"Then he can be my friend," the younger boy decided.
"I saw him first," the girl told him again.
"Don't fight. We don't even know his name," the older boy told the other two.
"I'm Danny," he told them. Surprisingly, he didn't seem too intimidated by them or their noisy arguing.
In the meantime, the guy named Wyatt introduced himself and his husband, Sam, and Rob realized they were the guys who got married on the hill. They confirmed it when they thanked Julian for letting them get married up there after he introduced himself and Rob.
Then Wyatt gave the names of the kids from youngest to oldest. Sammy McEvers was the little blond girl. Riley Hayes was the blond boy with brown eyes and his older brother was DJ Hayes.
"He's Sam. I'm Sammy," the little girl told them and pointed at Sam and herself to make sure there was no confusion.
"And your name is McEvers. Like Mitch McEvers?" Rob said.
"That's my dad. Do you know my dad?" Sammy wanted to know.
"We do. We just saw him this morning," Julian told her.
"We're waiting for him and Rico for a group excursion to Ashbury," Wyatt told them.
"They should be here soon," Julian said.
In the meantime, the kids were getting acquainted. "That's a good hat," Riley told Danny and all the other kids agreed.
That made Danny smile shyly. "Julian got it for me."
"Who's he?" the kids wanted to know, though he had just been introduced.
Danny pointed him out. "Him. He's my big brother."
"That's just like you," Riley said to his own big brother, DJ, then he looked from him to Julian like he was comparing them. Finally Riley came out with his verdict. "He's bigger."
"That's because he's a grown-up big brother," DJ huffed.
Riley got thoughtful like he was trying to decide if that was a good enough excuse. Then he turned to Julian again. "But you don't have the good ears like him," Riley said to Julian while pointing at Danny.
Danny touched his ears and looked from side to side like he was trying to catch sight of them.
"Those are good ears," Sammy agreed. "Like a teddy bear."
All the kids were now looking at his ears appreciatively. It seemed like Danny, his hat and his ears were a big hit. When Mitch and his fiancé came to join them, Rico noticed the same thing.
"Look how many friends you made, little dude. Good job," Rico told him a little too loudly and tried to give him a hi-five, but Danny was too shy and ducked his head.
"Rico! Did you scare him?" Sammy asked kind of sternly, and now all the kids looked up at Rico with accusing faces.
"What? I did not," Rico said defensively and looked all around for support but got none.
Only Danny came to his defense. "He didn't scare me. I'm OK," he assured Sammy.
"OK," Sammy said and she looked up at Rico like she was willing to let him off the hook just this once.
"Thanks, man," Rico said to Danny. "I owe you one."
"We better get going," Sam said. "Thank you again for letting us get married in the orchard."
"We'll see you around. We can set up a play date with the kids," Wyatt said.
