Chapter 16
Emma
Inviting Jonas to a cookout with my family was a mistake.
A massive, huge, overwhelming, what was I thinking? mistake.
And he’s not even here yet.
“Asking the triplets to come too was too much, wasn’t it?” I murmur to Laney and Sabrina over dishes while I watch seven of my very favorite people entertain Bash on the patio. Theo has the grill ready. Grey already seasoned the burgers. Zen’s kombucha is chilling in a cooler.
“You invited everyone who has a direct daily impact on Bash’s life,” Sabrina replies. “None of this is too much.”
“You wouldn’t have been out of line to invite more,” Laney agrees.
She turns a frown at the cats playing around the kitchen.
They have each other to play with, but they still insist on being where the people are.
“ Fred . Leave your sister alone. Snaggleclaw, that’s Cream Puff’s toy.
You don’t even like it. Fred . Enough .”
“We should definitely leave him alone inside for ten minutes to see how he does with the cats,” Sabrina says.
“I told him he has to pee in the woods.”
“Probably best for making sure none of the cats escape,” Laney says while Sabrina cackles in amusement.
For all that my destination wedding in Hawaii was a disaster, a lot of good came out of it.
Theo adopted a litter of stray cats who’ve been his and Laney’s pride and joy.
He even built them an addition on to his cabin and made internet stars out of them with a paid subscription site with all proceeds going to pet shelters around the nation.
Since Laney got pregnant, they’ve all gotten overprotective of her and won’t leave her side when she’s home.
It’s adorable.
And it’s also half the reason they’re building a larger house on their many-acres lot up here. So there’s room for the two of them, the cats, and the baby.
Grey and Sabrina met when Chandler sold the family café to Grey, who bought it with the intention of ruining it since Chandler once tried to ruin Grey’s life as well.
But after a contentious battle between Sabrina and Grey over what should happen to the café, now they’re expecting a baby and happily in love too, and she’s back to running the café that holds her heart.
I got Bash.
Sabrina’s cousins, identical triplets who were groomsmen in my wedding that wasn’t, are now Bash’s adopted uncles. They became a bigger part of all of our lives in the aftermath of the wedding when they took my side over Chandler’s.
And also when they started suspecting at my wedding that they were Laney’s half brothers.
They’re not—she took a DNA test and there’s no chance they’re half siblings.
We still don’t know who their father is, but now that they’ve ruled out the most likely suspect locally, they’re low-key curious while still keeping the secret from the dad who raised them that they’re not biologically his.
But the bigger point—we’re all tighter now.
I didn’t think twice when I texted the triplets that I needed extra backup at a family cookout where Bash would meet his father without being told that the man visiting was his father.
“Jonas will have enough to deal with outside,” I say as two different cats circle and rub my legs. “No reason to feed him to the cats. This time. We’ll see how the day goes.”
“Still feeling okay?” Laney asks.
This was her idea, and on the surface, it’s a good one. Give Jonas a small bit of what he’s asking for so he keeps thinking I’m reasonable and doesn’t pull in the lawyers, but do it where I feel safe and have a lot of people on my side.
But my stomach is wrecked like it hasn’t been since my stint as the world’s most famous runaway bride, hiding on a solo honeymoon.
Even pregnancy heartburn wasn’t that bad comparatively. And it was pretty unpleasant.
“I’m great,” I lie.
Theo and Zen look at us through the window at that exact moment, like they’re both listening and know I’m lying.
“Dipmuh!” Bash yells. He runs across the patio, chasing a chipmunk, his diaper hanging too low under his cute little blue shorts.
Way too low.
Someone has soiled his pants.
“Not it,” Decker crows, putting his finger to his nose in the universal sign for not it as well.
Jack and Lucky turn to each other and have a round of rock-paper-scissors, which ends in Lucky pumping a victorious fist and Jack groaning. “C’mere, little dude. Diaper change time.”
And this is why Laney, Sabrina, and I are in the kitchen.
Theo cleaned the house.
My dad set up the patio with enough chairs for everyone.
Grey brought half the food, most of it already assembled. Sabrina claims he did it himself.
Zen brought the drinks. They always let us try out the new flavors they’re working on. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve already dug into the cooler.
And the triplets are on doody patrol, as they call it.
Mostly because they nominated Jack to be their rock-paper-scissors representative to battle me for diaper duty over kitchen prep, and Jack is notoriously unlucky at rock-paper-scissors.
Outside on the patio, Jitter and Duke both lift their heads and visibly sniff. Sabrina’s St. Bernard and Grey’s chocolate lab are besties. Duke’s a few years older and has had a calming effect on Jitter, which is good, since Jitter weighs more than Sabrina does now that he’s nearly four years old.
But both dogs lifting their heads?
And sniffing not in Bash’s direction?
I wipe my hands, and a moment later, there’s a knock at the front door.
My stomach gurgles loudly enough for Laney and Sabrina to both notice.
Fred notices too. The kitty drama king takes off with a yowl like my stomach scared him.
Both of my best friends move toward the living room and the front door, but I leap in front of them. “I’ve got this.”
They share a look, then back off. “We’ll be right here if you need us,” Sabrina says.
“Yell at Fred,” Laney adds. “Use that as your cue word.”
I cross the living room to the front door, take one more big, deep breath, check the peephole, and then I open the wooden door to a problem I can’t avoid any longer.
It’s annoying that this problem isn’t hard on the eyes.
Jonas has gotten a fresh haircut. He shaved.
His lean arm muscles are lightly defined under his casual black T-shirt with two cats and a logo I don’t recognize.
His broad pecs are also outlined under the shirt.
He pushes aviators off his nose and up on top of his head, then he hits me with a warm smile that I would’ve called friendly back in Fiji, but which now puts me on high alert.
He’s still behind the screen door, necessary both for air flow in the summer and for cat control since Theo and Laney keep the cats inside. I know that movie-star-handsome smile will only get more potent when the screen door barrier between us is gone.
I open my mouth to say hello, or to tell him to go on around back so we don’t have to worry about the cats, but before I can utter a sound, Jack comes crashing into the living room.
“Hey, Em. Don’t worry. I’ve got the poop monster under control.”
“Poo mama!” Bash cries. “Big poopoo inna dydee!”
“It’s a massive poo,” Jack says. “I think it’s the biggest poo he’s ever had.”
“Big big poo!” Bash says.
And through it all, Jonas sucks in a breath, looking past me as Jack side-carries a laughing Bash through the living room and down the hall toward the bathroom, where there’s a permanent supply of wipes, diaper cream, and Bash-sized diapers.
I try to ignore the wonder and longing on Jonas’s face as he stares at the hallway.
He’d be a good dad , a small voice whispers in the back of my head.
We don’t blindly trust people anymore , I fire back.
My logic gets the message.
My heart does not.
“You can go around back,” I say. “I’ll meet you there.”
His brown eyes flick to mine, suddenly unreadable. “Thank you.”
He doesn’t ask who Jack is.
And I realize he probably already knows.
He probably has people who already researched us, which is likely as necessary in his world as the two muscular guys standing just outside the black SUV that clearly delivered him here.
He probably knows all about me.
“Holy patooties, Bash,” Jack exclaims down the hall. “Did you eat an entire dinosaur?”
Bash laughs.
Jonas angles his head to look in their direction through the screen door.
“Out back,” I repeat, and then, like a complete and total awkward fool, I shut the door in his face.