“I’d have caught it, Grant,” he said, his tone perfectly serious. “And I agree, it is my responsibility to marry Maddie. That’s why we’ve been trying to make a baby first. I’m glad you understand.”
If Grant hadn’t been so boneheaded, he’d have realized long ago that Darin’s fate had been taken out of his hands the second Darin had met Maddie.
And known that because he loved his brother, he had to relinquish what he could of Darin’s life back to him.
“Here is what we propose,” Grant said, and the room grew completely still. Even Kara was watching him, her mouth filled with peanut butter.
“Lynn and I are going to get married. And you two will get married. We will add on to the bungalow here for now….”
“Lila might not like that,” Maddie said. “She likes the bungalows to be the same because—”
“It’s okay, Maddie,” Lynn told her. “We’ve already talked to Lila.”
“Oh. Okay.” Maddie took a bite of her sandwich.
Grant looked from Maddie to Lynn and continued. “And we will all live together here.” Because Lynn and Grant would have to help raise the baby Maddie was carrying, while they watched over Darin and Maddie, too.
“With Kara, too,” Darin said.
“Of course,” Lynn said as her daughter shoved more bread into her mouth, seemingly unaware of the changes taking place around her.
Because Kara was the one person who really got it. She knew she was loved. That she’d be taken care of.
And she didn’t worry about the details.
“So, is everyone okay with the plan?” Grant asked.
“I’m okay with it, Grant,” Darin said, and took a bite of sandwich.
“I’m okay with it, Grant,” Maddie said right after him, carefully spooning soup into her mouth. “But I want to sleep in the same room with Darin because when we’re married we’ll sleep in the same bed. I don’t like having intercourse on the beach.”
“That’s right,” Darin said. “We want to have sex in bed.”
Grant looked to Lynn, not quite sure they were up for this. She was busy helping Kara to another sandwich quarter, but looked over at him and smiled.
The whole world was changing. They were all going to be different. And everyone just sat there and ate.
“Darin?”
“Yes?”
“You still want to get married, don’t you?”
“Of course. I have to get married. Maddie and I did it on purpose.”
“So you’re happy?”
“I’m happy, Grant. And I have to eat because I have to go to therapy.”
Life for Darin was what it was. And if it wasn’t what he wanted it to be, he got his girlfriend pregnant and made his world rosy.
“I made a picture today,” Kara announced.
Grant thought about asking to see it. And realized he still didn’t know what happened to pictures.
“What was the picture?” Lynn asked.
“Sand castle!” she yelled out, clasping her hands together.
It was about the cutest thing Grant had ever seen.
“What happens to all these pictures?” he asked.
“They’re put in a folder and the mom gets them at open house,” Maddie said, in between bites. “But now I think you’ll get them, too, because you’re going to be Lynn’s husband, which makes you the dad at the open house.”
He was going to be a dad. Or at the very least a stepdad and an uncle, too. He’d never even changed a diaper. Or watched someone change one.
He had a lot to learn. But he’d get it all. Eventually.
Lynn’s hand found his thigh under the table and moved upward. He was feeling her. She was hungry again. And not for soup and sandwiches.
“Are you happy?” She whispered the words into his ear, sending a bolt of desire straight through him.
“It’s not nice to tell secrets, Lynn,” Maddie said.
Darin burped.
And Kara giggled. “Say ’scuse me!”
He didn’t get a chance to give Lynn his answer.
But he had it ready for the next time she asked.
Yes.
He, Grant Bishop, the boy who’d lost both of his parents before he graduated from high school, and the man who was one hundred percent responsible for his handicapped brother, was happy.