That was the system.
I currently had our son, Theo, tucked against my side, making the rounds for their six month birthday. We’d finally decided that it was time to let the community come and meet them all at once, having a makeshift holiday party at Rick’s Bar during closed hours. We’d dressed up the bar like it was just a restaurant, or at least we’d done our best.
Still, I had to admit that yes, we were having our babies’ first big party in a bar.
But that felt kind of perfect, given this was where everything had started.
Theo yawned against my chest, completely unbothered whenever he was glued to me. If he wasn’t skin to skin, it was a different story…but as it was, he was happy. Meanwhile, his sister Annie had come out loud and needing to windmill her arms and legs everywhere at all times. That was what she was doing at the moment, smacking my brother Lucas in the face as he took Annie from Delia.
“She is…wow,” Lucas said, walking over to me. “Six months feels a little crazy for this level of strength, right?”
I laughed. Delia was right on his heels, shaking her head. “She’s gonna be a bodybuilder and beat up all the boys,” Delia said, then reached out to hold Annie’s little hand. “Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”
Annie grabbed Delia’s finger and held on.
“See,” Delia said. “She agrees.”
“She’d agree with anything right now,” Lucas said. “She’s a baby.”
“She’s a baby with opinions,” Delia corrected. “Very different.”
Lucas looked at me over Annie’s head with the expression he’d been wearing since he arrived this morning—slightly overwhelmed, deeply pleased, trying not to show either. He’d held Theo for approximately thirty seconds before getting suspiciously misty and handing him back and pretending he hadn’t.
He was eighteen and thought he was very tough.
He was not very tough.
“She looks like you,” he said to me.
“Nash thinks she looks like him.”
“It’s okay for Nash to be wrong,” Delia said. “She absolutely takes after you. They both do. And lucky for them, because you’re so much prettier.”
Nash appeared at my shoulder, kissing my cheek, and Delia winked at me. “Why do I feel like you’re out here slandering my name?” he asked. “And in my own bar?”
“Speaking of which, who has a baby party in a bar?” Delia asked. “Bad influences, every last one of you.”
“You’re one to talk,” I laughed.
“What is it I said to you once upon a time?” she asked. “People in glass classrooms shouldn’t throw stones…?”
I blushed hard. Nash cleared his throat.
Lucas looked confused, and I didn’t intend on explaining even a little bit of what Delia was saying.
“Anyway,” I said loudly. “Nash, Dave wanted to hold Annie.”
Nash looked across the bar to where Dave Prentice was on his stool, nursing his usual, watching the room with that quiet satisfaction that meant he was exactly where he wanted to be.
“He ask you or just look at her until you felt guilty?” Nash said.
“The second one,” I said.
Nash took Annie from Lucas and headed across the bar. I watched him go. Watched Dave’s face when Nash settled Annie into his arms. The old man looked down at her with an expression I wasn’t supposed to see, and then Annie grabbed his finger the same way she’d grabbed Delia’s. Dave…who I’d only learned recently had been Nash’s dad’s best friend. The one guy who ever called Nash’s dadRick, this bar’s namesake.
This was perfect. It was everything.
It was my life.
