Bollixed

"Okay," Angus laughed. "She'll get lots of practice here with this bunch. This time of year, the pool is pretty much a daily thing."


One thing about it, the pool was always good family fun when the kids were in the pool, even if Brian was a taskmaster about the staff being in top physical form.  Swimming was a requirement in Brian's book, just like running, and that was followed by strength training.  Those were the top three that Brian insisted on. When the kids weren't around, the pool could be work.

Angus was a good swimmer, though, and he believed part of it came from living on the Italian coast for so many years. He chose the deep end of the pool to get in, took a dive off the diving board, and came up hearing the kids shouting. They seemed upset.


He brushed the water from his face and then saw what they were on about. They were shouting at Abbey.  There was a labrador in the deep end of the pool with him--only a few inches from him. The kids knew they weren't allowed in the deep end of the pool, but the labrador puppy didn't seem to care. Water was water. 

"Abs," he laughed. "Fur or not, you can't be in the deep end of the pool. Come on. You've gotta go back to the kids." Angus understood this was tough for the labrador in her to follow her human daddy's rules. But rules were rules.


He swam to where everyone else was, making sure Abbey was with him. Someone tossed a beach ball into the pool.  The kids understood that game. It was a swimming game to teach them endurance.  

"Rose," Angus called. "Go play ball with the other kids. It's fun!"


He went over to Belle. "She'll enjoy the game, for as long as it lasts. Abbey gets the labrador from her biol dad. He's an animagus or something. She's already going all labrador when she gets around water. The game will last until Abbey wants to play. She always bites the ball, and, well, there goes the ball. We lose more beach balls that way."

Bella watched the kids swimming then was distracted by Angus when he dove into the water. Shaking her head slightly before returning her attention to Rose. Rose was giggling as she began to really enjoy swimming with the other kids. She stuck manly next to Julia but would sometimes swim to the edge before swimming back. She smiled at the way Rose was becoming more confident with her swimming.

Her attention was then on the puppy as it swam towards Angus. She saw the kids getting upset and swam over to them to try and help calm them down. "It's ok Angus has her." She said comforting towards them as she looked over at Angus. She saw that the labrador was following him and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh-tay." Rose said as she swam after the ball excitedly as she played with the children.

Bella watched Angus swim over to her and she smiled at him. "I was wondering where she was, she's adorable as a puppy as she is in human form." Seeing the ball deflate made her laugh softly. "Well that must be interesting whenever she's playing as a puppy. Well maybe there's a way to protect them from popping. That way you don't go thorough as many." She glanced over at him with a grin then kissed his lips softly. She turned back to the kids grinning at her daughter's enthusiasm as she swam.

She glanced at Angus out of the corner of her eye then smiled, "Thank you. I'm really glad that I met you Angus." She said with genuine affection in her words. "I'm also very grateful that you've protected my daughter and me."

"What's interesting, I think," Angus said, when Bella said Abbey was interesting as a puppy, "is that the kids treat her exactly the same regardless of form.  I guess its not so typical to grow up with someone who shapeshifts, but these kids just don't even seem to care much. She's still Abbey to them, regardless of form. Its also getting interesting watching them figure out that with that many brothers and sisters, they're not going to get away with much of anything because there's always someone to tell on them."


"Enjoy it now," Kate said, getting another beach ball to put in the pool. "The day will come when they figure out they can band together and get away with a lot."


He smiled when she kissed him. "I'm glad I met you too. And I'm certainly glad you're not around those creepy landlords of yours anymore...." He was interrupted by a splash that, for some reason, sounded a little off, just a little odd. He turned to see that Julia had slipped in the pool and was under the water. She could swim, but now she was rattled.  
She was still only a couple steps away from him. He took two steps and simply reached down and pulled her up. She started coughing and sputtering. He was braced for the crying to start, and it started quickly. He picked her up and held her, comforting her.  He paid no attention to the fact that she had wrapped one arm around his neck and with the other hand had grabbed a big fistful of his hair. That was exactly why there were so many adults when there were so many kids in the water.


"Thank you," Brian told him, relieved, too far away to be much help. "You need your hair back?" Brian was offering to release her fist from his hair.

"Nah. It needed cut anyway," he joked, knowing she wasn't going to be able to rip it out anyway. He looked at Bella. "I'll be right back. The next thing that's going to happen is she's going to get ticked about slipping in the pool. I'm going to try to head that off."  


He walked up the steps of the pool and took Julia over to a big plastic bucket of sidewalk chalk.  He set her down on the cement and put the sidewalk chalk in front of her. "Here," he told Julia. "Would you like to color?" She nodded, sniffling. "Okay," he said. "You color, and when we go inside, I bet there are some fresh cookies." He watched her pick up a piece of purple chalk, and feeling satisfied she was better for the moment, he went back to the pool.


"Back up plans can be a good thing," he smiled at Bella.

"Well that's good that they don't treat her differently when she's in a different form." Bella said as she watched the kids interacting with each other. "True there will always be someone to tell on other."

"Yeah them banding together to get away with stuff will be interesting." She said agreeing with Kate remembering what her friends did with their siblings. "I know my friends did the same thing with each other. They also banded to together sometimes when someone was picking on one of them."

Her heart stopped when she saw that Julia was under the water. She saw Angus pull her out but she still was looking at Julia. When Angus began comforting her after pulling her up, she began to relax slightly. She saw how he was with the children and couldn't help how her melted for him. She knew that she was slowly falling for him, he was a natural protector for everyone who needed him. She turned her attention back to the other children making sure she did a head count. She counted all of them and relaxed a little more.

She nodded when Angus said he'd be right back and smiled softly at him. The beach ball stopped in front of her and she tossed it back towards the kids with a smile. Rose swam over to her asking to be picked up and have cuddles. She picked her up cuddling her close while still watching the other children.

"Mommy can I go play with Julia?" Rose asked looking towards her friend who was playing with chalk.

"Of course baby girl," She said as she went to the side of the pool then set her daughter down to go walk to Julia. "Don't run and make sure you stay away from the edge of the pool." Seeing Rose nod as she walked towards Julia then sitting down to play with the chalk.

Turning back towards the kids as she moved closer just in case. Hearing Angus' words she smiled and looked at him. "Yeah back up plans can be a good thing." She said before looking back at the kids. She was glad that he suggested moving into the cottage on the property.

He looked at her and caught a glimpse that said to him that she thought he'd done something special.


"What?" he laughed. "I grew up around a whole compound of kids. And, I've been captaining the ships in my family's fishing business and yacht charters for a long time. You'd be surprised at the number of people that take a yacht out and couldn't float if their lives depended on it. Trust me, there's no amount of money worth that sort of insanity.


"So these kids? They're easy. Brian had them all in the pool just before they were six months. Rose'll get her strength in the water built up in no time. Swimming happens several times a week--out here in this pool in good weather, and, in bad weather, they're in the pool in the basement. 


"When the kids are done in the pool, I'll put lunch together. Fish sandwiches and fries for the kids, and cioppino for the grownups, with some fresh crostinis from the sourdough bread I made this morning, maybe with a caesar salad. 


"After lunch, while the kids are napping, I'll put in a batch of cookies to bake. The dough is already made up. I just need to bake them off. Then I'm putting on a chicken stew for dinner tonight so it can slow cook during the afternoon. And, if I have enough time, I'll use up some of the shipment of strawberries I got in by making a couple of strawberry pies for dessert. Unless you want to give me a hand in the kitchen while the kids are napping. We might get it all knocked out a lot sooner if we work together."

Bella blushed realizing she had been caught ogling him. She shook her head and said, "Nothing I just like seeing that side of you." She laughed when he talked about captaining a ship and being around kids a lot. "Sounds like you had more fun than I did growing up. Though I was able to knit, crochet, and sew faster than my mother now. Well depends on the fabric with sewing though may take me longer on some parts of it. Maybe you can teach me to captain a ship one day," She said on a grin before tossing the beach ball back towards the kids when it came close to her.

"Wow, that's amazing." She said looking at the children playing in the water. "Yeah she's been around water but not a lot. France's weather was sort of up and down a few times and there wasn't an indoor pool where we lived." She thought about the time they spent there but shook it off. She didn't want to think about those times, she wanted to be in the present.

"Sounds great," Bella said as looked over at Julia and Rose grinning. "Sounds like fun, are you gonna show me some tricks in the kitchen? Food wise?" She looked over at him with a smirk on her face. She couldn't help herself when it came to him and for that she was glad for. "Sorry," She said as she went a bright red simply because she couldn't help herself.

"Well, you saw the compound when we were in Tuscany. That's where I grew up.  All my immediate and extended family all were in the same place. We all had our own apartments, but then we were connected by the verandas and covered walkways and such. We grew up being one very large family. 


"And, living by the sea, my brothers and I started with a little row boat when we were boys. We'd go out fishing. I don't know why my family didn't worry, but they just didn't. And, over the years, the boats just got bigger.


"We truly lived an Italian lifestyle. It was all about simple things. Family. Good food made from really simple, fresh ingredients fixed really well, and the cooking was all about everyone in the kitchen. I don't regret a bit of my childhood. I really don't. I always said that if I had kids of my own I wanted them to know its not about how much stuff you have or how much money you make. Its about the people you love and who love you. Nothing else really matters."


He listened to her talk about how much time they'd not gotten to do much of the things she wanted to do.


"Bella, just so you know. As long as you're here, you're part of a family. I know you want to be independent and self sufficient. But, honestly, I've been working a long time and I get paid very, very well to take the chances that I do.  Frankly, its all just sort of racked up in my account--not that its a bad thing. But--I guess what I'm saying is that as long as we're..well, together... or whatever we are..." he laughed a bit because so much had happened so quickly that day for them, "you don't need to work that hard to make things happen for you.  Work when you want, do what you want. If you don't want to work full time, then don't.  I can certainly keep it covered."


He kissed her and said quietly in her ear so that no one else could hear. "There are a lot of things I can keep covered. And then there are other things I really don't want covered at all." 


"Tricks?" he grinned. "I know all sorts of tricks." Then she added 'food wise,' 'kitchen tricks.'  "Oh. Those sorts of tricks. Yeah, I know a few of those too."

"Yes I remember it was amazing being there and I really loved it. I loved that everyone was so close, that they talked all the time. That's what I've always wanted with family, to have them around a lot and just be with them." Bella said looking over towards the kids, her mind drifted to having another kid or two. Shaking her head trying to clear it she tried to keep her focus on the children and not in the clouds. "I'm teaching Rose the same thing," She looked over at Rose watching her for a moment. "I'm also teaching her that family isn't always blood. Family is who you want in your life and those that want you in theirs."

She looked at him when he told her she was a part of a family there. She looked at him and wondered to herself where he was all her life. She kissed his lips softly and said, "I'm yours for however long you'll have me." She looked up at him with a smile before turning her attention to the children.

Her face went red at his words and wanted so badly to do something back. She tried so hard not to blush at the last of his words but she failed. She then leaned over and whispered, "Well there certain parts of you that I would love uncovered. Then there are parts that would be very fun to touch. Last night was definitely lots of fun and I'm looking forward to more." Pulling back she winked at him and mouthed 'I've got tricks too.' before she dove through the water with a big smirk on her face. She didn't know how he was going to react to her words but she definitely was looking forward to seeing what he'd do.

Coming back up for air she found that she was on the other side of the kids. She wiped the water from her eyes and looked around to see if she could find Angus on the other side. She wanted it so badly for it to be night fall so she could spend some alone time with him again.