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I want to be the best auntie to my niece, Chloe. And I know Brock wants to be a great uncle. He didn’t wait for me to give him the nudge to order onesies this time around. When the package arrived in the mail, I took one look and dissolved into giggles, then read the print aloud. “‘Cool like my Uncle Brock.’ Seriously? You are so cocky.”
He feigned innocence. “Who, me? I didn’t order those.”
I snuggled up to him on the couch, and he put down his phone. “Yes, baby, you did. Admit it.”
“Fine. Guilty as charged. And I’ll be guilty of more than that if you come a little closer.”
He wrestled me onto the couch.
Not that I minded.
Being pinned under Brock Benson is a divine feeling—one I’ll never tire of. When we wrestle, I let him win every time.
Chloe gives another soft cry.
In the kitchen, the sizzling sound is punctuated by a cork popping out of a bottle. Then Sawyer saunters out, a dishrag over his shoulder. He’s wearing an apron and carrying a bottle of champagne in one hand and a stack of Dixie cups in the other.
“Sorry we don’t have better glasses,” he says in that soft way of his as he sets the cups down. “We grabbed a bottle of bubbly to celebrate your new pack member. Man, she sure is cute.”
“She peed on your floor,” Brock admits with a chuckle.
Sawyer laughs, too. “Puppies and kids, man. They’re messy, but they sure are fun.” He opens his arms to Kate and she sets Chloe into his embrace.
“Speaking of kids,” Kate says, “I think we’ll only need three glasses for the bubbly.”
“Three?” Sawyer sways side to side, and Chloe settles down. “Why’s that, babe?”
Kate shoots me a sly look. “Gwen is so bad at hiding things.”
Brock settles onto the couch with me. When he wraps his arms around my shoulders, it’s heavenly. “Maybe we have something to tell you guys. But I think Gwen should be the one to say it, if she wants to.”
“Eek!” Kate’s eyes fly wide. “I knew it! Wait, I’m going to go grab a seltzer for you, Gwen. You have to be in on the cheers when it happens.”
I laugh because life with the Bensons always moves fast like this. Brock chuckles, too. “I didn’t think we’d get it past her… But it’s up to you.”
I snuggle in closer to him. Rosie climbs out of my arms and into his lap.
In moments like this lately, I think about the Queen’s Room, up at the castle. I think about the room service attendant who delivered my breakfast.
I’ll always remember what she said to me that morning about how she could only look at one thing at a time when she wandered the castle.
I didn’t get what she meant at the time. But these days, I get it.
My life is so full.
There are some big, flashy things. Grand things. I don’t push them away anymore, because I don’t need to. They’re part of the bigger tapestry in my life, just like all the rest. I’m grateful to live in Brock’s house. Grateful for my new car, the beach house, the pool…
But more than that, I’m grateful for the little things.
And it helps to only focus on one beautiful thing at a time so I don’t get overwhelmed.
Right now, I feel Brock’s arm, strong and sure, around my shoulders.
Sawyer hums a soft lullaby to the baby in his arms.
The futon is secondhand, worn-out, and so comfortable beneath me. Fajita spices waft out of the kitchen and linger in the air.
These people are my family, and beyond these walls, I have more family, too. Brock’s mom and stepdad are wonderful, and I like his dad and stepmom, too.
