Dr. Stud

“Pregnancy symptom,” Spencer adds sagely. “Uncontrollable laughter and bouts of emotion are perfectly understandable, Bunny. It’s just part of this whole, wonderful process.”

Tears begin to stream down her face. She brushes them with her hand, dropping white rose petals from her bouquet into her décolletage.

“Oh no!” she pouts at the flowers. “I mean… the beautiful flowers!”

The giggles change, and she finally gets control of herself just a little bit. But it’s too late. Sully chuckles along with her, then the twins, finally Spencer. After a while, I can’t help it either. It’s just all so wonderful, she’s right.

The pastor steps forward. “It’s true, laughter is a blessing,” he smiles kindly. Somehow, Spencer located the only pastor in Chicago who would officiate a poly marriage.

“Really?” she breathes. “You think it’s a blessing?”

“Sometimes we can’t control our joy,” he adds.

“It’s a blessing!” she titters.

I pull her toward me, pressing my lips to her forehead.

“You’re utterly perfect,” I reassure her. “Laughing, crying, the whole lot. We want it all, don’t forget.”

Pressing her lips together, she stares up at me and sighs. “You really are a dream come true, you know that?”

“We feel exactly the same way.”

The string quartet continues to play as we line up in front of the pastor, listening to him talk briefly about love, commitment, and dedication to family. He says that the trials of love are small compared to the boon of love. He blesses us, bids us a long and fulfilling life together, with all of the lives we will bring into the world, asking only that we promise to place each other first in our hearts, allowing no entry for any other love greater than this.

“Finally, I have to ask. Do you, Belinda Norris, take these men to be your husbands? Committed to you forever, and you to them?”

“I do,” she says in a small, awestruck voice.

He clears his throat. “And do you, Royce, Sullivan, Spencer, Brock, and Trey Worth, take this woman to be your wife, to treasure and service, forsaking all others, for the rest of your lives?”

“We do!”

“Then, by the power vested in me by our great Creator, I pronounce you men and wife! You may kiss your bride!”

The strings begin playing a triumphant tune, music echoing all around the terrace. Then she hands her bouquet to Mrs. Webster and waits patiently as we each come to her, our new wife, to place a lingering, tender kiss on her beautiful mouth.

Sophia giggles happily, arms waving, her chubby fists air as Magda bounces her from side to side. “This is crazy,” I hear Bunny whisper again.

“It might be crazy,” I tell her, pushing away from her eyebrows. “But it’s our fairy tale. We can write it however we want.”

EPILOGUE

Bunny

Being pregnant has left me a little bit of a shut-in. All of our plans for travel got canceled the minute that Spencer found out that I was pregnant. He said there was some documentation that the radiation exposure to pregnant women during airplane flights was equivalent to something like twenty-eight billion chest x-rays or something like that.

So, I’m cranky. I can’t leave Chicago, and even though Chicago is super great and wonderful, I can’t leave. And that’s all I want to do—to be able to move around.

Sophia gives me a lopsided smile as I put her in her crib. As soon as I lay her down, she immediately stands up, hanging onto the crib rail and bouncing up and down. She just had her first birthday party and has taken a few steps already. This cute, perfectly white little tooth popped out of the bottom of her mouth, and it’s making her quite slobbery. It’s making her quite adorable, too.

But it’s nap time, so I kiss her on her forehead and waddle back out of the room, holding my aching back.

Catching sight of myself in the mirror as I go past makes me want to giggle. I look like a lollipop on two spindly legs. I would say that it is safe to call me ginormous at this point. Completely ginormous.

My iPad chimes and I shuffle over, tapping the screen to connect the video chat. Dahlia appears, waving frantically.

“Hey, mama!” she grins. “You still pregnant?”