Chapter 49
ZACH
The day after the big fake wedding wasn’t what I thought it’d be. For one thing, I wasn’t hungover, which was a miracle considering the amount of alcohol Dad and Mr. Morris had supplied. For another, the girls were worn out and calm for once in their lives.
It was late afternoon and Westwood Manor had settled into a rare kind of peace, filled to the brim but not chaotic or loud.
It was just that everyone was home, lazy, and enjoying spending time together, but in a way we’d last done years ago, on Sunday afternoons before the start of another school week.
Sunlight streamed through the massive back windows while people drifted between rooms carrying coffee, pastries, and children. Some of whom were my children.
It had been two weeks since our actual wedding, but the thought that Jennifer and Lu were mine now too still hit me like a pleasant bolt out of the blue every few minutes.
Adeline was blissfully calm, sitting with Charlotte, Eliza, Jane, Kate, and Jacqueline in the sunroom while Jennifer attempted to braid Emma’s hair and Lu lay on her back on the floor, letting Little J jump over her legs.
Every once in a while, Adeline looked up and smiled at me, and every single time, I forgot what I’d been thinking or talking about. It’s a damn good thing she doesn’t work in my office. We’d be broke in under a year.
This morning, my brothers and I had officially moved her and the girls—and Amber, for the time being—into Westwood Manor. Well, we’d helped, anyway.
I’d had an entire professional moving team packing their apartment for the last two days while another team unpacked everything room by room. Since the Westwood men specialized less in manual labor and more in supervision, we’d all shown up to help.
Including Trent, who’d actually done some heavy lifting when he’d complained that the movers weren’t doing it right, but the guy was a rancher. Manual labor was his forte.
“You were all just pretending to help when in reality you carried maybe one moderately heavy box,” he was saying now, still giving us shit for it even hours after the movers had left.
“That’s exactly what Alex did,” Jesse agreed with a smirk curving his lips as he tipped his beer toward our oldest brother. “Big ups for always managing to look busy, man.”
Alex huffed out an offended-sounding groan. “I coordinated. Do you know how important that is? Otherwise, kitchen things end up in Lu’s room and you’ve got a box of stuffed animals in the buffet. How is that useful?”
“You pointed at things,” Will said, shamelessly having his twin’s back. Although they’d gone through a bit of a rough patch with the whole Eliza thing, it looked like it was business as usual with our very own Dynamic Duo now. “That’s not coordinating. It’s directing traffic.”
“Also known as leadership,” Alex argued, rolling his eyes. “I don’t like it when you guys team up against us. It’s not fair. Nate, Zach, how about a little help here?”
I snorted quietly from the couch where I sat, holding Tyler gently against my chest, absolutely refusing to even think of him as Tiberius. “Don’t look at me. I’m not your twin, man.”
“Thanks for nothing.” Alex sighed and shook his head, then looked around for Nate, who was too busy watching Emma and making sure she didn’t take off on Jennifer.
Meanwhile, I averted my gaze to the tiny human lying in my arms. He really was unbelievably small but was apparently a perfectly reasonable and healthy weight. He was also weirdly judgmental for someone who couldn’t hold his own head up yet. In a word, he was adorable. Perfect. I loved him already.
Charlotte wandered past, narrowing her eyes at me when she realized I had her son. “You’re holding him correctly.”
“Why do you look so suspicious about that? I know which end of a baby is up.”
Alex scoffed down a laugh. “You were terrified the first time you held Cameron.”
“Yeah, but that was only because he blinked weird. It looked like his eyes were rolling back in his head.”
“That’s because he was tired,” Alex said emphatically. “If you’d just held on to him for a few more seconds, he would’ve fallen asleep.”
“Giving him back to the adult in charge made more sense to me at the time,” I said solemnly.
Charlotte laughed. “Yeah, that sounds more like you.”
As if on cue, Tyler yawned in my arms and I groaned. “You should take him now.”
“Nope,” she said happily, sashaying away before I could even think about handing him over. “You’re good. If he blinks weird, give him to his daddy.”
Trent held his hands up and shook his head. “Both his mama and his daddy are enjoying this break. If he blinks weird, give him to Uncle Alex. He seems to know exactly what every kind of blink means.”
“F—” Alex stopped short when he seemed to remember the amount of kids in the room, clearing his throat before he pivoted. “Screw you, Shepherd. It’s called experience. You wish you knew everything I did.”
Nearby, Nate was now trying unsuccessfully to stop Cameron from trying to draw Emma into a pool noodle sword fight, turning to send Alex a murderous glare. “If you know everything, care to tell me how to stop your son from terrorizing his cousin? Emma is relaxed for a change.”
“Make sure they watch the good crystal!” Dad yelled from somewhere down the hall, but nobody listened.
For a while, it really felt like the house was home again. No one was stressed, in a rush, or fighting about anything serious. It felt like a blast from the past, all of us together under the same roof again, just hanging out.
I should’ve known it wouldn’t last, though, and when Alex emerged from the dining room, carrying another cup of his coffee and his I’ve-got-news face, I knew he was about to make everyone uncomfortable.
Theo was sprawled lazily across an armchair nearby, but as soon as he noticed Alex, he sat up and preemptively started shaking his head. “No. I’m not doing it.”
Alex frowned. “I haven’t even said anything yet.”
“You have your matchmaking eyebrows on. I know what that means.”
“I do not have matchmaking eyebrows.” Alex’s frowned deepened. “What even is that?”
Jesse laughed and clapped his hands together. “Oh, wow. He’s right. You totally do.”
Alex sighed and looked back at Theo. “Can we talk for a second?”
Theo’s chin lifted, his head canting slightly. “What do you want to talk about?”
Alex smiled, but before he could say the words that would inevitably ruin Theo’s day, Theo pointed at Tyler. “Sorry, man. Can’t. The baby needs me.”
“The baby doesn’t know who you are,” Alex said.
Theo shrugged. “Maybe not, but he feels me. We’re spiritually connected.”
“No, what he feels is gas. That’s it.”
Theo rose from the chair in one fluid motion. “Unfortunately, I’m busy today.”
“With what?”
“I have to go die now.”
Alex sighed. “Just hear me ou—”
“Nope. No. I’ve seen this movie. Every man in this room knows exactly what you want to talk to me about. Probably even Tyler, Little J, and Cameron know, and it’s not happening.”
“Theo—”
“I’m not ready for the ambush you’re planning.”
Naturally, we all knew exactly what conversation was about to happen. Theo wasn’t wrong about what was coming for him, but the rest of us also knew there was no outrunning it. Even so, I knew he was going to try even before he took off, practically sprinting out of the room.
Nate watched Theo retreat toward the hallway before glancing at Alex. “Hey, what happens once you run out of brothers to marry off? What are you going to do with all your free time once it’s over?”
Jesse immediately turned toward Colin Thayer, who’d been peacefully eating leftover wedding cake in the corner, but froze when he realized Jesse was staring at him. He snorted and started shaking his head before anybody had even said anything.
“Nope. That’s not happening.”
Jesse arched an eyebrow. “Why not?”
Alex looked thoughtful now, but he still hadn’t said anything when Colin scoffed. “Everybody can stop looking at me. I’m not doing it.”
“That’s usually how these things start,” Trent said. “I vaguely remember saying those exact words myself once upon a time, and look at me now.”
Jesse nodded enthusiastically. “You see? Resistance is futile, and besides, you’d look good vulnerable and devastated. It does amazing things for self-reflection, bro.”
Colin squinted at him. “Why are you like this?”
“Genetics,” Jesse replied. “It’s not my fault.”
The guys exploded into laughter and Tyler stirred against my chest, but he was fast asleep. I adjusted my grip on him, carefully not to jostle his tiny, warm body.
“The Thayer family has plenty of bachelors,” Jesse said, obviously not giving up. “Alex will have too much time on his hands. Honestly, you all know it’s only a matter of time before he sinks his claws into Colin and his brothers.”
Colin looked back at Jesse, his eyes wide and horrified. “Why are you acting like any of us have signed up for this?”
“Because you will,” Alex said, sounding almost gleeful, but at least he sat down again and settled back against the couch, still thoughtful but allowing Nate to steer the conversation to safer territory after a few more minutes.
The guys joked and reminisced over everything that had happened over the last couple years, most of them now blissfully married despite all the drama.
It still felt surreal to me sometimes, the fact that I’d now joined their ranks still short-circuiting my brain a little whenever I really sat with it for a minute.
I eventually returned Tyler to Trent’s arms before I accidentally bonded too hard and refused to give him back. He’d been asleep against my chest for almost twenty minutes and a love for sleeping babies was already close to taking over my entire personality.
Bear suddenly came barreling through the house, Cameron and Emma sprinting after him at full speed. Nate tensed before realizing the dog was the thing being chased and not Emma, the relief on his face visible.
Parenthood had fundamentally altered him, which was also true for the rest of us, I supposed. Just three short years ago, Nate would’ve watched children launch themselves through a window and stoically continued eating dinner.
Definitely not true anymore.
Adeline caught my eye from across the room and smiled again, crossing toward me. Eliza distracted Jennifer with dessert and Lu attempted to convince Theo, who’d evidently escaped Alex by going to join the girls, to let her help him fix his motorcycle.
When Adeline reached me, she slipped her fingers gently around my wrist. “Can we talk?”
I nodded, joking as we walked away together. “It’s too late. We’re already married.”
Surprised when the joke didn’t get a laugh out of her, I frowned, my footsteps actually faltering when I realized her smile was nervous and her eyes too wide. I tightened my grip on her hand and pulled her into the nearest room.
“Hey, what’s wrong? Did someone say something to upset you?”
“No,” she said quickly. “Nothing is wrong and everyone has been amazing.”
“You know, historically, that’s what people say right before they drop a bomb that makes an entire family implode.”
Her mouth twitched, but she curled her fingers into my shirt and tugged me closer. “Come here.”
I stepped closer to her willingly, but my heart was suddenly racing, my palms even growing clammy when I realized she was looking at me like she was trying to gather courage.
Before I could start hyperventilating over the possibility that she’d changed her mind, she rose onto her toes and whispered against my ear.
As soon as I realized what this was about, I had to grab the edge of the table beside me to stay upright, my knees going weak so fast, it was embarrassing.
I genuinely didn’t know what else to do with the sheer amount of emotion trying to rip through my chest, so I folded her into me and just held her, my eyes sliding shut against the tears threatening to fall.
Five minutes ago, I’d thought I was happy. Fulfilled. But now, I knew that no matter how good things were, it was always possible for them to get even better.