When Constellations Form (Light in the Dark 4)

“Did you eat dinner?” I ask her.

She nods. “Yeah, I had dinosaur chicken nuggets.”

“Oh, those are my favorite too,” I tell her. “Dinosaurs are cool.”

“Yeah, they are. Can you be quiet so I can watch my movie?”

I laugh and hand her the popcorn. “Yeah, sorry.”

Minutes later, Xander collapses onto the couch with Ryland pinned in his arms with a dishtowel around his waist.

“Is that our dishtowel on the kid?”

Xander glares at me and blows out a breath, which fans his hair around his forehead. “He started to pee everywhere so I grabbed a dishtowel and tackled him to the ground.”

/> “You tackled a two-year-old?” I snort.

He groans. “It was a soft tackle, I promise. I didn’t hurt him. I’m pretty sure a tank couldn’t take out this kid.”

Ryland wiggles in Xander’s arms and then he’s on the loose again.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Xander takes off after him.

It doesn’t take him nearly as long to catch him this time. He comes back into the room with the kid over one shoulder and their bag in the other.

He then manages to wrangle Ryland back into some clothes and a diaper.

“Who would’ve thought,” I begin.

“Huh?” He looks over at me.

“That I’d do better at this than you. I’m quite impressed with myself.” I smile at him.

He chuckles, but the tone isn’t all that humorous. “You got the easy ones.”

“They were both crying, now they’re not,” I point out.

He bites out a gruff laugh. “I guess you’re the baby whisperer then.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear.”

Ryland wiggles away from Xander and moves over to me. He looks up at me with wide brown eyes and then plops beside me, sucking his thumb.

“I’m surrounded by children and I don’t want to die, this is a miracle.”

Xander chuckles. “They like you.”

I look around at the kids. “I can do this, can’t I?”

He nods. “You definitely can. I’m now questioning myself.”

I laugh. “Oh, please, our child will probably hate me and love you.”

He shrugs and glances at the movie playing. “I guess only time will tell.”

“Even with all this screaming and crying you still want five kids?” I ask him, and it’s a serious question.

He presses his lips together, thinking, and after a moment he nods. “Yeah, I want that. It’s chaos, and non-stop insanity, but think of all the amazing memories we’d make along the way.”