Spencer
“How, precisely, did we wind up with so many children at our wedding?” I glanced around the room and tried to count.
Meg and Big Mac had brought a very vocal Ella. Her pipes were going to rival Axel’s.
Axel and Hugo were fostering two teenagers from Hugo’s school. The parents of the twin girls had died a month ago. Rather than letting the girls go into the system, Hugo had stepped up. He wasn’t the girls’ teacher, so there wasn’t any conflict. With the economy being so tight these days, a lot of kids were in the foster system.
The social worker, after performing an extensive home visit, had decided Hugo and Axel would make good foster parents. This hadn’t been in their plan, but they’d pivoted beautifully. The two girls often had sad expressions on their faces—totally understandable—but they were smiling today.
Possibly because they’d been tacitly put in charge of Yardley and Johnnie’s three foster children. The men were helping out a single mom who was going through a rough patch.
Somehow, through Hugo, Mama had met Yardley—who taught with Hugo—and Johnnie, a hooker for the Vancouver Orcas rugby team. The husbands had been hoping to have kids of their own someday, and fostering was perfect for them.
Mama had taken the men under her wing. A wing that encompassed a few other kids I didn’t recognize. She’d rented out a hall, and so we had about forty adults and what felt like almost as many children.
“There are so many kids because we let Mama have her way.”
“Oh yeah.” I grinned. “Good thing—this might’ve been a boring party without such…entertainment.”
“Keeps the rock stars in line. Hard to be the star of the show when you’ve got a six-year-old girl stealing the microphone and singing her heart out.”
I met Malik’s gaze. “She’s going to be a powerhouse.”
“Last year, at Rocktoberfest, one of Hugo’s prodigy students sang with Axel.”
“If you’re still doing this in ten years, I suspect you can look up that…” I frowned. “To whom does she belong?”
“One of Mama’s exonerated legal-aid clients.”
“Ah, right.” Because of course the little one did. Mama’s list went far beyond close family and friends. “Hey, where’s Creed?”
Malik swiveled his head. “Gone again. He was a great best man, but he’s been MIA since the speeches. What do you think that’s about?”
“I just don’t know. Maybe in the new year you can have a chat with him?”
My husband scoffed. “You think he’ll open up to me?” He eyed Mama and Abrianna. “I think even they’re in the dark.”
“Maybe I’m making too much of this.” I sipped my hot chocolate—the drink we’d served instead of champagne. Well, and eggnog—but that shit was just gross.
Reese drank it by the cartonful.
I’d always wondered about her.
Ah, aside from her enjoyment of weird Christmas beverages, she was a good woman. Every single person here was the best. They’d made today special—if a little eccentric.
“You ready to dance?” Malik rose and held out his hand.
“To our forever?”
He grinned. “You better believe it.”
And so we did.
