before these little gadgets,” I muse.
“Microwave. Also, cow’s milk. That’s likely how drinking other animals’ milk came about. When a woman couldn’t produce sufficient milk for their kid, they had to turn somewhere.”
“Huh,” I say. That’s something I’ve never thought of looking up. Dad might be way off. Maybe some sick fuck just decided to suck a cow’s teat one day. That wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
When the beep notifies me that the bottle is warm, I pull it out, recap it, and dry it off before giving it a swirl. Then, I hand it to Dad. I kind of love seeing him hold my baby.
“You going to be Granddad, Grandpa, Papa…?” I ask.
Dad smiles. “Whatever he wants to call me.”
“You realize that we’ll have to supply something, right?”
“Mm,” he hums as he feeds Axl. “Granddad, maybe.”
“That’s what we call our grandfather,” I remind him.
“Yes, but they’re Great-Granddad.”
Dad will be far more present than his parents. I already know that. He raised his brothers, especially Uncle Noaz. Besides holidays, I can’t remember having seen our grandparents much.
Maybe that’s why Dad is so concerned with family. That’s why it’s such a priority for him. He didn’t want us to grow up withabsent parents and our kids with absent grandparents. He’s seen and experienced both.
I’ve often read that it’s not just what you learn from your environment by observation that shapes what you do as an adult and the person you are, but also the absence of relationships, people, aspects of life.
When I look at our lives now and reflect on what I know of Dad’s childhood, everything makes a lot of sense. I can see the whys to all kinds of things.
“Lorissa is packing her bags,” Dad says.
I retake my seat on my rocking stool and wake up my computer. “She’s already been here longer than I expected her to be.”
“She says she’ll visit.”
I look at Dad with a raised brow. “I hope you don’t believe her.”
He sighs. I recall my conversation with Brek about what constitutes a happy, healthy household and wonder if Dad is going to comment on it. I don’t expect him to, honestly. I think he struggles more with the situation we were in with Mom than we do at this point.
“I suppose I hope she’ll change her mind. Not that Axlneedsa mother. He has more love and structure here than most kids will have over their entire childhoods. I guess…” He shakes his head as he watches Axl drink.
“I think she’ll be back, but it won’t have much to do with Axl. She doesn’t feel any maternal pull toward him, Dad. She may feel familial in the same way she feels with everyone here now, having spent so long here. When she returns, it’ll be because we’ve been a family to her in a way she’s never had before.”
He looks at me. “She doesn’t have a good relationship with her family?”
“Dad, I hope you realize how uncommonly close we are.” I laugh a little. “Trust me when I tell you, it’s rare that almost the entirety of three generations live on the same property together. At the same time.”
“Is this a good opening to tell you that your grandparents are considering moving home?”
