Eli (Mallick Brothers 4)

"You still have the mace I got you for your birthday too, right?" Ryan asked.

"God," Mayla said, looking around at all her uncles. "You guys are so weird."

We all shared a smile as she walked off, shaking her head at all of us.

"Did I ever thank you for giving me a son?" I asked as Autumn dropped down on my lap.

"Every time I have to have this talk with anyone," she agreed, smiling.

"Well, thank you for my son," I told her again.

"Speaking of, we should go pick him up. Knowing Bobby, he is letting them play with sparklers unsupervised."

Bobby was still around.

He eventually did get locked up again, doing a year for possession, getting out early on good behavior as he always did.

When he got out, he had practically needed to crawl over broken glass to get Nat back.

I gave him the super job at the apartment building when the old super got married and needed to move on with his life. They got married. Then they had three boys that, well, were so rough and tumble that they put Mallick boys to shame.

She really wasn't exaggerating in her worry about sparklers.

"I wish Peyton still lived there to keep an eye on things."Autumn - 11 years"Why would you get rid of Cock God?" Peyton asked, wrapping her arms around the massive human-sized phallus statue that had been just inside the door of the store since about two months after I first opened it. "He's done nothing but stand here and inspire everyone to pick out a nicely shaped dildo."

"I'm not getting rid of him. I'm just trying to redo the store a little. I haven't done anything different in too long."

"But why must Cock God move? He is the store mascot! The store is Phallus-opy. He's the phallus. The glorious, giant phallus."

"I just think that maybe he's a bit 'in your face' there."

"This is a sex store, Autumn. Cocks in the face are kinda part of the whole shebang. I mean, except for the girls who dig girls. But we can just get like a giant pussy to put on this side!" she exclaimed, waving a hand out to the other side of the door.

"I am not putting a giant vagina up next to the door, Peyton."

Now there was a sentence I never could have anticipated saying before. Even owning a sex store, that was a bit, ah, unusual.

"Eh, yeah. I mean even if the girls who dig girls don't like the men attached to the dicks, they like the dick shape too. Cock God stays, I vote. I mean, where else are you going to put a Santa hat at Christmas if not on his lovely, curved, shapely head?"

"I love you, but you're ridiculous," I declared with a laugh as I sorted through a box of various types of handcuffs.

"If you get rid of him, I'm taking him home with me."

I chuckled at that, looking up, finding her serious. "I don't think your man will want a giant cock in your house."

"Oh, please. If he can get used to my penis flower pillows, he can get used to Cock God."

"You're supposed to be here helping me plan, not making demands on one small statue..."

"She didn't mean it," she said, putting her hands on the head of the cock. "You are perfectly adequate. Though we all know it is partly the size of the boat, no matter how the saying goes. Alright, fine," she said, reluctantly getting serious. "Show me the swatches."

Eleven years, and she never lost an ounce of her crazy.

Love had come to her, like I had predicted, but it hadn't softened her, it hadn't rounded out her rough edges, it hadn't calmed her crazy.

In fact, it was the oddest thing.

It gave her comfort to be herself, without having to prove anything. More and more often, you could catch her without her war paint - makeup - and completely comfortable with it. She stayed in more. She just became a more laid-back version of her usual self.

It was a sight to see.

I was so happy to see her happy.

And raising her own little one.

Just like me, just one.

But more by choice than happenstance.

A little girl just a bit younger than Celen.

I hoped she would grow up to be every bit as confident, imaginative, and fearless as her mother.

Just like I hoped Celen grew up to be as kind, determined, loyal, generous, and strong as his father.

He was already on his way there.

Sometimes, when I walked in the room to say something to one of them, and I caught them sitting working on homework, or building a model ship, or just lounging together watching TV, it simply hits me.

The whole of what my life had become.

The crazy, amazing twist of fate that led me to that coffeeshop on that day to watch that man and his dog. To witness his life take a turn in the worst possible direction, leaving me to take in Coop, and feel compelled to update him on his well-being.