"Sorry, kiddo, you're out of luck," Ezra said as she slid into the third row.
"It was worth a shot," she commented with a sigh.
"Nice try. If I didn't know better I'd say you're mine," Apollo said as he got in behind Corvin.
"Well, she is now," I reminded him gently.
"I...that's not what I meant," he backpedaled quickly, looking horrified. He’d never say anything to hurt her feelings.
I watched in the rearview mirror as Phoenix placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm proud that you are one of my fathers."
Apollo beamed at that and my heart was happy that we were starting to act like a real family. Not the scared one we started as, with everything happening so fast.
We were in and out of the diner in minutes, and I was happily drinking my milkshake as we rolled back into Willow Lake.
"Are we there yet?" Phoenix asked for the millionth time.
I was trying not to get irritated but she was about to push me over the edge when the house came into view.
"Yes, we’re here," I said. Of course, she was already unbuckling, earning protests from Corvin.
She barely waited for him to stop before she was pushing the door open.
"Why don't you go call Uncle Holt now? I don't think you'll survive through lunch," I told her once her feet were on the ground.
"You're the best!" she shrieked and ran off ahead of us.
Apollo held out a hand for me as the other two carried in the food. "That was sweet of you, I thought you were going to torture her longer."
"I thought about it but the excitement on her face wore me down. I hope she doesn't forget that once the baby is here and crying," I explained.
"She will, but it'll pass and she'll be annoyed about something new," he said as he guided me through the threshold and there was a scream from Phoenix's room. “She’s a teenager.”
"I think she's happy with what the baby is," Ezra said as they started to unpack lunch and pulled out plates.
"That's what I'm going with," Apollo said as he separated out the food.
"Sit and we’ll serve you," Corvin offered with a smile.
"Spoil me too much and you might regret it," I sang out, but secretly I loved how sweet they were to me.
"Never," the three of them said at the same time. They meant it, too.
When I walked out of work at the end of the day, I didn’t expect to find Corvin and Ezra waiting for me. Usually, only one of them came for me, the others sticking closer to work until dinner-time.
“Oh, what’s this about?” I teased as I walked towards them.
“It’s date night.” Ezra said. That was when I noticed they had dressed up a little. Ezra was wearing dress pants and a green, short-sleeve button up. Corvin was in all black, and they were both equally as delicious.
“I’m not dressed up,” I started to protest.
“You’re perfect, and if you’re not happy with it, you can change at the hotel,” he said with a grin.
“‘The hotel?’” I questioned, confused now. “We can’t, we have Phoenix and what about Apollo?”
“He’s staying behind with Phoenix,” Ezra said. “She said something about having a secret phone call with Holt tonight, and this date isn’t really Apollo’s style, so he offered to watch her for us.”
“But I didn’t pack anything.” I tried to protest again, but they weren’t having that.
