She pulled into her spot and got out of the car, with only rocket-fuel coffee and sugar keeping her upright. Gabe was already in the doorway at the back entrance and began to walk toward her.Keep it together. One bro-hug from Gabe, and Solo feared she’d dissolve into a puddle of useless pus at her feet.
“Fuck off,” she said when Gabe got close enough and opened up her arms for exactly that purpose.
Gabe pressed her lips together and dropped her arms to her side. “Got it.” She peered into the backseat and blew out a loud breath. “You overdose her on Benadryl? That’s the first time I’ve seen that kid with her eyes closed.”
Solo huffed. “I’d laugh if I wasn’t so fucked. None of us got much sleep last night.”
“I’m sorry, bud. This stinks.” Gabe stepped back from the car and shook her head. “Shay and RB have arranged a baby-friendly space in the DFAC. And Woody’s set up CCTV to some of the monitors downstairs, so you keep an eye on them while you’re working.”
“Great,” Solo said, unable to apply the illusionof conviction to her words. She popped the trunk and hauled out the triplets’ stroller. “I’ll start on this side.” She opened the door closest to Luna.
“Good idea.” Gabe joined her. “Leave the leader until last.”
Solo gave a half-smile. “The great Gabe Jackson is scared of my tiny Tia. If only I could tell the rest of the squad.”
Gabe shoved Solo lightly and jutted her chin. “They wouldn’t believe you.”
“Probably not.” No one other than Janie took her seriously, and now she was gone.
“Solo?”
“What?” She looked at Gabe, who gestured toward her chest. Solo looked down to see Luna and her bucket seat in her arms. When had she unclipped the retainer and taken her out? “Uh, yeah…” She clipped the car seat directly into the stroller and leaned into the back to get Chloe.
Gabe adjusted Chloe’s purple beanie after Solo had fitted her seat alongside Luna. “It’s going to be eighty-degrees today, right?”
“But right now, it’s only fifty.” Solo pushed the stroller around to the other side and opened the door to retrieve Tia. “I know how to look after my kids, Gabe.”
Gabe held up her hands. “Of course you do. I’m sorry.” She tapped her watch. “It looks like you’re good here; I’m going to lower the flag to half-mast.”
Solo glanced at her own wrist to see it was bare. Christ, she didn’t remember taking her watch off. She turned quickly as Gabe headed off. “What time is it?”
“It’s zero seven twenty-eight,” Gabe said. “We’ll be in the DFAC waiting for you.”
Solo shook her head.You can take the sarge out of the army, but you can’t take the army out of the sarge.RB had built a nice-looking room for them all to eat and have some downtime; it was more than adining facility, and they really should call it something else, something more civilian. Like a breakroom.
Conscious she didn’t have much time before the official ceremony to mark the 9/11 attacks began, she moved as quickly as she dared to unbuckle Tia and fasten her into the remaining stroller space. She needed her luck to hold a while longer and keep the triplets asleep. It was tough enough having to bring them to work any day, but on a day when she and the gang wanted to be in total silence six times, she’d need a miracle to keep the triplets quiet.
Solo locked the car and headed into the garage. Woody and RB were waiting at the foot of the stairs, and without a word, they helped her carry the stroller up to the breakroom. For the first time in too long, she smiled genuinely when she saw what the gang had done.
In the corner of the room, a large walk-in tent had been erected, and the door flaps were tied back, revealing three cots lined up along the wall. Each of them had a color-coded mobile: orange for Tia, green for Luna, and purple for Chloe. In front of the tent was a giant playpen containing all sorts of age-appropriate toys in the girls’ colors. Solo looked above it to see a camera trained on the area and another one just inside the tent.
There would never have been a good time for her wife to have walked out, but at least she’d waited until Solo was surrounded by her friends again, and she could rely on them to help her pick up the pieces. Her smile was quickly followed by a burning sensation at the back of her eyes, and she looked up at the ceiling, willing her imminent tears to fuck right off. God, she’d gone soft. What would Gabe and the others think if she started spurting happy tears just because they’d done something nice?
Solo looked at it again. It was a damn sight more thansomething nice. It was spectacular. Honestly, she hadn’t thought it through, beyond the inflatable playpen she’d shoved into the trunk. And their food. And nappies. And wipes. And a few toys… Maybe she’d been more organized than she’d given herself credit for, but still, this looked more permanent and less of an imposition. And they’d obviously all been working on it since she’d texted Gabe yesterday afternoon to tell her Janie had left and she’d have to bring the babies into work.
“You like it?” Shay slapped Solo on the back.
Solo swallowed hard and turned to face her. “I love it. Thanks, everyone.”
There was a chorus of dismissive noises and hand gestures, making her glad she’d ushered her tears away. RB and Woody would’ve ribbed her for life if she’d shed so much as one drop of salty liquid onto RB’s custom-made flooring.
Shay nudged her shoulder and pointed to Tia. “Gabe says the orange one is the little human we should all suck up to. Is that right?”
“Tia.” Solo nodded. “If you want a quiet life, yeah.”
“And the one in green is like a little Buddha?”
Solo chuckled at the characterization. “I hadn’t thought of Luna like that before, but I guess that’s a perfect way to describe her. She’s kind of oblivious to Tia’s powerplays and Zens out when Chloe is having a crying fit.”
