Chapter Forty-Three
May
“Where is the old man?” Teddy shouts. He holds a case of beer on his shoulder, his free arm held high as he heads into my kitchen. “There he is. Happy birthday, brother.”
“Thanks, man.”
He gives me a one-armed hug, slapping me on the back before frowning as he stares at something on the top of my head.
“Jesus, Wy, I think you’re getting more grays than dad.” He flicks the side of my hair, laughing and jumping out of the way when I try to shove at him. “Careful, dude, I’m carrying precious cargo.”
“I thought your son was precious cargo?” Ana asks, leaning against the doorjamb and smirking at my idiot brother.
His eyes widen quickly before he punches my shoulder. “What the fuck? You could have told me she was there.”
“You called me old and pointed out my gray hairs. I have no loyalty to you,” I say, taking the box from him and opening it to put a couple of beers in the fridge. Pulling out a cold one, I hand it to Ana. “Speaking of my nephew, where is he?”
“Where do you think?” She chuckles, nodding toward the living room. “As soon as we arrived, Nanna and Granddad took him.”
“Dude, where’s my beer?” Teddy gripes from behind me, huffing to himself when I ignore him.
“How do you put up with two children?” I ask as I kiss my sister-in-law on the cheek. “Thanks for coming.”
“At least he’s potty trained.” Ana rolls her eyes, smiling fondly as she glances at her husband. “Thank you for having us, Wyatt.” She looks around the room. “So…is the girlfriend here?”
“She was flying back from Lake Placid, like, an hour ago,” I say, checking my watch. “She’ll be here soon.”
“I cannot wait to meet her,” she gushes before turning on Teddy. “You and Bowie better behave.”
Teddy, with a carrot stick poking out of his mouth, looks up as he dips another into some hummus. “What? I always behave.”
“Sure, you do,” she says. “Never mind that all your family does is rib each other with dirty innuendos and make new people uncomfortable.”
He looks like he’s tasted something nasty as he recoils at her. “We do not. Hold on…” Cupping his hand around his mouth, he yells, “Mason?”
Bowie’s boyfriend walks into the kitchen with a rightly placed look of skepticism. “Why do I feel like I’m being ambushed?”
Teddy waves him off. “I wasn’t there, so I can’t answer. The first time you met this loser...” He gestures to me with his half-eaten carrot. “Did he and Bowie make you feel uncomfortable?”
I try to hide my smirk as I watch Mason think about it. “Well, I mean, I met Wyatt for the first time at a bar with my sister, who doesn’t know the meaning of personal boundaries, so not really. But the first time I met Sadie and Miles…Bowie and Wyatt started talking about blowjobs, and then your dad joined in, so yeah. I’d say I was more embarrassed than uncomfortable.”
“See?” Teddy says triumphantly, walking to Ana and planting a kiss on her cheek. “Dad’s the problem, and he’s not even in the room.”
“You’re lucky you're cute,” she says, making him preen.
Mason snorts and helps himself to a handful of chips. “Teddy, I don’t think that was a compliment.”
Leaving them to chat, I walk into the living room, finding Sadie on the sofa snuggled up with Porter, the baby looking at her with wide eyes as she coos at him. I lean over, looking at my nephew, reaching out to stroke the back of his tiny hand.
“Isn’t he just the cutest?” I nod, taking a seat beside her. Dragging her gaze away from her grandson, Sadie turns to look at me, asking, “When does Pippa arrive?”
Right on cue, the front door opens, and Pippa rushes in, fighting with the two bags slung over her shoulders as she tries to close the door behind her. I get to my feet, joining her in the hallway.
“Shit, sorry, I’m late, baby. Daisy insisted on drawing you a birthday card, and then we missed our slot, so we had to wait and then…” She stops, her eyes going wide when she glances over my shoulder. I don’t need to turn around to know every single one of my family is crowding the doorway, desperate to get a look at her. She stares back at me, lowering her voice. “I didn’t realize everyone was going to be here already.”
“They don’t really have a concept of time,” I say as I thumb toward the group. “Bowie and Mason turned up for breakfast.”
“Only because our bagel place was shut, and we had already left,” Bowie says. Squeezing through the bodies, he holds out his hand. “Nice to finally meet you...sober”
Pippa snorts as I wrap an arm around her waist, pulling her away from the door.
“This is Bowie.” I turn and point to my other brother, who’s now eating popcorn. “And that’s Teddy.”
Teddy gives her a wave. “Oh my god, wait. You’re a billionaire, too, right?”
Pippa shrugs her shoulders. “I guess, but it’s more my father than me.”
“Potato-Potahto,” he says, dragging Mason forward. “He’s one, too. Do you know each other?”
“Because being a billionaire means we know everyone,” he deadpans, sidling up to Bowie. “I’m Mason.”
“And he’s the worst billionaire alive,” Bowie adds. “It was only after Wyatt got his head out of his ass and realized he was in love with you that my man finally bought a jet.”
“Which we’ve used how many times?”
“Not the point,” Bowie says, smiling at Mason. The pair have the biggest heart-eyes for each other. I swear they’re worse than my dad and Sadie.
I lift Pippa’s bags from her and set them by the stairs, taking her hand instead and pulling her into the kitchen. Dad leans against the counter, nursing his beer as he watches Sadie fuss over Porter as Ana gets his bottle.
“This is my dad, Miles Grant,” I say, introducing him first. “Dad, this is Pippa.”
He sets his bottle behind him and gives her a quick hug. “I’ve been waiting for this day.”
“What day?” She laughs.
“The day my son finally finds himself a good woman to settle down with.”
Her cheeks pinken as she lowers her face. “Thank you, sir.”
“And she’s polite, too,” he comments, making Ana huff loudly.
“I’m polite,” she says as she ties a bib around her son’s neck.
“Sweetheart, the first day I met you, you were sucking my son’s face so hard I didn’t know where you ended and he started.”
Ana almost chokes, her face turning as deep a red as a person’s face can turn. It’s a good thing she’s not holding her baby because she most likely would have dropped him. “That was nearly ten years ago.”
Dad cackles like a dick, and I guess this is what she meant about making people uncomfortable.
She tosses a cloth over her shoulder and takes Porter from Sadie. “Come on, since your granddad likes to embarrass Mommy, he can feed you.”
She passes Dad his grandson, and the pair disappear, leaving Pippa, Sadie, and me. Giving me a knowing smile, Sadie watches the girl who has my heart stand nervously by my side.
“And this,” I say, moving to stand next to her, “is my mom, Sadie.”
Pippa’s smile is wide as she charges forward, engulfing her in a hug that makes Sadie gasp in shock.
“It’s so nice to finally meet you,” she gushes. “Wyatt has told me so much about you.”
“He has?” Sadie asks, her eyes twinkling as she looks over Pippa’s shoulder at me.
“Yes, I almost feel like I’ve known you this entire time.”
Sadie pulls back and cups Pippa’s cheek. “Likewise. Thank you for making my son so happy.”
“Thank you for raising him to be the man I love.”
“Speech,” Teddy shouts from his spot at the dinner table.
“How much did he have to drink?” Mason stage-whispers to Bowie, who shrugs.
“Ana’s going to have two babies to look after tomorrow,” he replies, draping an arm over his shoulder and tugging him closer.
“I’m not drunk. I’m just happy,” Teddy says, feeding us the line all drunk people say. He points toward me before lifting his glass and tapping his ring figure against it to make a clinking sound. “C’mon, birthday boy, speech.”
Rolling my eyes, I take a deep breath. “Fine. Thank you, assholes, for coming to celebrate me getting older.”
“Language,” Sadie chastises as Pippa snuggles deeper into my side, smothering a laugh in my shirt.
“Oh, I forgot,” she says suddenly.
Popping up from her chair, she runs out of the room. Everyone around the table gives each other confused looks, and I shrug my shoulder, having no clue what she’s doing.
“I got these,” she says, coming back with two gift bags, handing one to Teddy and the other to me.
“You got me a present?” Teddy asks, drunkenly holding his hand over his heart.
She pulls a face. “Not exactly. I got it for Porter.”
He throws out the tissue paper, smiling proudly as he pulls out a baby pilot’s hat. “Are you kidding me? This is the cutest thing ever. I’m going to wake Porter up and have him try it on.”
“Don’t you dare,” Ana hisses. She grabs his arm and tugs him back down as he tries to get to his feet. “It took me over an hour to get him to sleep.”
Bowie and Mason chuckle as the latter nods toward my gift bag. “Is there a matching one for you in there?”
Before I can look inside, Pippa puts her hand over mine and whispers, “This isn’t your actual gift, but I saw it and thought of you.”
I narrow my eyes suspiciously as I dig inside and pull out a mug. Smiling, I hold it out for everyone to see.
“It’s to replace the one you broke,” she says as I run a finger over the World’s Greatest Pilot decal.
“I love it,” I say, kissing her before moving to her ear to whisper. “What’s my actual gift, then?”
Her hand slides up my thigh under the table, and I glance around, finding no one paying us any attention. Lowering her voice so only I can hear her, she says, “Something silky for you to undress.”
“Fuck, I love you,” I murmur against her lips, feeling her smile against them.
“I love you too, Mr. Sexy Pilot Man.”