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As a beleaguered Grant and Tati walked in, Birdie squealed with unreserved glee, doing the “gimme” gesture with her fingers, reaching out for the bundle of joy Tati held close to her chest.
Grant followed dutifully from behind, holding the baby carrier and diaper bag.
“Come to Auntie Birdie, my precious little nugget,” she cooed.
Tati helped with the handoff. “Take her, please. She just wrecked her diaper while we were eating at the diner. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sarah-Lynn didn’t ban us from her restaurant given how many of her customers dispersed.”
“Oh, good,” Birdie said, moving back and forth. “Then Elsie and I have time to play and cuddle without the fear of a poopy diaper.”
Lucas looked down at the now giggling Elsie and wondered when Birdie was going to tell them the big news.
Grant plopped in a chair and rubbed at his eyes. He had admitted to Lucas he hadn’t gotten more than four hours of sleep a night since becoming a father and doing what he felt was his fair share.
Grant yawned. “What time is the shindig tomorrow?”
“Noon.”
Birdie added, “Mia and Lucas are so excited to meet their relatives.”
True to form, Mia kept bringing up all of the close and distant family members she kept discovering from the GeneticallyNclined website, begging Lucas to invite them to a family reunion of sorts.
Lucas never expected anyone to reply, let alone show up. But they received RSVPs from about thirty of their closest relatives according to the website and word of mouth. People they had never met and who shared their DNA were on their way, including a younger sister Lucas never knew he had.
He learned from Mia that both his parents had passed, but that there were still so many family members who couldn’t wait to meet them. An uncle was even flying in from Spain.
Between Erma at the Wayward Inn, Chief Walker and Lorraine, and the rest of their friends and family members, Wayward was going to be busy hosting their mayor’s relatives for the weekend.
It was funny. At one time, the thought of meeting his extended family would have brought about intense anxiety and heart palpitations. As it turned out, seeing how excited it made Mia made it all worthwhile. Worth the risk.
“I gotta go,” Birdie pouted, handing Elsie back over to Tati with a pout. “I promised to help Mia do some shopping for school. She leaves week after next.”
“You might want to call her first. We saw her and Oliver over at Angus’s and Bernadette’s, in the midst of a hatchet throwing contest.”
Oddly enough, Angus never moved out of Bernadette’s house, and the rumor mill was they were a couple. Those rumors propagated throughout the community due to Angus tempering his flirting habits more so than anything else. No longer making trips into the Wayward Inn to entertain the Pinkie Posse or regaling Bernadette’s neighbors with outlandish Scottish stories.
Lucas and Grant never asked the Scot’s intentions as they had never seen Bernadette happier. Besides, he was no longer in a wheelchair, strong as an ox, and could throw a hatchet with disturbing accuracy.
Of more concern was who was shellacking who at hatchet throwing today.
“Who was winning?” Lucas asked. Angus had been thoroughly beating the boy for three years now much to Lucas’s relief.
Grant answered, aware of the issue at hand, “Oliver.”
That wasn’t good. The boy had grown a full beard, was an expert at wielding a claymore, and was now winning hatchet throwing contests against the master himself. The last item on Angus’s list of things that constituted a gentlemen and earning the right to properly pursue Mia. Romantically. Public displays of affection included. Lucas might have to get his hands on that list and add a thing or two.
“Lovely,” Birdie said with an unrepressed grin. “My daughter, the hatchet-throwing, underwater welder.”
Less than a minute later, after calling Mia, she pressedEndjust as Grant and Tati were leaving.
They said their goodbyes and shut the door as Lucas reached out to kiss her. “I thought for sure you were going to tell them Mia had a brother or sister on the way.”
“I don’t know. I kind of like having something all to ourselves. Secrets are a rare thing in Wayward.”
“Allow me to disagree.” Lucas pulled her closer into his arms. “You meeting up with Mia?”
“No, she and Oliver are having dinner with Angus and Bernadette. She wants to spend as much time with them as possible before she has to leave for school. Said we’d do it another day.”
“So, you’re saying we have the house all to ourselves tonight?”
