“I think I can handle it,” Dean says with a smile, grabbing my hand and lacing his fingers through mine as we walk to the back of the stand. “I don’t know how good I’m going to be at all of this though. It’s been a long time since I had to think about someone other than myself. I’m not used to having a family. Especially one as crazy as yours.”
I laugh, because it’s true.
“You mean a family as crazy as ours,” I correct him, and he gives my hand a squeeze.
“I’m only claiming the normal ones. You can have the crazy ones.”
As soon as we get to the back door of the Dip and Twist, the kids are all still arguing inside, and we see a squeeze bottle of chocolate sauce go flying past the door, followed by a loud curse from Bodhi when it hits him.
“Yeah, I don’t really think there are any normal ones.” I laugh.
Dean opens the door for us, ordering everyone to behave and act like adults as we step inside. When he lets go of my hand to dump the bucket of water out in the sink and then marches over to Bodhi to scold him for eating out of the toppings containers because it’s gross and unsanitary, all I can do is shake my head.
“I’m pretty sure you’ll do just fine having a family,” I whisper to myself with a smile.
After the stand is all cleaned up and closed down for the night, we wave goodbye to Wren, Tess, and Bodhi, and Dean takes my golf cart keys out of my hand as we walk across the parking lot.
“Your place or mine?”
I love the sound of him asking me this so much that I don’t even complain when he gets behind the wheel of my golf cart and starts it right up. I just slide in next to him and scoot all the way over until our thighs are touching, so I can rest my head on his shoulder.
“I don’t care. Surprise me.” And I don’t. We can go back to my place, he can take me to see his place, or we can stay right here in the parking lot. “I don’t care where I am, as long as it’s with you.”
“Awww, that was cute and cheesy,” Dean says, kissing the top of my head after he backs us out of my parking space. “I love you. Let’s go home, sugar.”
Epilogue
Dean
“Oh, this just got interesting.”
Two months later
“Give me the baby.”
“It cries every time you hold it. I’m not giving you the fucking baby.”
“You’ve been hogging that thing for the last half hour. It’s my turn!”
“No.”
“I know where the Off switch is now. Come on!”
“Go away.”
“Tess! Uncle Dean is being mean and won’t give me our goddamn baby!”
“That’s it. Give me my granddaughter,” Laura interrupts Bodhi’s and my argument, carefully taking the sleeping newborn out of my arms. She smiles down at the little girl wrapped in a blanket and cradled against her chest, and her voice turns soft and melodic like she’s talking to the baby while she scolds us. “She has a name, dipshits. I love you both, but please stop calling her ‘that thing’ and ‘it.’”
Nora Bennett Powell-Armbruster, a tiny little lass with a big name to live up to, came screaming into the world two weeks early with an attitude just like her mother. And just like her Lala, for that matter.
“Don’t annoy me on my wedding day.”
Laura tries to glare at me, but it doesn’t stick. Especially when I lean over Nora, grab Laura’s face, and give my wife the type of kiss that will most likely make this child wince and pretend to puke when she’s a teenager. And I’m so happy I’ll be here to witness it.
I met Laura on a Friday and married her on a Wednesday. It didn’t happen in the same week, even though I would have married her the day she told me she loves me. It happened, and that’s all that matters. Maybe a little soon according to some people’s standards, but neither Laura nor I give one single fuck about what other people think. We both spent entirely too long wasting time with the wrong people. What’s the point of waiting when you find the one you’re supposed to be with?
“How soon can we get out of here so I can get you naked?” I murmur against Laura’s lips.