Chapter 13 #2
“I hate to disappoint her,” he whispered, as her tiny hands reached for him, as Callum buckled her in.
The lump in my throat was ridiculous, but I swallowed it down, shoving a grin onto my face while we both waved like fools through the frosty glass until she finally gave us a sleepy little smile back.
The ache in my chest sharpened as the car pulled away.
I had five niblings at last count—three nephews, two nieces—and I would never know them.
Never get to hold them, or read them bedtime stories, or let them crawl all over me the way Willow did.
To them, I was a ghost, erased from the family tree before they were born.
A nameless shadow their parents would never mention.
The weight of that hit me harder than I expected. I shoved my hands deep into my pockets, blinking away the sting in my eyes as the laughter and chatter of the Haynes family faded into the crisp air.
“What’s wrong?”
Hunter’s voice was gentle, and then he tugged me in, firm and warm, wrapping around my shoulders by his car. I let myself lean into his solid strength for a second.
“I’m just… fuck… I’m just fucking sad, okay?” I sounded defensive.
He stepped back a little so he could look me in the eye. “Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, the concern in his tone cutting right through me.
“I wish…” My voice cracked, and I tried again. “I wish I’d gotten to know my nephews and nieces. But I won’t. And that’s… fucking horrible.”
Hunter didn’t say anything, simply tugged me close, and I breathed in the steadiness of him.
“I’m sorry, Wes.”
“But family finds you, doesn’t it? In bookshops and coffee shops, on parade floats, in people who call you ‘Uncle’ even when you’re not.
I may never have the family I lost, but I know I’ve found the one I need.
” I let out a shaky laugh when he didn’t answer.
“God, listen to me. I sound like a Hallmark movie.”
“Maybe,” Hunter said, his voice warm against the cold. “But you’re not wrong.”
BB’s Diner had never looked so full. Every booth was crammed, tables shoved together until the place was one long line of plates and chatter.
Bailey and Kai were hosting this year, and Bailey had gone all-out—pumpkin centerpieces, mismatched but festive tablecloths, every inch of space filled with platters of turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pies that seemed to multiply whenever my back was turned.
The air smelled like cinnamon and roasted everything, and the sound of laughter bounced off the tiled walls louder than the jukebox ever could.
We were squeezed into a booth along one side—me, Hunter, Lucas, Brooke, and little Willow, who had climbed onto Lucas’s lap the second she spotted turkey.
She was a food thief of the highest order, reaching with sticky fingers for mashed potatoes one second and snagging a green bean the next, popping them into her mouth with the solemnity of a queen sampling delicacies.
None of us stood a chance. By the time she was done, all our plates looked like a crime scene.
Lucas didn’t protest, just grinned like the big softie he was, feeding her slivers of pie crust while Brooke rolled her eyes affectionately.
Across the table, Callum was cutting Alice’s turkey into careful bite-sized pieces, Duncan was already sneaking an extra dinner roll, and over by the counter, Bailey clinked his glass with a spoon.
“Okay, everyone,” Bailey called, his smile so wide it could’ve lit the whole room. “Before the pie coma sets in, I want to say something.”
The chatter dimmed to a low murmur. Even Willow paused in her food raid, blinking up at him with gravy-smeared cheeks.
“Our families are everything to us,” Bailey said.
“Even my annoying brothers,” he added with a crooked grin that made the room ripple with laughter.
“And I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to put into words how thankful I am for that.
” He swallowed, and for a second his eyes shone.
Then he laughed softly, raising his glass. “To home. And to Wishing Tree.”
Glasses lifted, a ripple of “to home” echoing back, warm and heartfelt.
Kai and Bailey exchanged a glance and then Kai slipped an arm around Bailey’s shoulders. “And while we’re talking about family—we’ve got an announcement.”
An expectant hush fell.
“Our surrogate is twelve weeks along,” Kai said, his smile blooming like a sunrise. “We’re going to be daddies in the summer.”
The diner erupted. Cheers, clapping, whoops of joy, hell, the squeal of the coffee machine in the background sounded celebratory. Bailey went pink as people shouted congratulations. Callum slapped Kai on the back, Brooke dabbed at her eyes, and Lucas whooped loud enough to rattle the windows.
And me? I sat there grinning like an idiot, heart so full it hurt.
Willow, oblivious to the life-changing news, shoved another roll into her mouth and reached for Hunter’s slice of Kai Pie. He handed it over without a word, and I laughed at how easily he surrendered.
But the thing that really caught me was him.
Right there, in the middle of it all—Hunter.
Not hunched and brooding. Not stiff and distant.
He wasn’t grumpy at all. His eyes were alight, his mouth curved in a real smile, his hand brushing mine under the table as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
He laughed at Lucas’s jokes, clinked glasses with Callum, and let Willow steal half his dinner without so much as a sigh.
For once, the weight he’d been carrying this last week or so seemed lighter.
And God, watching him like that—watching him here, woven into the noise and joy of it all—I selfishly hoped that maybe he’d found a place he could belong to.