"Mama, where's daddy at?" Alex asked me a week later. Mike has been gone even more lately. I picked up a blue crayon and started to color Blue's Clues in with my little princess.

"I don't know baby. I think he's with your Tios."

"My Tios! Mama, I wanna see me Tios!" She started screaming and yelling up and down. Victor started crying from his play pen that was in the living room with us. Great. I jumped up and picked Victor up, holding him in my arms and swooshing him around, trying to get him to calm down.

"Okay Alex, I will call them and see what the next day they can come over." My little two year old started screaming and running around giggling. I swear, she is actually blood related to Jaime sometimes. I don't know where she gets all of her energy from. Victor is still crying and I'm starting to sing to him Skinny Love by Bon Iver (the song usually make him fall asleep because he remembers me singing it when I was pregnant with him), when I heard a knock on the front door. Great just my luck. A two year old running around screaming like a chicken with it's head cut off and a 4 month old who won't stop crying. "Alex, stop screaming." I tried to plead with the child. She ignored me of course. I opened the front door and almost cried when I saw who it was. Standing there was my best friend.

"Give me that child." Austin Carlile demanded. I smiled and handed him Victor. Vic stopped crying immediately after that. I playfully glared at him.

'You've always had the magic touch with my children. I made them scream bloody murder and you make them sleep forever."

"UNCLE AUSTIN!" I heard Alexandria scream like a banshee and she ran into Austin's tall legs.

"Well hello Ms. Alex."

---

I'm sitting on the couch in the living room waiting for Austin to come back downstairs from putting my children down for their nap. He really does have a magic touch with my children. He came downstairs and plopped down onto the couch next to me, putting his arm around me and pulled me into him. I snuggled up next to him and inhaled his scent. He smelled like my Austin. I've missed him so much. I haven't seen him in like 2 months. He just came back from a tour.

"So, tell me, how are you and Mike doing."

"We um, we barely talk anymore. He's never home." I whispered and looked at my lap. He turned to look fully at me.

"What? You guys don't even talk?"

"Nope. He's never home. He tells me that he's going into the studio to work on the album, but I get told by the boys that they have a day off or that they only went in for a couple of hours, and he'll be gone all day." I started to cry. He started to rub my shoulders, trying to calm me down.

"Wait. How long has it been since you and Mike slept together?" I started counting on my fingers.

"Well, let's see. Vic is 4 months old, so 8 or 9 months now." I was actually sobbing now that I actually admitted out loud how long it's been.

"Oh my god. Why aren't you guys having sex?"

"I don't know. Every time I try, he pushes me away and tells me that he's not in the mood. I'm scared that he's gotten bored of me, or that I'm not sexy anymore or that he's cheating on me." Austin grabbed my face in his hands.

"Trinity, you are plenty sexy. Oh my god, you are stunning. The fact that you are a mother, a good one at that, just makes you that much hotter to me. Mike is such a lucky guy to have you, he just doesn't know it yet." I don't know if it's because of what he said, because I was attracted to him or the fact that no one has treated me like this in a long time, but something made me start to lean in closer to Austin's face. He was about to kiss me when the front door opened. I jumped up and found Mike walking through the doorway. He saw me and smiled. Then he glanced over to the couch and saw Austin.

"Hey man." He greeted Austin.

"Oh hey Mike." Austin breathed out, probably happy that Mike didn't just see our almost kiss. "Well I should probably head out." Austin told me, standing up. He kissed the side of my head and left. It was then just my husband and I.

"Hi." He said, rubbing his neck awkwardly.

"Hello." I said back and started to head into the kitchen. I grabbed a bag of popcorn and put it in the microwave. When I turned around, Mike was leaning against the door frame smiling at me. "What?" I asked him.

"What? I can't just smile and admire my beautiful wife?" He asked me.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because you have the opportunity to do it all the time, but you chose to go out instead." He sighed and came up to me, holding my hips in his tattooed hands.

"I know baby. I'm so sorry about all of that. What do you say we have one of the guys come pick the kids up and have them spend the night at their house, and I will take you out on a date. Does that sound nice?" He asked me. I got on my tip toes and kissed my husband deeply.

"Okay." I smiled and said after we pulled away.

Notes