Chapter 35
DANI
The second we walk in the door, we are swamped.
Literally.
Every adult and child who hasn’t gone to bed yet surrounds us to the point that we can’t even make enough room to shut the front door.
“Move, people!” Tyrell has to call over the excited crowd before we all shuffle forward a few steps so he can close the door and stop all the delicious heat inside this house from escaping.
Tucker, a little overwhelmed by the cacophony, starts to squawk until he’s plucked right out of my arms.
“Come say hi to your Uncle Wily, little man.” The giant takes my baby away, walking toward a different room of the house and being followed by five excited children.
His cries die out within moments and I’m soon hearing his cute baby laugh, my heart melting as I hug Satch and listen to my boy play with his cousins.
“It’s so good to see you.” She squeezes me close. “And Tucker is adorable! I can’t wait to give him a cuddle.”
“Yeah, the Pied Piper of Football Frat kind of took off with him before I even had a chance to get a decent look at the guy,” Sienna grumbles, hugging me as soon as Satch has let me go.
I giggle. “You’ll get a turn.” Then I can’t help whining. “I wish we had longer. I’m so sorry we’re late.”
“Travel can suck,” Zander empathizes, grinning down at me before pulling me into a hug. “So good to see you, Dani.” He kisses the top of my curls before letting me go and handing me off to a very pregnant Nylah.
I ooh and aah over her beautiful belly, score myself a sideways hug from Carson, and am then squished between Blake and Grady.
Seriously, it is so good to finally be here and see everyone again. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed them. I’m starting to understand more and more why Tyrell wants to move back here and set up a home for us.
It’s just a matter of choosing where we want to go.
But being somewhere not too far from these wonderful people has to be a priority.
Tyrell catches my eye and we share a secret smile, this excited energy bursting through me. We’re engaged! I wonder when we’ll tell everyone.
He raises his eyebrows, quietly asking if we should just do it now, but my phone starts ringing before I can respond.
I pull it out of my jacket pocket. “It’s Tobin.”
“Take it.” Tyrell steps over to kiss my cheek. “We’ll tell them as soon as the call’s done.”
“Okay.” I grin, then quickly answer before it stops ringing. “Hey, you.”
“Ahh! She lives!” Tobin’s sweet voice makes me laugh, and I duck down the hallway, looking for a quiet spot to chat with him.
I find an empty office and perch my butt on the edge of the desk. “So, how are my favorite New Yorkers?”
“We’re good. I’m just calling to make sure you made it.”
“Yeah, we arrived a few minutes ago.”
“Ugh. What a saga!”
“I know.” I laugh. “It’ll be good to be on solid ground for a while.”
He pauses. “What does that mean?”
“It means…” I take a breath, building up the drama the way my old roommate loves.
“Tyrell and I have decided to settle down for a while. We’re not just hear for a visit this time.
We’re going to… you know… We’re gonna settle, give Tucker a chance at a really stable life for a while.
We’ll still travel for vacations and stuff, but no more really long trips. ”
“Wow. How do you feel about that?”
“It took me a minute to process when Tyrell first suggested it, but I’m actually feeling really good about it.” I grin. “And now we’re engaged, so it’s—”
“What!” Tobin shrieks.
I laugh. “Tyrell asked me to marry him.”
“Ahh!”
“What? Baby, are you okay?” Jed’s deep voice makes me smile. He must have heard his husband scream and come running.
“Dani’s engaged!” Tobin yells.
“What?” Jed’s voice quickly comes down the line. “Dani Girl? You finally getting hitched?”
“You bet I am.” I laugh again, joy bubbling up inside me.
“Put it on video call,” Tobin says. “I want to see the ring.”
“I don’t have a ring yet.”
“What!” Tobin’s horrified, which I see the second my phone beeps and I’m forced to change to a video call.
His face appears, all scrunched up in shock. “He didn’t buy you a ring? What is wrong with that boy? Put him on the phone. Right now.”
“Tobin.” I snort. “He asked me on the plane. It was this spontaneous thing.”
“But he means it, though. Right?”
“Of course he does. We have a kid together.”
“I know, but…” He cringes. “No ring. That’s like…”
His look of disgust is so funny I end up getting the giggles. Jed uses my inability to form a coherent sentence as an opportunity to dial Nix into the call.
“She’ll want to know,” he murmurs.
“Wait, what time is it?” I ask, but I’m too late. Her phone is already ringing, and I’m wincing in apology when her face fills the screen and it’s so obvious she was sleeping.
“This better be good,” she grumbles. “Nate’s got a cold and has been up and down like a yo-yo. If this call wakes him, I am going to end lives.”
“Sorry.” Tobin may have said that, but he sounds completely unapologetic. “I forgot you go to bed stupid early.”
“We go to bed at that time because our children don’t know the meaning of the words ‘sleep in.’”
“Well, maybe if you didn’t have so many…,” Tobin counters, causing Nix’s husband to pop up behind her and growl at the camera.
“Don’t you be dissing my family, dude. Those twins are meant to be ours.”
“Of course they are,” Jed quickly butts in. “And I don’t think of them as twins, I think of them as triplets. Zeke might look different from Sammy and Nate, but the three of them will be a trio for life.”
Nix’s smile grows. I can still remember the day she called to tell me that she’d had Zeke… and oh yeah, they were also fostering a set of twins who were found on a local church doorstep a few days earlier.
I couldn’t believe it when she first told me. They already had Sierra, who had only just turned four, and they were taking home three babies?
But it’s worked for them.
Plans were soon set in place to adopt Samantha and Nate. It took a few years, but the adoption was made official in December, and it was the best Christmas present ever.
It’s been hard, but it’s worked. And Samantha and Nate scored themselves a loving home and two people who want to keep them for life.
Hopefully they can avoid having to go through the uncertainty of foster care the way Nix had to.
She had a nightmare of a time, and she’s determined to save those two from the same fate.
“So, why are you waking us up at…” Darian turns back to check the time, then frowns. “Shit. It’s only ten o’clock. When did we get so lame?”
Nix snorts. “When you knocked me up and changed our lives for good.”
“It takes two to tango, baby.” He nuzzles her neck, and Tobin groans.
“Would you stop? Dani has big news. Epic news. And it was worth waking you up for it.”
“Okay, what?” Nix looks at the camera, all expectant, and I feel that thrill rush through me again. I’m about to tell her when she gasps, “Wait. Are you pregnant?”
“No.” I grin. “I’m engaged.”
Nix lets out a delighted squeal while Darian nods at the camera.
“It’s about damn time. Tell Tyrell congrats.” Then he flops back out of view, and Nix tells him off for not being more excited before turning back to me.
“I’m so happy for you, chica.”
“Thank you.” I laugh. “I’m happy for me too. I didn’t even realize I wanted to get married. We’ve always been saving for travel, so marriage just seemed inconvenient, you know? But the second he asked me…” I shake my head with a gooey grin. “Oh man, it was the best.”
“And on Valentine’s Day too.” Jed grins. “Good work, Ty.”
“Except for not getting you a ring.” Tobin’s eyebrows rise while Nix groans.
“I’m guessing it was a spontaneous proposal. She’ll get her ring eventually.”
“Actually, I don’t even want a ring,” I admit, again to Tobin’s complete horror. “I was thinking matching tattoos would be super romantic.”
“Yes, I love that!” Nix bounces on her bed.
“Shhh, woman,” Darian reminds her.
She scrunches up her face, then gives us an impish smile and whispers, “Let me help you pick out the design. Please.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I nod. “Definitely send me any ideas you find.”
“And let me help you plan your wedding. Please.” Tobin mimics Nix’s cute begging, but I’m shaking my head already.
“No way. We can’t afford whatever you’re imagining. I can tell you that right now. I’m going for something simple and cheap. I have no idea what that looks like yet, but—”
“I can do simple and cheap,” Tobin tries to argue, making Nix giggle.
“Dude, you basically just barfed the word cheap. You so cannot do it.”
“Ugh. Okay, fine.” Tobin flicks his hand through the air. “You just go ahead and serve your one-tier cake on paper plates. We can eat with plastic forks. It’ll be great.” His sarcasm even has Jed laughing now.
I snort and shake my head. “Maybe we won’t even have cake,” I tease him.
“Not have…” Tobin is once again horrified. He’s really perfecting that look tonight.
Nix gets in on the hassling too. “You know, I think a little backyard wedding would be adorable. You could get like buckets of KFC for catering, and we could probably find you a dress at a thrift store or something.”
“Girls.” Tobin is struggling to keep it together. “If you even think about doing something like that, I will be unfriending you both immediately. Dani deserves a beautiful wedding, and she will be getting a beautiful wedding! Now give me a budget that’s not ridiculous and let me work my magic.”
Nix and I start laughing at his obvious distress, and I’m about to agree to whatever he wants, just so he doesn’t have a stress-induced brain bleed… but then I hear my little boy crying. It’s his hungry, overtired cry.
“Guys, I gotta go. Tuck needs me.”
“Okay. Well, congrats again.” Nix blows a kiss to the camera, and I see Darian’s hand shoot up behind her and hear his muffled “Congrats.”
Tobin and Jed blow me kisses.
“So happy for you, girl.” Jed smiles.
“Thank you. And…” My throat gets a little thick with emotion. “Thanks for everything you’ve done for me. You guys… if it wasn’t for your encouragement, Tyrell and I might not have gotten together, and I will forever be grateful to you all.”
“Hey, we love you. We’ll do whatever it takes to see you happy.” Tobin blows me another kiss, then quickly calls, “Send me your budget!” before Jed hangs up.
I grin and stand up just as Tyrell walks in with a fussing Tucker.
“Feeding time.”
“Yes, it is.” I take my baby and soothe him with sweet murmurs as I carry him back to the living room and nestle into an armchair so I can feed him.
As soon as he’s latched on, his frantic little limbs relax and he starts to go limp in my arms. Hopefully I can nurse him to sleep and then creep to whatever room we’re in and put him down for the night.
“I’ll go set up his bed.” Tyrell kisses the top of my head.
“Thanks, babe.” I smile up at him, and he kisses me one more time, his wink all things cute and sexy as he follows Grady upstairs to find our assigned room.
Resting my head back, I let out a sigh. We’re finally here. Now I can start to relax.
It feels so damn good.