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Jace and I take a seat beside them and get comfortable.
“You guys look good,” Rae comments. “It’s nice to see you … normal.”
In those first months after we lost Beckett, I wasn’t present. I mean, I was here but I wasn’t here. Not in the mental sense. I don’t even remember seeing my friends, but I did, and from what I’ve come to learn, my behavior scared them.
I shut down. I didn’t want to live, and that was wrong of me. Beckett is gone, but I’m not, and I need to live my life fully and happy because he can’t. Shutting everyone away, hiding, losing my mind, all of it is an insult to his memory.
“Thanks,” I reply. “I’m getting there.”
I still have moments where the sadness feels like it’s going to suffocate me, but it doesn’t last.
Jace grabs my hand, entwining his fingers through mine. I look up at him, and he looks at me with such love in his eyes. I hate I ever doubted we could get through this together.
“I can’t believe Xander and Thea are going to have two kids,” Cade changes the subject, shaking his head.
Jace laughs. “I can’t either, and two girls at that. They’re going to have their hands full.”
“That’s for sure,” Rae pipes in. “At least they’re cute.”
“I think it’s good they’ll be close in age,” I add. “They’ll have a built-in play partner.”
At the clearing of a throat, we all look up and find Xander. “She’s here. Would you like to meet her?”
We don’t answer with words; we stand, and it’s answer enough.
We follow Xander down the hallway and to the room. It’s probably too many people to be in the room, but when have rules ever stopped us before?
Thea sits up in the bed, looking entirely too good to have just given birth. Her hair falls around her shoulders in soft curls, and her makeup has hardly budged. In her arms is a little pink bundle with a smattering of dark hair peeking out of the hat.
“That was a quick labor,” I tell her. “You’re amazing.”
She laughs. “No, not at all. I started having contractions last night and ignored them, so by the time my water broke in the store and we got here, it was almost time. I was too late for an epidural again.”
“So,” Cade starts, “what’s the kid’s name?”
Xander moves up beside Thea and kisses the side of her forehead. “Meet Xoey Tate Kincaid.”
“Xael, Xoey,” Cade sing-songs, “what’s next?”
“Nope. No. Not happening. No more,” Thea says adamantly.
Xander looks at us with a smirk and mouths, “She’ll change her mind.”
“Can I hold her?” I ask.
Thea looks at me tenderly and nods. “Of course.”
I step forward and gently take the baby from her. She’s small, her face scrunched up and her eyes swollen, but she’s perfect. A total doll.
“Seriously, though,” Cade breaks in with a serious tone, “when did we get old enough to be having kids?”
Thea glares at him. “You’re almost thirty. You’ve been old enough for a while. Get to work.”
He laughs and shakes his head, wrapping his arm around Rae’s waist. “What do you say, Sunshine? You ready to get to work yet?”
“Maybe,” she replies.
“Maybe,” he repeats. “I’ll take it.”
