Rose
“All of the speeches tonight have really tested the structural integrity of my makeup,” I say as I stand at the microphone, wringing my hands together.
“You’re still gorgeous, love!” Macy calls from somewhere in the crowd.
I wave her off, which only makes her laugh as she leans into Jade. “Thank you, Mace. Please stop encouraging the hormones.”
That gets a laugh, and I take a breath before looking around the room.
“James, cover your ears for this part.”
“God. Gladly.” He immediately puts both hands over his ears.
“Once upon a time, I met a boy with an old soul and kind eyes.” I pause intentionally. “Then I rode him like an untrained bull on the Fourth of July.”
Jackson’s head falls back as he loses it.
Michael throws both hands into the air like I’m the problem in this room, which is rich considering the man has spent the better part of my adult life making every family gathering exponentially worse.
My girls scream and clap on my behalf while Samson and Lauren simultaneously pinch the bridges of their noses.
“Listen, it’s relevant to the story, people.”
“Is it?” Michael calls out.
“Yes, BenBen. Some of us understand narrative structure.”
James, hands still firmly over his ears, says, “I can still hear you.”
“Then cover them better.”
Jackson is still laughing so hard that he has one hand over his face.
I point at him. “See? He remembers.”
That gets another roar from the room.
“As I was saying.” I take a seat on the stool behind me. “That night started the great love story that is Rose and Jackson. Then I met him again when Michael introduced him as his twenty-year-old best friend, the fucking liar.”
“Hey, you lied too!” Jackson calls out.
“Semantics. Hush now, you’ve already given your speech. So rude.” I wave him off and turn back to the room. “Anyway, back to how Jackson lied about his age, but it didn’t matter.”
I look at him and put a hand over my heart.
“I fell in love with him that night and never stopped. Believe me, I tried. I tried very fucking hard. But it turns out there just isn’t a version of me that doesn’t love that man.”
Jackson wipes the tears from his cheeks, and I give him a second because I'm not completely heartless. Also, I'm about to make it worse.
“Now, our story gets bigger.” I wave around the room. “Our found family. My son. How I love saying that word.”
James smiles at me through his tears, and I blow him a kiss before resting a hand over my swollen belly.
“And our babies.”
I keep my eyes directly on Jackson because I have been waiting weeks for this, and I refuse to miss a second of his reaction.
At first, there isn't one. He's still sitting there smiling at me while the information spreads through the rest of the room.
Macy's mouth drops open, Jade grabs her arm, Michael leans forward in his chair, and somewhere to my left Blaire gasps.
Jackson, meanwhile, is still smiling.
Come on, baby. Catch up.
His eyebrows finally pull together, and I watch his eyes drop to my stomach before slowly coming back to my face. They go down again.
Finally.
He shoots to his feet so fast his chair kicks backward and somebody's glass goes over on the table. “BABIES?!” His voice cracks hard enough to send the room into hysterics. “Babies?! You said babies!”
“Surprise!” I say, holding up one hand while the room fucking erupts around us.
Jackson doesn't even seem to hear them. He's staring at my stomach with his mouth hanging open, looking so completely fucking stunned that I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing at him.
“There are two babies in there?”
“Well, don't sound so alarmed.”
“I'm not alarmed! I'm...” He looks around the room like maybe someone else can identify whatever the hell is happening to him. “There are two?”
“Yes, baby.”
“Since when?”
I stare at him. “Since conception, presumably.”
The room loses its shit again, and Jackson points at me as he starts making his way around the table. “No, smart-ass. Since when have you known?”
“A few weeks.”
“A few fucking weeks, Rosalie Jackson?” By the time he reaches me, his hands are already going to my stomach, spreading over it like knowing there are two babies in there has somehow changed the dimensions. “And you didn't tell me?”
“I wanted to surprise you.”
“At our wedding?”
“I considered skywriting, but this felt more intimate.”
He looks up at me, and all the shock and disbelief on his face suddenly gives way to tears.
Well, shit. There goes my fun.
“We're having two babies?” he asks, quieter now.
And fuck him, because that gets me too.
I put my hands over his where they're resting on my stomach. “Yeah, baby. We're having two. A boy and a girl.”
His face completely changes.
Then he pulls me into him so fast I lose my footing, and he has to wrap both arms around me to keep me steady. The room erupts around us, people clapping and screaming as they crowd closer, but Jackson barely seems to hear any of it.
He kisses me hard, laughing against my mouth, one hand still spread protectively over my stomach like he suddenly needs to keep all three of us attached to him at once.
When he finally pulls back, he cups my cheek in his palm.
My eyes flutter closed for a moment before I lean into his hand and look up at him.
“Hi, Mama.”
I smile through the tears. “Hi, Daddy.”
His eyes change. “Oh... fuck yeah.”
Groans come from the crowd, and I stare at him for half a second before I realize what just happened, and then I burst out laughing. “Absolutely not. Do not make that filthy right now.”
“Too late.” His grin spreads as he pulls me closer. “You called me Daddy. I heard it. My body heard it. We all heard it.”
“We are standing at our wedding reception, surrounded by our family.”
“What she said!” Michael yells.
“I didn't choose the timing, Mama.”
“Jackson.”
“What? I'm just saying, we're clearly going to need to revisit the terminology later.”
I slap a hand over his mouth before he can make it worse, but he's laughing behind my palm, eyes bright and completely fucking shameless.
“You're disgusting.”
He kisses the center of my palm.
“And you married me.”
Ugh. Fine.
I slide my arms around his neck and give him the sweetest smile I can manage. “Yes, Daddy. I sure did.”
“Fuckkk yes,” he growls, pulling me tighter against him.
Michael throws both arms into the air. “For fuck’s sake!”