But, damn, did I love the man.
Epilogue
Gideon~
Okay, so the second time had to be a charm, right?
We were all back at Mom and Dad’s for another family gathering and Echo’s do-over. Even though Mom and Echo had talked and smoothed things out that Saturday, Mom had still been suffering some lingering guilt, and so, she had insisted on another family luncheon, this time, letting me invite Echo like normal people do.
Everyone was here, including Steven, as it was the last weekend before school officially started and Leta and Grant had to buckle down again. Leta was a senior this year, and everyone was excited for her. She didn’t have Echo for a teacher, but Echo had assured Leta that her door was always open for her, should she need anything.
Things had settled down and Say and Nate were even back to their normal annoying selves, but it had taken a couple of days for them to calm down.
We were all seated in the ginormous gazebo Dad and I had built for Mom some years back when she had thought Sayer and his then-girlfriend, Amy, were getting serious enough to give her forty grandchildren. While it hadn’t worked out for Sayer and Amy, the gazebo had stayed. Good thing, too, because we sure the fuck needed it now.
And things were going well, you know, like normal families all across the world, when Nathan stood up and snarled at all of us. “We’re pregnant, and if any of you think to go near my child with ideas about hockey, football, the Dodgers, or goddamn golf, I will never let you near my child ever again.”
While Mom and Dad were beaming with smiles, the rest of us saw the crazy in Nathan.
And the reason Grant was my little dude? He looked up at Nate, and said, “That’ll be kind of hard since I live with you guys, no?”
And honest-to-God, Nathan looked at his stepson and said, “You’ll be ten by the time he or she is born. That’s practically a grown adult. I’ll buy the house next door and you can live there.”
“Nathan!” Andie laughed. “Get ahold of yourself.”
Grant just shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe she’ll like to read.”
“She?” I asked.
He grinned over at me. “I already told them I want a little sister,” he announced. It made sense that he already knew. Steven probably already knew, too. That’s just the kind of dynamic they had.
“A little girl would be nice,” I agreed.
Then Grant looked over at Nathan. “I’ll make you a deal,” he offered. “Give me a little sister, and I’ll let her like baseball.”
“Are you blackmailing me?” Nathan asked, eyeballing his stepson.
Grant just shrugged and went back to eating.
“Wait? Aren’t the Dodgers baseball?” Echo asked, and I could hear Nathan disowning her already. “Why can’t he or she like the Dodgers?”
“See what you’ve done?” Nathan hissed at Monroe as he sat back down.
“Me?” she squeaked. “I didn’t even mention the Dodgers.Youdid.”
I turned to face Echo. “I know, right about now, you’re probably feeling the urge to run away and possibly move,” I told her. “But just know that, while I don’t blame you, you wouldn’t get far.” I leaned in and kissed her softly on the cheek. “You’re just going to have to get used to their crazy.”
Echo’s eyes bugged.“Theircrazy? You say that like you’re not crazy, too.”
“I’m not crazy,” I denied. “I’m passionate.”
“Oh, is that what we’re calling it?” she retorted. “Well, for the record, you’reverypassionate.”
“Can we please focus on the fact that Andrea’s pregnant, please,” Dad said over the noise. “This is wonderful news.” And it was. I was happy for my brother, but that got me thinking.
I glanced sideways at Echo. “And just for the record, our children will like hockey,” I told her. “Golf isn’t a real sport.”
“Golf is, too, a sport,” she argued a little too loudly.
“Are you high?’ Sayer harrumphed, and poor Echo was the only person, in the entire family, who liked golf. It was going to be a long Saturday.
The End.
