Chapter 32 - Carissa
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Carissa
The dining room was loud, messy, and perfect. Pizza boxes lay scattered across the table, some half-empty, some barely touched, cheese strings clinging to slices as we passed them around.
Boone had sauce on the tip of his nose and he kept refusing Henry’s attempts to wipe it off, which sent the kid into a fit of giggles.
Gage was smirking over the way Henry insisted on dipping his slice in ranch, and Dawson…
well, Dawson was carefully wiping his hands on a napkin while trying not to spill anything on the floor, which, let’s be honest, was hopeless.
And in the middle of it all was my dad, sitting at the head of the table like he’d been adopted into this chaos by some strange twist of fate. A twist I thought would never happen when I took the plunge and told him I was dating all three of them. At the same time.
He’d looked a little bewildered at first, but he fell in love with Henry the second he met him. The rest was easy. Now he laughed freely, teasing Boone about the sauce on his face, and giving Gage a hard time.
Dawson loaded a plate with two more slices and held them out to him across the table. “Mr. McCabe. I got you one pepperoni, and one plain cheese.”
“I keep telling you, call me Arthur,” my dad corrected with a smile.
Dawson rolled his eyes, but I caught that tiny twitch at the corner of his mouth, the one that said he’d conceded on some level. Boone teased him relentlessly, forgetting how nervous he’d been around my dad for the longest time.
Henry, meanwhile, had been bouncing between laps and chairs, piling cheese on his pizza like a tiny architect building a mozzarella monument.
He suddenly stopped mid-bite, set down his slice, and went to climb into my dad’s lap.
He gazed up at the old man with that earnest little face that could melt glaciers.
“Is it okay if I call you Grandpa?” he asked, tilting his head. “I never had a grandpa before.”
The room quieted for a fraction of a second, just long enough for my dad’s eyes to mist over. And then all of our eyes did the same.
“Guess what?” My dad’s voice was thick with emotion. “I’ve never had a grandson before, so I think that’s an excellent idea.”
Henry wrapped him in a killer bear hug that almost sent them both toppling from the chair, my dad laughing his deep, belly-rolling laugh. This time though, that laugh I’d grown up with seemed to crack with something that sounded a lot like tears.
Boone and Gage, sitting on either side of me, reached out under the table, each taking my hand and giving it a squeeze. My chest felt like it was expanding in every direction at once. Bursting with love.
I leaned back in my chair for a second, taking it all in: Henry’s little body wriggling with excitement, my dad’s laughter echoing across the table, and the men, my men, coming together out of love for this crazy family we’d built together.
“You know what will make this celebration perfect?” I announced, sitting up straighter and giving them all my most conspiratorial grin.
All eyes turned to me, and I drew out their anticipation until Henry looked as if he would explode from curiosity.
“A helicopter ride. Your grandpa wants to take you.”
Henry’s reaction was instantaneous; he shot out of his chair, punching the air with both fists.
“YES! YES! A HELICOPTER RIDE!” His shriek of excitement bounced off the walls, and I had to laugh, scooping him up so he didn’t knock over any more pizza boxes.
Boone was already standing, closing up the boxes, while Gage took Henry from me, and spun him in a wild circle.
“You’ve lost your minds,” Dawson muttered, though I could hear the warmth in his voice.
My dad, still grinning, shook his head. “Makes for the best kind of families. Come on, grandson.”
We said our goodbyes, and then they were gone. Everything felt so quiet without Henry in the house. Peaceful, though.
“Well,” Dawson said, “what are the rest of us going to do?”
Gage snorted. “You act like you don’t already know.”
“Already know what?” I asked.
Boone narrowed his eyes at me. “What we intend to do to you.”
A shiver ran through me. “And what exactly do you intend?”
The three of them smiled wolfishly.