Epilogue #7
Becca doesn’t even slow down — kisses my cheek, then Ryan’s, then sees Tobias and says something in Russian. He answers immediately. Not a word. Not a phrase. A whole sentence. Becca responds. He fires something back. She switches to French, and he follows. Then Spanish.
His eyes narrow. “Don’t.”
Becca smiles, and says another sentence.
“I don’t speak Spanish.”
“I know.”
“You’re doing it on purpose.” She says something in Mandarin, and Tobias points at her. “See? That’s rude.”
Danny grabs something from the refrigerator. “She has two new weapons now.”
Becca says something in Arabic.
“BECCA. Use one of the ones I know.”
“Learn more.”
“I’m ten. And I already speak three languages.”
“English doesn’t count.”
“It absolutely counts.”
Katya’s voice comes from the doorway — Russian — and Tobias whips around to answer. Theodore is behind her carrying two catering boxes, his wedding ring catching the light.
Katya starts laughing, and Becca joins her, and Tobias groans. “You’re all annoying.”
Piper appears. “What’s annoying in French?”
“No,” I say.
Bella answers from directly behind Katya, and Tobias whips around. “Why would you tell her?”
“You’re creating a monster,” Iz tells her.
“You helped.”
“I taught him proper French.”
“And I improved it.”
“Your French isn’t better than mine.”
“My everything is better than yours.”
They came in the door mid-argument and they’ll leave the same way; four years hasn’t changed that. Tobias says something in French, Bella answers, Iz cuts in, Becca joins them, and within seconds all four are arguing.
Piper looks at me. “Grenouille.”
“Exactly.”
Then everyone else starts arriving. And arriving.
And arriving. Nobody waits at the door. Nobody asks where anything goes.
They know. Alice walks straight into my office to leave a folder of new illustrations on my desk.
Saoirse puts her bag beside mine, because apparently we are discussing nonprofit work tomorrow morning whether I like it or not.
Louise sees the frosting on Piper’s dress and looks personally wounded.
Clifford tells his wife it’s children’s clothing and therefore functioning exactly as designed.
Louise tells him to stay out of it. Gideon and Walter take over the grill with Ryan.
Cassandra comes through from her house carrying the serving bowl I forgot over there yesterday.
Delilah gets ambushed at the door by Piper demanding to know whether she brought art.
Arthur steals something off Katya’s tray and gets his hand slapped.
Theodore kisses his wife and steals something anyway.
Thomas walks in carrying two trash bags, because Cat intercepted the literal Governor of Massachusetts outside and informed him the bins were full.
“Really?” he says to his daughter.
“You have hands.”
“I have people for this.”
“You’re at a four-year-old’s birthday party.”
Kaid raises his drink. “Welcome home, Governor.”
Thomas flips him off. Piper appears. “Dollar.”
Thomas looks down. Then silently reaches for his wallet, and everyone laughs.
And just like that, our house isn’t ours anymore.
It’s theirs. All of theirs. The girls crowd the kitchen.
The boys take over the yard. The parents drift between both.
Tobias disappears with his friends and comes back whenever he smells food.
Piper runs from person to person like she personally invited every one of them for the sole purpose of worshipping her. Which, honestly, she probably did.
Ryan comes inside looking for another bag of ice and finds me instead, his hand sliding around my waist. “Ready?”
Outside, somebody yells. Cat yells back. X swears. Piper demands a dollar. Tobias demands fifty. Katya starts laughing. Becca says something in Russian. Bella answers in French for absolutely no reason. Iz immediately gets involved.
I look up at my husband. “Yeah.”
He kisses me. “Let’s go celebrate our monster.”
His hand settles over our baby and we walk outside together.
Ryan
By the time the party is fully underway, Piper has made eleven dollars. Tobias has made eighty-three. I know because he counted it in front of me. Twice.
“That’s extortion.”
“Inflation.”
“You don’t know what inflation means.”
“Yes, I do.”
“You’re ten.”
“I can read.”
“Give me my money back.”
“No.”
I laugh and look toward Ally. She’s under one of the trees with Mom, Katya, Saoirse, Becca, Penny, Cat, Bella, Louise, Alice, and Delilah — all the girls, all talking at once.
Ally’s dress stretches over our baby. Five months. Our second. Piper understands there’s a baby in Mommy’s belly. She does not understand why the baby couldn’t come out today so they could share her party.
Tobias understands perfectly and has already informed me October is “full.” I explained that’s not really something we can schedule retroactively. He told me he didn’t need details.
Tobias still has his hand out. “Twenty.”
“For what?”
“Accusing me of extortion.”
“That is literally what you’re doing.”
“Twenty-five.”
“Go play with your friends.”
He grins and does. One of those friends immediately follows him toward X, who’s sitting at a table with Penny tucked into his side, the bruise from Vegas still visible if you know where to look.
His pro contract changed something outside this family.
Inside it, he’s still X. Piper spent ten minutes earlier putting a plastic crown on his head; he wore it until Penny made him take it off for a picture.
Tobias’s friend approaches like he’s meeting royalty. “Mr. Anderson?”
X looks behind himself. “Who the fuck is Mr. Anderson?”
From twenty feet away —“DOLLAR!”
Tobias doesn’t even turn around. “FIFTY!”
X closes his eyes. His new fan looks horrified.
Penny laughs. “You get used to it.”
The kid looks at Tobias. “He just won in Vegas.”
“I know,” Tobias says. “We watched.”
“He’s going pro.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s Xander Anderson.”
Tobias looks at X, then back at his friend. “That’s X.”
X’s expression changes. Just a little. Penny notices — of course she does — and kisses his cheek.
X hooks an arm tighter around her, then looks at Tobias. “Dude.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Tobias shrugs and takes his friends toward the lake.
I watch them go. He doesn’t look back. Doesn’t check where Ally is.
Doesn’t check where Mom or Dad are. Doesn’t ask permission to exist outside somebody’s line of sight.
He just goes. Ten years old. Secure enough to be annoying as fuck. Exactly how it should be.
Across the yard, Kaid is arguing with Cat. “I did not say nuclear engineering is unnecessary.”
“You implied it.”
“I said public policy affects nuclear energy.”
“Which is adorable.”
“Stop calling my degree adorable.”
“It’s your master’s.”
“Stop calling my master’s adorable.”
Cat lifts her left hand, the engagement ring flashing. “You proposed to me knowing who I am.”
“Worst decision of my life.”
“Liar.”
Kaid grabs her around the waist, and she laughs when he kisses her. Berkeley hasn’t changed them. Neither has getting engaged at graduation. Different coast, new programs, same fucking chaos.
Danny passes behind them carrying two plates, and Becca reaches out and steals something from one without looking. He stops. “Becs.”
She looks at him. “You had two.”
“One was yours.”
“Exactly.”
Her engagement ring flashes too. Stanford graduation gave us two engagements and approximately fourteen hours of Cat screaming about wedding planning before both couples threatened to elope.
Danny’s at NYU now, working toward his PhD in bioengineering, focused on addiction research.
Becca graduated with enough languages to communicate with half the planet and immediately started her policy analysis internship with the Executive Office of the Secretary-General at the UN.
English. Russian. French. Spanish. Then Mandarin and Arabic, because apparently four wasn’t enough.
Tobias comes running back toward the food, and Becca says something in Russian. He answers without slowing down. Katya joins. Danny says something too — his Russian is a hell of a lot better after four years of living with Becca. Then Becca switches to Spanish, and Tobias stops.
Katya laughs, and Theodore catches her around the waist, and she leans into him.
Married. Finally. Last spring. There was so much food at that wedding that we ate leftovers for three days, because Katya catered half her own reception before Mom and Becca physically banned her from the kitchen.
Now her home catering business has grown enough that Mom brings up a storefront at least once a month.
Katya’s answer is always the same: she has a kitchen. Why would she need another kitchen?
Piper runs into the middle of them. “Privet!”
Katya immediately crouches. “Privet, moya malen’kaya babochka.”
Piper throws her arms around her, then spots the food. “Pozhaluysta.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
“Pozhaluysta.” Katya laughs and gives her one. Piper takes a bite. “Spasibo.” Then — “Merci.”
Tobias groans. “She does that.”
“I know both,” Piper announces.
Becca crouches beside her and says something slowly in Russian.
Piper catches enough to answer. Wrong. Tobias corrects her.
She tries again, and Becca smiles. Then Bella calls something to Tobias in French from across the yard, and he answers immediately, and Iz cuts in, and Bella fires back, and Becca joins, and now all four of them are talking in French — fast, overlapping, Tobias gesturing like he’s forty instead of ten.
I look at Ally. “Do you understand any of that?”
“Not a fucking word.”
Piper appears beside her. “Dollar.”
Ally sighs and pays. Tobias yells from across the yard. “FIFTY!”
“You weren’t even part of the conversation!”
“I heard it!”
“This is bullshit!”
“ONE HUNDRED!”
Ally stares at him. Becca doubles over laughing.
I fucking love this family.