“My mom once chased Theo all over town on a motorbike,” I tell Jonas, filling in the details of Bash’s favorite story about mymom and brother. He heard it once a month or so before Theo and Laney’s wedding, and he’s repeated it every time anyone’s mentioned my mom since. “Heborrowedone from someone, and she happened to be sitting in the salon getting her hair cut when she saw him ride past, so she took off after him on another borrowed motorbike. With foil in her hair. She was having it dyed. The story is a little legendary around here.”
“How old was he?” Jonas asks.
“Eleven.”
We both look at Bash, who’s grinning while shoving the last of his crumbled cinnamon roll in his mouth. His perfect every day would likely be eating fake cinnamon rolls and hearing the stories of Uncle Theo’s escapades so he can plot his own fun once he’s tall enough to steal a motorbike.
“Yeah,” I say on a sigh as I meet Jonas’s eyes again. “I think about that sometimes, and decide I can save thinking about it more for when he’s a little older.”
Jonas smiles at me. “I got this one.”
And there go the warm fluttery happies in my heart.
“Mama more cimmanin woll?” Bash bats his eyes at me. “Pwease?”
“I don’t got this one,” Jonas murmurs.
I’m laughing again as I hand Bash another cinnamon roll bite. It’s a good day for a treat. Why not?
My heart is full this morning.
Sofull.
I never would’ve had morning cinnamon roll breakfast picnics if I’d stayed with Chandler. It would’ve beensilly. Or we would’ve hadmore importantthings to do.
And I haven’t had them often with just Bash and me, because thereisa lot to do when you’re doing it solo.
But today, we’re all hanging out in the backyard, just being.
No rush.
Nowhere else to be.
Cleaning can wait. Laundry can wait. Checking the text messages that I know I’ll have waiting from Laney and Sabrina can wait.
Right now, I get to just be.
But more important—I get to be with my family. I pull Bash into my lap as he’s licking his fingers. “Hey, you,” I murmur in his ear. “Can I tell you something?”
“Mama tell me everting.”
Mama doesnottell him everything. But I’ll let him think I do. “Do you remember I told you Aunt Laney’s growing a baby in her belly?”
“Uh-huh.”
“And Uncle Theo is that baby’s daddy?”
Jonas sucks in a breath next to me, and I swear I feel my heart swell as if it was his.
Pretty sure he knows where I’m going with this.
Bash sticks his finger in his mouth and stares at me.
“And Aunt Sabrina’s growing a baby in her belly too, and Uncle Grey is her baby’s daddy?”
“Everbody has daddies,” Bash says like he’s reciting it from a book.
Which he is.
