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All my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents are here along with some family friends. I look around the room, seeing all the smiling faces, and nearly burst into tears.
“How ya doin’, baby mama?” Payton asks as we move to the table with the giant spread of chips and dips, sandwiches made on croissants, and mini cheesecakes in all different flavors.
“I’m okay. Just getting emotional again,” I admit, adding a bit of everything to my plate. “I know I’m living the good ole days right now, and it won’t always be like this.” My eyes slide to my grandparents, who are slow dancing in the middle of the living room. The way they look at each other is so sweet, it’s something I always hoped for, and now that I have it, I can’t help feeling so grateful for it. My grandpa’s hands linger down to Grandma’s ass, and she giggles like they’re seventeen all over again.
“Aw, sweetheart.” Payton wipes the tears from my cheeks. “Just have to cherish each moment we can, ya know?”
I nod, but they won’t live forever, and that makes me sad.
When we sit at one of the empty tables, Ivy and Hadleigh join us.
“That’s a cute as hell outfit, Kaitlyn. You look so cute pregnant,” Hadleigh gushes.
“You should talk. Look at your bump with baby number three, lookin’ like a snack.”
Hadleigh snorts, lifting her feet and putting them on the chair across from her.
I bump my shoulder against Payton and grin. “He picked it out for me.”
“Aw,” they both say.
“After I spent forty minutes changing clothes,” I clarify.
Ivy scowls. “Maybe you should teach our husbands a thing or two. You’d think mine would offer, considering I’ve got two of his children in here.” She points at her bump, which is somehow the same size as mine. Ivy’s always been petite, but I’m jealous as hell of how small she’s stayed.
“I heard that,” Kane says, popping a brownie in his mouth, then taking a seat next to her.
Knox howls. “If I’m choosing Hadleigh’s clothes, she’s wearing her birthday suit.”
Hadleigh shakes her head. “And that’s why I dress myself.”
“Ah, c’mon, babe. Don’t be that way,” he says, carrying two cupcakes on a plate and pressing his lips against hers.
I laugh and then a yawn escapes me.
“None of that,” Payton tells me. “There’s just over two hours before the ball drops.”
“There’s a joke about balls in there somewhere, but this pregnancy brain is gettin’ to me right now,” I admit, taking a bite of a cannoli. “I’ll probably think of it at three in the mornin’,” I say, and Payton chuckles.
As soon as Maize walks up with Gavin and their three kids, she looks at Knox, Kane, Hadleigh, and Ivy. “When y’all payin’ up?”
My mouth falls open. “Wait, you were in on the bet? That hardly seems fair…”
She laughs with a nod. “Yep. And I’ve got about two grand to collect between these four, plus Ethan, Harper, Rowan, Diesel, Riley, Zoey…”
I look at Gavin. “You allowed her to do that?”
He shrugs. “You know I can’t control this woman.”
“Isn’t that cheating?” Payton asks her. “You were in on it.”
“Whoa…wait a goddamn minute.” Kane sits up straighter, already trying to weasel his way out of it.
“Nothin’,” I quickly say, liking the idea of my brothers paying up after all their shit-talking. “Nothing at all. Get your bank, girl, just remember who your favorite cousin is when you go shopping. So which one of you bet we’d never get together, hmm?”
I look around the table, and Hadleigh chuckles. “Oh, we all knew y’all were bangin’. It’s just Maize was closer at guessing how long it’d take your stubborn asses to admit you were madly in love with one another.”
“That’s right,” Ivy adds. “Maize was spot-on.”
