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Epilogue
Cash
Ten Months Later
Holding my son in my left arm football style I carried a bowl of popcorn with my right hand. I set it down in front of Marigold, Lincoln, and Willie, who were all on the sectional. Hands immediately were digging in and scooping it into their mouths. They were watching a Disney movie.
“Ava, there’s popcorn,” I said. Given my stepdaughter was on her back sideways on a club chair, feet dangling over one arm and her phone raised above her face, I doubted she’d even noticed me set down the bowl.
“K,” was her response.
“So what do you want to play, Johnny?” Miles asked him, having just set up an old-school gaming station in our family room for him. Well, them.
Toni and Miles spent a decent amount of time at our house these days given the lack of space in theirs. They kept talking about moving out of Miles’s condo but never seemed to get around to it. Instead, they wound up here a lot, which I didn’t object to. I loved having family around me.
Johnny murmured something I didn’t catch and moved in closer to inspect all the games Miles had brought.
“How’s it going, Chad?” I asked Helena’s husband, sitting down at the end of the sectional near the chair he was in. I adjusted the baby, who was sleeping peacefully.
The tininess of our baby in my big hands would never cease to amaze me and I could do nothing but sit and stare at his little face all day long.
“I love these sister wine nights,” Chad said, sipping a beer. “I can guarantee I’m getting some you-know-what tonight.” He grinned. “You know what I mean, right? I just don’t want to say it in front of the kids.”
I shook my head, amused. “Yes, Chad, I know what you mean. Hopefully you’ll get lucky. They’re pretty quiet in there though. Doesn’t sound like things have amped up yet.”
Sera, Helena, and Toni were in the kitchen around the island, drinking wine, catching up, probably bitching about us men. It was our job to get the kids out of their hair. Which was cool with me. A Friday night with a family room full of kids made me feel like the luckiest man alive.
“Come on, wine,” Chad said, hands raised up in the air.
That made me laugh. The reaction disturbed Nelson and he jerked, little arms flailing out and eyes briefly opening as he made a sound of protest.
“Just go on back to sleep, Baby Nelson,” I murmured, tucking him in closer to my body. “You’re alright.”
“I think it’s super weird you guys call him Baby Nelson,” Ava said.
Living with Ava was like that. You assumed she wasn’t listening ninety percent of the time, but then she would pipe in with an opinion. It was definitely entertaining and a fascinating glimpse into how her mind worked. I saw potential for her as a future lawyer. Keenly observant and willing to say anything.
“Why is that?” I asked. “His name is Nelson and he’s a baby.”
“But you don’t call him Nelson. You both call him Baby Nelson all the time, like it’s actually his name. When do you stop? Will he be five and going on to kindergarten and you say, “Bye, Baby Nelson, have a good day at school?” It’s like when people pray to Baby Jesus. Are you really praying to the baby? What can he do? No, you’re saying Baby Jesus when he’s actually grown.” She said all of that while still doing something on her phone.
“That’s a valid point and I will take your thoughts into consideration,” I told her, mildly.
Chad took a long swallow of his beer. “I’m glad I have boys.”
“Cash Elliot Young, get in this kitchen, please!” Sera yelled.
Johnny looked back at me. “Uh-oh, that sounds like you’re in trouble.”
It definitely did, though I was inclined to blame the wine. “Can’t be in trouble if you didn’t do nothing wrong.”
“Did you leave the toilet seat up?” Chad asked.
“No.”
“Track mud in the kitchen?” Johnny asked. “That one makes her hot.”
I paused, thinking. “I might have done that. I can’t swear to it one way or the other. She added a please though. I don’t think she’s mad. She probably can’t open the wine bottle.”
At any rate, I wasn’t concerned. Sera and me had come a long way in how we communicated with each other.
“Johnny, can you take your brother?”
The look Johnny gave me indicated he’d rather do anything but. I realized he and Miles were about to start the game. “Never mind.” I didn’t want to put any of the kids into automatic babysitter role. I gave the baby to Chad, who hit the button to make his chair recline.
“A couple of chunky bald guys hanging out together, huh, buddy?” he said to Nelson.
He wasn’t completely wrong. Helena had asked me to help Chad get in shape, but Chad wasn’t interested and I wasn’t pushing.
“Cash!”
“I’m coming, sweetheart,” I called out.
When I stepped into the kitchen, I was met with Toni and Helena staring at me with wide eyes on either side of the island and Sera in the middle behind it, arms crossed, mouth set.
“Why are you all looking at me like that? What’d I do?” I asked, genuinely confused.
“This is what you did,” Sera said. She set something down on the countertop and hurtled it across the island in my direction. It slid right to me.
I caught it. It was a pregnancy test. That read pregnant. Someone was pregnant. “Whose is this?” I asked stupidly, not quite processing what I was looking at.
“It’s mine!” she said. “We’re pregnant. Again.”
I looked from the test to her, my jaw dropping. “Are you messing with me? Is this a joke?”
“Definitely not a joke.”
