“What text?” As soon as the words flew out of their mouth, August already knew that Beau must have forgotten. It was annoying but understandable. There was a lot to keep track of when it was swim meet time. They started to try and get up just as Beau came over.

“Rest your knee. Today was toddler-time, right? And it was the teachers. They aren’t following the IEP again.”

August let out a slow breath, closing their eyes for a moment. “Of course. It's only a legally binding document the feds say everyone has to follow. How bad, girls?”

Raven seemed to think for a moment, her still wet shirt slowly soaking August’s own. “There was the rally and the fire alarm that went on forever, and there were people pickin’ on us again. Lots of stuff.”

Alexandra looked at her mom a moment before seeming to be satisfied. “I’m going to the game closet.”

“Twenty minutes, set the timer!”

Raven grinned. “I got it. ZOOMBOT! Twenty minute timer!” As Raven bounded away, her shouting ringing in August’s ear a tad, the smart device spoke up.

“Twenty minute timer set. Prepare for blast off.”

They sighed. August had won the thing in a contest and wasn’t sure about it. Honestly, at this point it was used for music and timers, but not much else. As the girls disappeared into their room, Beau put the cold soda in their hand.

“I am so sorry I forgot to tell you.”

“Let me guess, they wanted to talk to you, not me?”

“Well, you have the librarian super research mode on them. They know you’ll organize everything in a matter of minutes.” He gave her a little nervous smile.

When Beau and August had first started dating, they had joked about him being her knight coming to save them from the terrors of the world. In many ways they were saved by him, but when it came to the more confrontational stuff he didn’t do so well most of the time. It was fine; Beau was amazing in so many other ways. Including grabbing things just as she needed it. Before August could even pull out the laptop from her storage box next to the chair, Beau was already handing her the charge cord.

“Want me to sanity check the email?”

“Maybe. Forward me anything they sent you first and we will go from there.” She was hoping that the school would be reasonable and not start anything. It was a possibly vain hope, but one to be had for now.

By the time the homework timer went off, August was deep in the past emails. Double checking the paperwork, bringing up anything relevant from past emails and meetings. Including the promise that they wouldn’t force the girls into rallies anymore. “What's the friggin' point of legal documents if no one is gonna follow them?”

By the time she hit send, the girls were sitting around her feet, practicing their spelling words with flashcards, having listened to their mom’s mutterings while they worked. As she set down the laptop, Raven looked up at her beloved mother. “Mama, are you done being a drama llama?”

August blinked for a moment before speaking. “I . . . excuse me?”

“Raven! Nice words with your mother.”

“But that’s what Mrs. White calls the moms who fuss after her. I heard her say so.” Raven shifted a little.

August struggled to find her words. She wasn’t trying to be a karen but just get the teachers to follow the god damned paperwork.

Alexandra spoke up first. “Mom isn’t a drama llama. The IEP is supposed to help us.”

August nodded as another timer went off. The roast was ready. She could hear Beau getting it out for everyone. “That’s right. Your mom works hard to make sure the school doesn’t forget what they are supposed to do. And she does her best to make sure that everyone can do their part. Today that means getting on the teachers. Tomorrow it might mean making sure you do your homework.” August could hear the roast being set down. “Now, girls, set up the folding tables. I’m not making your mom walk to the table if her knee hurts.”

“Yessss, picnic night!” Raven hurried to get the tables while Alexandra looked to August a moment before going to the cabinet.

“I’m going to get the napkins.”

Moments like this, August wanted to cry. She had no idea what she did to get such sweet kids. A wonderful, kind husband. And here she was. Stuck in a chair. The only thing she got done was food in the oven and some dishes.

Once upon a time, she could have swept the floors and steamed them before everyone got home on top of that. No problem. She could have had nice candles set up at the table and gotten the table cloth out for them to eat on, instead of the folding tables and probably old fast food napkins. Moments like this she felt so grateful and so awful at the same time.

In no time at all, the folding tables were out, the brown paper napkins set down with the flatware on top. The blue china plates with monster patterns were set down with the roast, potatoes, vegetables, and one cookie. Beau smiled a bit, that cute sideways smile of his. “Some extras from Betty. She insisted.”

“I need to steal the recipe from her one day.” August smiled a little at that. Honestly, Beau had such good friends at the comic shop. There were some jerks of course, but then ones like that Betty. She seemed so friendly and sweet. One of these days, August wanted to go down and properly meet everyone. But that was Beau’s space, his place to be himself and not have to be ‘the husband’ or ‘the dad’. He deserved that much.

As she started eating, August looked to the love of her life. “So how did the writing go?”

“Well, the freelance work came in. My patron asked for another superhero fan fic using Mighty Might again. So another seventy-five bucks.” He seemed interested more in the roast than the payment. “One of these days I’m going to run out of ideas.”

Alexandra piped up. “We can help, Dad. Maybe Mighty Might goes online and starts doing the trends on social media.”

“Yeah! If we help, then Daddy can finish the novel and send it to Mister Jon for editing,” Raven chimed in before anyone could say anything else, and now the twins were in their own world trying to come up with all the stories they could think of.

It was always amazing to August how Beau just so effortlessly encouraged the girl’s creativity like that. She gently put her hand on his leg for a moment. “Don’t rush on the novel. I know you’ll get it done when it’s ready to be done.”

That was all she could do for this. While they wrote together for fun, the novel was the one project he wanted to do himself. His dream. And while August couldn’t do much, she could encourage that at least. Sometimes be his beta reader as well. Sadly, Beau couldn’t get away to write on his own unless they were at work or asleep. He couldn’t get the privacy he needed to think.

Now that was a thought.

Maybe the first bit of romantic gift giving August could do was create that space. All it would take would be some PVC pipe, calk, and some creative decorating. It wouldn’t cost much at all. And there were all those old con shirts and college shirts. She quietly ate her dinner, smiling as she looked at the girls. With their help, August could even get Beau out of the house for a few hours.

She almost missed the girls trying to get her attention. “Sorry, girls, what was that?”

“I said our swim meet is Saturday. You can come, right? You promised.”

“Don’t worry. I will be there with bells on.”

Raven made a face. “Mama, noooo, that’d be so loud. You should wear that soft shirt you like instead.”

August couldn’t help but laugh. “All right, I’ll do that instead. Maybe I should have you both pick out my clothes from now on so I don’t make silly mistakes like that.”

As they all finished their food, the conversation slowly shifted to what the girls were learning. New books that were coming into the library. Who was doing the best on the swim team. And even some requests for halloween costumes, because it was only four weeks away.

“And, Mom, you can be the princess and Daddy the knight. Like when you weren’t old.”

Beau spoke up at that. “And who would you two be?”

“The dragons you hatched and kept safe, duh!”

August chuckled. “Oh yes, of course. We can’t be without our amazing dragons.”