“Garrett, this is my niece Olivia, Liv for short,” I introduced, walking up and rubbing her back with my hand. This little girl was the most precious person I’d ever met in my life, and I loved that she was a member of my family. If I could magically create the perfect child, it would be her. “Livvy, this is Raoul’s brother Garrett,” I explained when she looked up at me, her eyes still open wide. “See? There’s Raoul,” I pointed over at him, loving that he opened his arms to her. I was protective as hell over her and her mom. They’d been through so much, and because of it maybe I overdid the whole ‘you will love’ them thing, but they deserved no less.
Still not sure what was going on, but recognizing the uniform he was wearing, she asked, “Oul?” before throwing herself at him, almost giving us a heart attack, then squealing when he caught her.
“Jesus Christ, I wish she wouldn’t do that,” I gasped, holding my chest.
Both Evans men reacted in their own way, with Raoul nodding in agreement and Garrett muttering, “I need to change my shorts.”
“See, Rissa,” Dad whispered loudly to Mom. “He’s even taking the baby now, too. First my daughter, now my granddaughter? This is too much.”
Sighing, she excused them and guided him over to where Hurst was talking to a couple members of his family with a little baby in his arms. “Here, speak to your friend. He has spare babies, maybe you can borrow one?”
“But I want that one,” he looked back over his shoulder at Liv who was focused solely on the Evans men, before disappearing into the crowd.
Taking his attention off Liv, Garrett raised his eyebrow at me. “Interesting guy. I see where you get it from now.”
“You’ll like him,” Raoul told him, looking up from Liv who was yanking on his beard now. “He’s a blast when you’re not the man who’s in a relationship with his daughter.”
Lips twitching at his brother’s predicament, Garrett pointed out, “Sucks to be you then, doesn’t it?”
“Not even slightly, man, not even slightly,” he said seriously, his eyes softening when I looked up at him, his words and expression stealing any cognitive functions out of my brain. Breathing – I wasn’t even sure I was doing that, or how to do it. Blinking – again, not a priority. Standing – it was on a wing and a prayer at this moment. Everything was just gone.
“Kids,” Garrett gagged, ruining the moment. “Control yourself, there are minors running around the place. And if it doesn’t scare them, it’ll scare the old folk.”
Flicking an annoyed glance at his brother, Raoul looked back at me. “I never got to say thank you for my beautiful new garden, Rose. I love it.”
I wasn’t sure if it was the moment we’d had or the words he’d just said, but the only words available to me were, “You what?”
Bellowing out a laugh that made both Liv and I jump, Garrett held his side. “Your face,” he wheezed, pointing at me. “You guys are so screwed.”
Before I could ask what he meant, though, there was the sound of something hitting glass, and we all turned around to see my brother and Jose standing looking at everyone. As soon as the last person stopped talking, he opened his mouth to say something, but what came out sounded like the noise Rex made when he had a hairball in his throat.
“Did you get a turkey?” a voice asked from the group of people, as everyone looked around for the source. I don’t know what had happened to his voice, but I could clearly read Ellis’s lips when he mouthed ‘Fuck you’ in the direction the question had come from.
Leaning up to whisper in his ear and getting a nod at whatever she’d said, Jose looked out at all of us and yelled, “We’re pregnant!”
As soon as it sank in, everyone started calling out congratulations and cheering, and for the first time in a long time, I felt tears building. Regardless of our arguments, how big a pain in the ass he was, the torture he put me through when we were kids, I wanted my brother to have everything the world had to offer. I’d thought that he had that when Jose and Liv had come into his life, but now? That pot of everything was overflowing for him, and I wanted to cry with happiness and relief.
So I did. In a living room crowded with people made up of family and friends, I let the tears loose, and cried my heart out.
I barely even registered the arms going around me and pulling me into a lumpy chest, or the way something sharp was digging into my forehead. I just cried, wishing that they’d change the definition of the word ‘everything’ to a photo of my brother and his new family. And for Jose, too, who was pregnant at the same time as her sister who’d found out she was pregnant two days after our night out. After a viability scan and reassurances from the doctor that everything looked ok so far after the night of excess alcohol, she’d stopped panicking, but I knew she was waiting anxiously for her twelve week scan now. Situations like that weren’t uncommon, and you came across it a lot. Plus, I’d been the one who was drinking the hardest, Jose and Tabby had only had a couple that night apparently before switching to water. Them being pregnant together now was the definition of fate, and one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen in my life.