Selena is the only adult drinking a mocktail. It warms my heart to see the growing bump on her stomach. Keanu and his wife tried for a long time to have children, and it’s wonderful it’s coming true for them now. Their adopted son Jett is moving in with them on Monday. They tried to speed it up so he could be here today, but it wasn’t possible.
It’s probably for the best. We’re not exactly quiet when we are all together. It’s a lot to take in. We would most likely have scared the troubled teen. I know Alex will organize another family dinner in a few weeks after he has settled into his new home, and he can meet everyone then.
Kal and Kent are setting up freestanding speakers and hooking it up to some contraption that holds their iPhones and plays music. I can’t keep up with the technology available today. Not that I need to when I have a computer genius son in Keven. We are so relieved he has quit the FBI. It was becoming far too dangerous, and he has more than paid them back for his teenage misdemeanors.
“Are you going to just stand there or help?” Kyler says, arching a brow at his older brother.
“Haven’t you heard that saying about too many cooks?” Kade gestures between me, Kyler, and Brad. With so many mouths to feed on a regular basis, Alex had three industrial-sized grills built the same time she got the new pool installed. We have a fully equipped outdoor kitchen along with an expansive new patio area. Four new large wooden circular tables and chairs accommodate the entire family. “I think I’ll leave you to it.”
“Lazy shit,” Kyler murmurs under his breath as Kade slinks away.
“Don’t let your mother hear you saying that. She’s on a high today, and no one or nothing is going to put a dampener on her joy.”
“Relax, Dad. I was only joking. Sorta,” he adds, sharing a grin with Brad. Brad and Rachel are living with Faye and Kyler right now while they house hunt for their own place in Wellesley. I know my niece-slash-daughter-in-law is thrilled to have her best friend back on US soil, and Brad and Ky are thick as thieves again.
An hour later, we are all seated at tables, and the scent of chargrilled meat wafts in the air, rumbling tummies.
“I want to make a toast,” Alex says before the vultures demolish the mountainous plates of food.
“Hang on,” Eva says, standing. “We need champagne for this.” Austen and Presley join Eva in pouring champagne and offering flutes around. Hewson and Milly distribute mocktails to the kids and a fresh one to Selena. When everyone has a drink, we raise our glasses high as my wife makes her toast. “To the Kennedys. To family. To always supporting and loving one another through all the ups and downs. To success and happiness. To living our dreams.”
“Hear, hear.” A chorus of agreement rings out as heads bob, glasses chink, and drinks are drunk.
I stand and round the table, wrapping an arm around my wife’s shoulders. “We love you all very much, and we’re so proud of you. Family is the greatest enjoyment life has to offer, and every one of you enhances our lives in so many ways. Thank you for being here with us today. You mean the world to your mom and me.”
* * *
HEWSON
I pace the garden at the side of my grandparents’ house, out of sight of the oldies, who are partying like they are born-again teenagers and they won’t wake up with pounding headaches, sick stomachs, and excitable kids jumping all over them.
Nausea swims up my throat as the words lodge in my brain, and I almost throw up as reality knocks on my skull. “I am so fucked, so fucked, so fucked,” I murmur to myself, doing a damn good impression of a complete nutjob.
“Why are you so fucked?” a man with a deep familiar voice asks from the shadows underneath the side of the house. Kyler steps forward, his tall, broad, muscular form highlighted under the glow of the moon.
“Jesus. You almost gave me a coronary.” Panic bubbles up my throat as I contemplate how to avoid answering my uncle. I narrow my eyes as he draws closer. “Is that a joint?”
A smirk toys with his lips. “It is, but don’t tell. Your grandma would throw a hissy fit.”
“Pass it over and I won’t.”
“Not a chance,” Kyler says, taking a long drag on the joint and blowing smoke circles into the air. “Your mother would string me up if she knew I gave you weed.”
It’s not as if I haven’t smoked MJ before, but I don’t admit that out loud, for obvious reasons.
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed how you ignored my question,” my godfather says, eyeing me with concern on his face.
“It doesn’t matter.” I shrug as if my life hasn’t just upended.
“Hewson.” Kyler stubs the joint out between his fingers, rolling it up carefully and tucking it in the back pocket of his shorts. “If you are in trouble, you can talk to me.”
“You’ll tell my parents.”
He moves in front of me and tips his head up a little. I’m taller than my dad and all my uncles now, with the exception of Kaden who still has an inch on me. If I keep growing, I’ll outgrow him too. “Is this something they need to know?”
Hell no. Yes. Maybe. I don’t know.I shrug.
“You’re worrying me,” he adds.
