Until Nico (Until 4)

“Girl, now you’re stuck. There’s no way out of this. Even if you tried, he would hunt you down.” She laughs.

“Yikes,” I say with a fake grimace.

“Yep.” She nods, and then I hear the front door bang open.

I jump and look at Nico. Then loud voices fill the front of the house.

“Ma?!” is bellowed. I look at Susan, who smiles and rolls her eyes.

“My oldest has no manners. Don’t mind him,” Susan says, walking around us and out of the kitchen.

“You called?” she asks with a laugh, and then there’s a chorus of ‘Grandma!’ being yelled with happy squeals from what sounds like a troop of little girls.

“Come meet everyone,” Nico says, walking me out into the living room with one hand against my lower back, the other full of a very excited little girl.

Once we make it around the corner, I stop dead in my tracks when I see two more beautiful men, a pretty red-haired woman, a beautiful woman with long brown hair, four little girls, and one little boy all gathering around Susan and yelling for her attention. The other two couples in the room are standing off to the side, watching and laughing while Susan’s mauled by the group of kids.

“Uncle Nico!” a little girl wearing a tutu screams, running towards us at full speed. All the other kids in the room follow her lead and surround us.

“Who are you?”

I look down to see the only boy in the bunch looking up at me curiously. “Sophie. Who are you?”

“Jax,” he says, tilting his head to the side and studying me. “I neber met you before.”

“Nope, you haven’t.”

He looks at where Nico’s hand is wrapped around my waist, and his little eyes narrow slightly. “You said girls are weird and that you didn’t want one,” Jax says, looking at Nico accusingly.

“I did, little dude, but that was before I met Sophie,” Nico explains

, and I want to laugh, but Jax looks very serious about this topic.

“But she’s a girl,” he argues, looking around at all the girls then back at Nico. “We already hab too many girls.”

“He’s right, you know. You are the one who’s always said girls are gross,” a guy in a baseball cap says, walking across the room and holding a woman’s hand, both of them wearing wide smiles on their faces.

“Hi, Sophie, it’s nice to meet you. This is my wife, Lilly. I’m Cash. This little guy here is Jax, and he is ours, along with Ashlyn,” he says, pointing out one of the little girls.

“Nice to meet you too,” I say as all the little girls it the room start running around us, yelling in their high-pitched singsong voices, “Uncle Nico’s in love!” I can help but laugh.

“Welcome to the insanity,” Lilly says, smiling, and that’s when I recognize her from school.

“You used to work at the middle school, right?” Her hair is different, but I’m pretty sure it’s her.

“That’s why I recognize you!” She smiles excitedly. “Are you still working in the library?”

“Yes. I wondered what happened to you,” I say quietly.

“It’s a long story. One day when you have time, we’ll meet for coffee so I can tell you all about it,” she replies just as quietly.

I’m taken aback by her offer; even when she worked at the school, we never socialized. Well, I never socialize with anyone.

“I would like that,” I say sincerely, liking the idea of having some friends here.

“It really is a small world.” She shakes her head, looks at Cash, and smiles as he leans forward, kissing her forehead.

Then the other guy who arrived comes over, scooping up one little girl along the way. “Sophie, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Asher, this is November, and those three girls are ours—July, June, and May,” he says, pointing to each daughter as he says their name. If Nico hadn’t prepared me for their names, I may have laughed, but thankfully, he warned me.

“Nice to meet you guys.” I smile at both of them before taking a second to look around. Nico’s whole family’s beautiful…like, really beautiful.

“You okay, babe?” Nico whispers next to my ear, sending a small shiver down my spine. I nod and lean into him.

“All right, everyone. I need your help getting dinner on the table. Who wants to help Grandma?” Susan asks, and all the kids start yelling about who gets to help set the table, who gets to butter the rolls, and all sorts of other tasks they clearly do often.

“We call it controlled chaos,” November says, watching as all the kids follow after Susan.

“I just call it insanity,” Trevor says, walking into the living room with Liz, who he helps sit down before putting her feet up on a pillow.

“Honey, I told you I’m fine,” she grumbles, but seeing the size of her ankles has me wincing and thankful she’s off her feet.

“Well, be fine sitting your pretty little ass in here with your feet up,” he replies, kissing her hard before going back into the kitchen.

“He’s so bossy,” Liz says, but I can tell she really doesn’t mind that he’s bossy with her.

“So, you sure you’re ready to be a part of this craziness?” Asher asks me, wrapping an arm around November’s waist.