31. Jess
Ten Months Later...
“What do you think?” I ask, gesturing in a taa-daa! motion. It’s a warm, sunny, spring day in Atlanta, and the air is heavy with the sweet honey scent of azalea blossoms.
Courtney stands beside me, looking chic as ever in a white linen jumpsuit that clashes with her big, black backpack.
But, her expression is entirely unimpressed as she lowers her sunglasses and squints at the adorable (if I do say so myself) navy van with white, scripted writing that’s just pulled up in front of us.
Or, maybe she’s just unimpressed to see who’s riding shotgun.
Aiden jumps out of the passenger seat and jogs over to give me a hug. “Hey, J." He grins sunnily, then narrows his eyes as his gaze shifts. “Courtney."
"Charming as ever, I see, Aiden." Courtney crosses her arms over her chest and returns the dirty look in dividends.
"That's Prince Charming to you."
"More like the frog," Courtney snaps back.
“Hey, she kissed the frog, too. Remember?”
“Stop it guys,” I say halfheartedly, knowing my words are useless. This is nothing new with Aiden and Court—in fact, the most surprising thing about that little exchange was Aiden’s remarkably good knowledge of Disney princess movies.
"Do you like the van or what?" Conor slams the driver's side door and strides towards us in a way that makes me want to reconsider our little party and drag my husband straight to the bedroom.
Our bedroom. In our house. In our bed, which we've slept in together, curled around each other like bookends, every single night for the past five months. Ever since we said, "I do."
My big brother joked that he would give us his blessing the second Conor made an honest woman out of me. So Conor rose to the faux-challenge and he wifed me as quickly as we could make a wedding happen.
And every day between then and now, Conor has made me feel more loved and more cherished. Even when I leave coffee rings on the countertop.
After we officially got together, Conor moved in with Mia and Pete until our wedding.
Instantly bonded to little Addie, Conor was happy enough to live in their bright, very loud madhouse with a couple of tiny new temporary roomies.
And Mia said he was an extremely helpful houseguest, even getting up to change a few diapers in the middle of the night.
She referred to him as their “Manny”, which I think he secretly liked.
I continued to stay with Aiden, enjoying quality time with my best and only big brother, and Conor and I spent every spare moment working on the new house—and we designed every square inch of the place together.
It turns out that we work well as a team, our talents seamlessly overlapping and smoothing out each other’s edges.
When the house was finally complete—my paintings on every wall—we had a beautiful ceremony in our backyard. And then, I pushed Conor in the pool. For revenge, you know. Just because I'm married doesn't mean I've gone all soft and lovey dovey at every opportunity.
"Hey, love." I smile up at Conor as he wraps his strong arms around me, and nuzzles my hair. Both Courtney and Aiden redirect their glares in our direction.
Yeah, so I might have been lying about the lovey dovey thing.
But, love does incredible things to a person. And, if my best friend and my brother would just drop their whole tortured-enemies fandango, maybe they'd end up with something incredible, too. But hey, that's another story for another day.
"Sorry we're late!" Mia calls as the Stevenson family’s own new van—a seven seater, three row, soccer-mom-fantasy of a vehicle—pulls up outside our house.
“Not late,” I amend. “Perfectly on time.”
Tonight, we’re hosting a little garden party for our friends.
Luke and Mindy, who are now a couple, will be in attendance.
Mindy and I will never be besties, but she calmed right down after she and Luke got together.
She also never tried to steal my boyfriend.
Not that she would have been successful.
Karla, on the other hand, will not be in attendance. She and Conor have gone their separate ways, professionally. Last I heard, she’d gotten into specializing in downtown penthouses for city-slicker types. Which seems to be more her speed.
The party doesn’t start for another hour, but we’ve gathered Courtney, Aiden, Mia, Pete and the kids early for the big van reveal.
Pete smiles and waves as he climbs out of the soccer-mom-mobile and begins unbuckling Oliver. The second he’s free, the toddler runs in our direction, arms wide.
“Auntie Jess!” He wraps his little pudgy arms around my shin, and I ruffle his hair.
Courtney, meanwhile, swoops over to assist Mia with baby Adelyn, who apparently single-handedly changed my best friend's mind about the whole "no children" thing. She scoops Addie up in her arms, cooing to her and stroking her big, chubby cheeks.
“Don’t drop the baby,” Aiden mutters, more to himself than to Courtney. Because even he knows it would be a bad idea for her to overhear that one.
Mia runs over and envelops me and Conor in a big, group hug. “I love your new van, guys. Love, love, love it.”
Her eyes are big and sparkly, and while Mia always brims with positivity, she’s suspiciously enthusiastic about the van. Like she knows something.
I side-eye Conor, but he just shrugs and mouths, “I didn’t tell her.”
“The Brady Bunch,” Pete slowly reads the writing on the side of our new business vehicle.
Mia applauds and I grin at the way the name sounds. Grin at the thought of everything it means for us.
You see, Conor and I had so much fun renovating our house and designing a dream home to spend forever in together, that he realized working like this was infinitely more rewarding—and enjoyable—than flipping cheaply-bought fixer-uppers and selling them to nameless, faceless buyers via realtors and open houses.
When Conor considered the past few years, the only projects that stuck out to him were the house he flipped for his mom, and the work he did at Aiden’s house. His highlight was seeing the faces of people he cared about after the job was done, and being able to say “welcome home”.
And so, after our wedding and our whirlwind honeymoon in Costa Rica (less sightseeing than I’d expected, but we did see a lot of the inside of our hotel room), we’ve been working on our brand-new, joint endeavor.
We rebranded Brady Homes to be our new, family business—The Brady Bunch. We focus on modernizing heritage homes, while retaining their original charm and character. And then, we come up with picture perfect design, furniture and artwork to tie our transformations together.
And, to my absolute delight, my art is so popular that I actually sell some on the side.
To people who don't need renovations, just a breath of fresh air in their home decor. I even got a call from an anonymous buyer in New York City last week, but I don’t have time or brainspace to dwell on who that could possibly be.
I’m too busy being happy and fulfilled and pursuing my dreams.
And, of course, The Brady Bunch has one other meaning…
“I’m just not sure about the name.” Courtney frowns again. “On the The Brady Bunch TV show, they had, like, a million kids. And Bunch suggests a few. You know, like a bunch of bananas? And there’s only two of you…” Her eyes suddenly narrow. “Unless…”
Heads swivel to look at me, and I can’t keep the smile off my face.
I glance at Conor. Nod.
Mia squeals.
Courtney let’s out a massive “WHOOOOO!”
And Pete and Aiden just blink in confusion.
My gorgeous, handsome, incredible husband puts a hand on my big brother’s arm. “You’re going to be an uncle, again.”
I don’t know who starts it, but suddenly, we’re hugging each other. And, as I lean into the warmth of the closest people I have in my life, I feel my husband’s arm around me, strong and steady. And (I blame hormones for this one), just as suddenly, I’m crying.
“I love you, Jessica Brady,” Conor whispers in my ear. I tilt my head to look at him, and the sight of his glowing green eyes makes my stomach flip with a now-familiar mingling of love, desire and sheer, unbridled happiness.
“Love you, too.” I smile at him through my tears of joy.
Because, finally, I’m home. Where I belong.