AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Before she could say anything else, Liam moved over. “Aunt Jolene, stop bugging my employees. We’re busy.”
She scowled when they both walked away laughing.
Sometimes her family really sucked.
30
Taking Credit
“You’re not nervous over this party, are you?” Ivan asked Kendra. They were pulling into Jolene and Gavin’s house for their massive Fourth of July party.
Only the immediate family would be there now as they would be celebrating Cade’s twins’ birthday, which would be on Monday, the actual holiday. At three, the rest of those invited would show up, which included neighbors, employees and lots of friends.
“Not really,” she said. “I’m used to your family now. But this is a lot more people. And you said Gavin’s side of the family from Durham too?”
“They are no relation to me, but we grew up with them around too, so somewhat family. I’ll give you the rundown. Diane and Grant have three boys that are married, but the two oldest and their spouses will not be here. Sam and Dani had twins recently and they are staying home, but Diane and Grant are bringing their two-year-old son, Kasey.”
“Kasey is the one born the day before Regan and Cameron at this party two years ago, right?”
“Yep. I figured you’d heard that story. What a riot that night was. Bryce and Payton have a baby too along with a two-year-old and they are staying home with both kids too. Ryder will be here with Marissa and their two kids. Riley is a baby, maybe six months old and I think Tommy is eleven or so. I lose track.”
“Seems like you are remembering pretty well,” she said.
They were in the car driving there now. He had a gift for the three kids. The party would include Kasey too with the twins.
“Then there is Grant and Carolyn. They’ve got four kids, all married and all have kids of their own. Let’s see if I can remember their ages. Drake and Kara have twins Owen and Olivia and Noah and Paige have twins Drew and Zoe. The four kids will be a year old in August.”
“Noah and Drake are twins, right?” she asked.
“Yes. We all thought that was funny, but nothing surprises anyone in this family anymore. Wyatt and Jade are twins too. Wyatt and Adrianna’s son, Chase, is a few months younger than the other four. Jade and Brock’s son, Lucas, is younger than Chase by a few months. Oh, and Noah and Paige have a teenage son, Sebastian. They adopted him. He is Paige’s nephew, but she’s been raising him for years.”
“You did well,” she said. “That’s amazing to remember it with everyone in your family on top of it. The Fierce side sure does like to multiply.”
“They do. Just what my aunt wants. And if you hadn’t heard it, but I’m sure you have, my Aunt Jolene got her two sisters-in-law setting all their kids up too.”
He turned to see Kendra’s jaw drop. “No.”
“Yep. They are taking credit for them all except Ryder who met Marissa in college before this all started. Ryder never knew he had a child until a few years ago.”
“Sounds like it turned out well in the end.”
“It did,” he said. He parked his car on the street several houses down, knowing many were already here.
“Before we go in,” she said. “I wanted to thank you again for the vacation. I’ve never gone anywhere before.”
He’d convinced her to take a few days off and they went to the Outer Banks. They arrived on Monday, stayed in a hotel for four nights, had a blast and got home yesterday.
He would have loved to go last weekend and return today. One full week. But he knew four nights away from Karen was pushing it for Kendra.
They made sure Karen was set, doing all her shopping and getting her what she needed the weekend before like they did most weekends, then left Monday, midmorning.
Since Kendra had spent three nights in a row at his house over Memorial Day weekend, he thought pushing to four was his form of baby steps.
The fact his family busted his ass over finally going on vacation hadn’t helped, but they did it without Kendra around.
It was bad enough that she fought him on it and said she didn’t need it. That it was too expensive this time of year.
Blah, blah. He’d heard it all and told her too bad, he’d booked it.
