“I can’t do this,” I wailed.
The hand holding the tissues in Sam’s hand dropped, and he smiled brightly. “Awesome, let’s go home, then.”
Smacking him with his good hand, Ryan stepped forward and pulled me into his chest. “Of course you can.”
Then, rocking me gently, he said, “You know, when we brought you home, I swore there’d never be a boy or woman who was good enough for you. Sam takes it to a whole new level, but I had ideals and was sure there wasn’t one person in the world who had all of them and was good enough for my baby.”
Leaning back, he cupped my jaw and raised my head until he could see my eyes. The wince said the makeup I’d had applied by a guru hadn’t fared well with my tears.
“I had no idea that the ideal was under our noses the whole time, Sasha, but Jackson was. He was a little snot back then, but so were you, so no one would have ever seen how perfect for each other you are. It hurts that we need to give you to him today, but you’ll always be our baby, no matter how old you are.
“You’ll always be the little girl who blew my world to pieces the second she was placed in my arms. You’ll always be the girl who begged me to pull her tooth out until I tied a piece of string around it that was attached to the car and punched the gas, feeling like an asshole the whole time.”
“That’s why you gave her fifty bucks for her first tooth?” Sam hissed, looking around us. “We could have been done for child abuse.”
Winking at me, Ryan just snatched the tissues out of his hand and dabbed under my eyes with them. “You’ll always be the girl who grossed me out whenever she had a head cold, and the one who passed me every bug and virus she got.”
“Hypochondriacs,” Sam muttered but wrapped his arms around us anyway, so it was now a family huddle.
“And no matter how old you are, you always take my breath away with how beautiful you are,” Ryan murmured as he wiped under an eye.
“It’s an absolute honor to be your dad, Sasha, and I wake up looking forward to each day because of you. The day we were handed you was the day we were given the biggest and best gift anyone can receive, and no matter how far away from us you are, the magic of you is always there, powering us through everything and anything.”
Two deep voices choking out, “Christ,” followed by sniffing, and what sounded like someone suppressing sobs sounded behind us, just as Sam started bawling. I don’t mean crying, I mean my dad was bawling like a kid.
Rolling his eyes at me, Ryan turned me around to see Marcus and Elijah standing next to their cousin Cole who had his fist clenched tightly against his mouth. All three of them had wet eyes, so I wasn’t sure which one was doing his best not to join the usually stoic Sam.
Their eyes dropped to the bottom of my strapless white dress, which had a long-sleeved, slightly off the shoulders, lace overlay over it, and followed its lines and beauty up until they got to my face.
That’s when they copied Sam’s wince from only minutes ago.
“What the fuck happened to your face?” Elijah asked, taking a step forward. “Is it meant to be like that?”
Looking in the mirror on the wall next to me, I shrieked when I saw the damage that’d been done. “It was only a couple of tears. What the hell am I meant to do?”
Surprising all of us, it was Marcus who burst into action.
“You!” He pushed Cole toward the door. “Go and tell them she’ll be ten minutes max. And, you,” he pushed Elijah behind him, “go and get the chick with the makeup to come back and fix this shit.”
Then, turning to my dads, he pointed a finger at them. “Don’t make her cry again. That wasn’t a good look.”
It was as he was opening the door, though, that he smiled at me over his shoulder, reminding me so much of his twin but also being a world away from him at the same time.
“I’m glad I got to witness what they said, Sasha. I would never have guessed you guys were made for each other when we were kids either, but now I can’t imagine two people more perfectly matched.”
With a smile, he turned around and moved toward the door, then stopped just as he opened it. “Oh, and one day, when his own daughter’s about to walk down the aisle to her new husband, I’ll wrestle the shotgun Jackson will be aiming at him out of his hands. Thank you for making my brother so happy, and welcome to the family.”