145 - Backyard Bonfire

*You get used to the heat? Okay, maybe you will get used to the heat. But how the hell do you get used to the humidity? I feel like I’m fucking swimming in the damned air! I feel like I need a shower just from walking outside. - Aramis*

It was hot.

The kind of heat that just permeates everything. It makes your clothes stick to your skin. And you just feel dirty from the humidity and sweat causing the pollen and dirt  in the air to cling to you.

Camille and the Cajuns weren’t as bothered by the heat as the Saints were. The Renegades complained about the humidity. But they were okay with the heat.

But when Clay said that the short-term rental that he and Trevor had a large pool, a large group of the Saints headed that way. A few of the Cajuns and Renegades went also.

As the night wore on, the kids, tweens and teens were ushered to the hotel that Charlotte and Werewolf were staying at. Darkness and Camille’s own kids had gone there for a few hours. Vin had gone with Julio and some of their friends to a party. Nicki was bonding with her new Oma as they ran up the credit card bill online.

Mitch had made instant friends with some of his new cousins and the extended family of the club kids. He was currently upstairs with some of Charlotte and Claire’s kids upstairs playing Mario Kart.

Darkness had been roped into a game of pool with Trigg and Werewolf. Camille wished him luck and told her father and brother-in-law to be nice to her husband. As far as the rest of the Cajuns were concerned, they were fair game.

Camille sat outside with the three musketeers around the burning fire pit. The tiki torches were lit and kept the mosquitos away. A bag of large marshmallows was being passed between he three men. They took turns roasting them for Camille.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you with fire,” Athos grinned at her, offering her a toasted marshmallow at the end of a long telescoping fork, “but this sure is a nice house.”

She took the long metal fork with the flaming marshmallow on it and blew out the flames. “It is. Darkness helped with the remodel on it. I never saw it before, but it has a lot of features that I like.”

Athos laughed, “Cookie said that you were sending him and Kilo lots of pictures for when they build your house.”

Pulling the bunt crust off, she grinned at the friends, “Yeah, I graduate next year. Darkness has already said that he wants to move up there. We’re taking Vin up there next month so he can get settled before he goes to college.”

“He’s a good kid,” Porthos told her as his own marshmallow caught fire. “They all are.”

“They are,” she agreed, handing the fork to Athos. He dutifully accepted it and put a new marshmallow on the fork and holding it over the flame.

“Lucky to have you in their lives,” Porthos added softly. “Especially Mitch.”

Camille reached over and squeezed his hand. “I’m lucky to have them.”

He squeezed her hand back and leaned over to kiss her temple. “How do you like being a mom?”

Sitting back in her chair, she grabbed her beer and took a drink. “I like it, I get the kids and get to skip the dirty diapers.”

“The dirty diapers aren’t so bad,” Aramis grinned.

“Not at all,” Porthos agreed with a smile.

“Plus, your wife has nice tits, and they get bigger when she’s pregnant or nursing,” Athos told his friend.

Laughing, Aramis tapped the neck of his beer bottle against the one that Athos held, “That, she does.”

“Speaking of which,” Porthos smirked, “they looked a little big.”

“Yup,” he grinned proudly as he sipped his own beer.

“Something that you would like to tell the class?” Camille asked him.

“Nope,” there was a small flicker of sadness that crossed his face. “We learned not to say anything too early.”

They all knew where his mind went as he got that far off sad look on his face. Dakota was his daughter, even if he did not father her, she was his. And when she was a little over a year old, Meagan had gotten pregnant with his first biological child. In their excitement, they told everyone after the first home pregnancy test.

Less than two weeks later, she was in the hospital and the doctors and nurses were trying to keep her from losing the baby. The young family grieved the loss of the baby, and their friends were not surprised when a year later, they decided to try again. And now, whether they intended to try again, or if it happened naturally, it seemed that they were going to have another.

But they would not say anything yet, the grief of their loss would be present for a while. Underneath their joy, there would be a quiet river that would be equal parts sorrow and fear.

Aramis shook his head as if he were clearing his mind and cleared his throat before grinning at Camille, “I hear your boy got into MIT.”

Understanding that he wanted to change the subject, his friends complied. Camille nodded as she accepted the new flaming marshmallow.

“Yeah, he and Colton have become good friends over Mario Kart and football. They’ve requested to be dormmates. I think that Colton went to the party with him and Julio.”

“Shit,” Aramis chuckled, “that boy does not need to be walking with that swagger around these innocent girls.”

“He had Evie for history,” Athos pointed out, “he knows to wrap it.”

“So does Vin,” she chuckled as a memory ran through her mind. “I started putting boxes of condoms in his room and he was all like what am I supposed to do with these?”

“Use them!” her three friends chimed together.

“That’s what I told him, and he was wigging out,” she laughed and licked off the last of the melted marshmallow goo off her thumb. “The only thing that he had ever been told was to not have sex until he was married.”

“You want another one?” Porthos asked as she placed the sharp end of the fork in the fire to burn off the remaining goo.

“No,” she shook her head, “I eat any more of them and I’m going to make myself sick. Anyway, you want to guess the irony of Vin’s parents telling him not to have sex?”

“Please tell me he was ‘born early’,” Aramis chuckled as he watched her move her feet off the cooler.

“Oh, yeah,” she laughed and grabbed the package of hot dogs out of the cooler. “Like four or five months.”

“Sweet Jesus,” Porthos chuckled as the other two also laughed. Camille pulled open the plastic package of the hot dog wieners and grabbed the fork out of the fire with the wooden handle.

“Oh hell, no,” Athos said as he took the package away from her. “I’m not fishing hot dogs out of your trees.”