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“When do you think the new place will be ready?” Paige asked. While everyone else was downing margaritas, she was sipping lemonade.
“We wouldn’t be able to start until late spring,” Daniel said.
“Late spring will be good,” she said, smiling.
“Why late spring?” Will asked.
Harper was grinning as she elbowed him. “You’d better call your mother over here. I think there’s an announcement coming.”
Noah and Jorge got there first, then Jeremy. Bob and Susan came with Francine, who rolled her walker up the ramp Matt had installed for her, and Charlie helped her into a comfortable, cushioned chair at the table.
“So what were you all plotting?” Susan asked.
Daniel gave her a who, us? look.
“It was so obvious, honey.” She grinned fondly at them all. “It always is.”
“Okay, since you have eyes on all sides of your head,” he joked, “we mig
ht as well fess up that we’d like to buy the house next door to you guys and turn it into a guest house for all of us. We’re starting to need a lot more room for our family get-togethers.”
“This family is certainly multiplying.” Susan looked at Gideon, then Rosie and Jorge, who had climbed onto Rosie’s lap. Susan’s smile was loving, welcoming, totally inclusive. “The bigger the better.”
It was the perfect moment for Evan to pull Paige back against him and lay his hand over her belly. “We definitely agree.”
Susan covered her mouth. “Oh my goodness. Are you—”
Paige nodded. “We are!”
Susan jumped up to hug Paige close, tears in their eyes.
“What’s going on?” Jeremy asked in a big outdoor voice.
“Paige is going to have a baby,” Harper told him.
“Oh wow.” His eyes grew as big as dinner plates. “That’s awesome.”
Gideon reached out to take Rosie’s hand in his, raising it to brush his lips over her knuckles.
They were a family already, him and Rosie and Jorge.
But they were also Mavericks.
And it could never hurt to add a few more.
* * *
Lyssa was thrilled for Paige and Evan. It had taken them so long to find each other and admit how much they loved one another, even though they’d first met in college. They deserved all the happiness in the world.
It was amazing to think that two years ago, there’d only been her, her brothers, and her parents. Now they were about to have the first Maverick baby since Noah was born six and a half years ago. She’d actually thought Ari would be the first. But nope, it was Paige.
The baby news made Lyssa ache to move closer to everyone. She loved being near her parents in Chicago. But the guys were all out here. And her extended family was all here too.
Rather than buy another Chicago house and extend it, she thought they should move Mom and Dad to California and out of the snow. Last winter had been grueling, cold and long, even if it had given Will and Harper a white wedding.
And if her parents were out here, there would be no reason for Lyssa to stay in Chicago. Especially not in a job she didn’t like. She’d given it a year. Wasn’t that long enough?
“We’ve got more good news,” Evan said with an away-we-go flourish of his hand in Gideon’s direction.
