Just then, Julia suddenly appeared from the kitchen, her face smeared with what I hoped was chocolate. Delia groaned and collapsed against the nearest wall.
Amelia laughed again. “Take a break, Delia. We’ve got this.” Delia grunted and slid to the ground.
Amelia looked at me, and I nodded, my lips pinched to hold in my laughter. She went after our daughter, and I dodged another bullet from my son’s bladder on the way to the kids’ bathroom. We bathed our babies, read them stories, and put them down for bed. Then we changed out of our bathwater-soaked clothes and went looking for our oldest daughter.
Delia was sprawled face down on the couch in the den, and as we entered, she turned her head to glare at me. “I don’t think I thought this whole sibling thing through,” she grumbled as she sat up.
I grinned and dropped into a chair, pulling Amelia down into my lap. “Too late now. This was your idea, sweetie. We’re already cooking you another one.”
Amelia smacked my chest and glared at me. “We were supposed to tell her together.” Then she cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes to slits. “You haven’t told anyone else, right? Because it’s too soon.”
I held up my hands in a surrender pose. “No one. I swear.”
Delia drew our attention when she grumbled and climbed to her feet. “I’m going to bed,” she said as she trudged toward the door. “These siblings better be prepared to babysit and change diapers when I have kids.”
Then she disappeared, leaving me choking and Amelia slapping me on the back while laughing hysterically.
“You alright there, babe?”
I swallowed hard and shook my head. “She’s joking, right? She can’t have kids if she doesn’t have sex.” My eyes met Amelia’s, and I silently pleaded for her to agree with me, but she just snorted again.
“Don’t you want to be a grandpa someday?” she asked when she finally calmed down.
“That will be Zack Jr’s job,” I informed her.
Amelia raised an eyebrow and gave me an arch look. “Kind of a double standard, don’t you think?”
I frowned and started to defend myself, then stopped because I knew whatever I said wouldn’t make a difference. I might as well be honest, so I shrugged. “I guess so.”
“And how exactly do you expect to keep them from having sex?”
“My little girls would never do anything like that,” I insisted, keeping my head firmly in the sand.
Amelia chuckled and gave me a condescending pat on the shoulder. “Good luck with that.” I tried to hold on to her when she moved to get up, but she managed to dance away and skip to the door. Then she stopped and winked at me. “Didn’t you promise to do some distracting?”
I perked up at her question...literally. “Absolutely,” I agreed and jumped to my feet.
“Great! I’d like an ice cream sundae with chocolate and caramel on the side, lots of extra whip cream, and cherries.”
Obviously, I’d been expecting a different type of distraction, but I would always be happy to do whatever made my wife smile. “Sure, beautiful.” I kissed her cheek as I walked past her and headed to the kitchen.
“Thank you, babe,” she murmured. Her tone was mischievous, and I glanced back at her curiously. “You can bring it to me in bed and distract me by eating it off my body.”
Extra Epilogue
Amelia
As I pulled into our driveway after dropping Julia, Zack Junior, and Lydia off at school, I was surprised to see Delia’s car parked in front of the house. Even though she and her husband finally moved back to Vegas a few months ago, we didn’t see as much of my stepdaughter as we’d like.
Zack had been beside himself when she first brought Danny home toward the end of her senior year of college. Although he’d liked the boy, nobody would ever be good enough for his little girl—not even an honor student about to graduate summa cum laude and soon to be headed off to Harvard Law. Especially not when Delia chose that weekend to drop the bombshell on us that she was following him to Boston.
With three small children, we didn’t get out to see them very often, but Delia and Danny spent a couple of their summers in Vegas. Luckily, Danny had fallen in love with the area and brought Delia back after getting a few years’ experience at a big firm under his belt.
While I was parking, she hopped out and crossed the lawn, twisting her hands together as I climbed out of my car. She was practically glowing, but somehow also pale. When I reached for her hands, I noticed they were trembling. “Delia, sweetheart. What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“Okay doesn’t even begin to describe how I am,” she answered with a tremulous smile. “I have some amazing news to share.”