“Uncle Dex!”
She launches herself at him next.
Dex catches her easily, lifting her with one arm like she weighs nothing.
“Hey, trouble,” he grins, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “Miss me?”
“Yes!” she says without hesitation, then leans over his shoulder to look at me again, eyes sparkling.
By the time we make it to the table, the energy has doubled. Chairs scrape as people talk over each other, laughter rising and falling in waves, and somewhere in the middle of it all, Jude sits quietly.
He doesn't look out of place. If anything, it feels like he’s exactly where he wants to be, just watching, taking it all in, though there’s something distant in his gaze that wasn’t there before.
We take our seats, Mason ending up next to me.
Under the table, Dex’s hand finds mine.
I glance at him. His thumb brushes lightly over my knuckles before he reaches up with his other hand and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear.
The room goes quiet.
I don’t even notice it at first.
Until I look up.
Everyone is watching.
“Well?” Mia’s voice cuts through the silence. “Is she your girlfriend now, Uncle Dex?”
A beat.
Then Dex grins. “She sure is.”
He leans in and presses a kiss to my cheek.
And just like that, the room explodes.
“Oh my God!” Penny claps her hands. “Finally!”
“I like this,” Lily beams from across the table.
Josh reaches over, clapping Dex on the shoulder.
“About time, son.”
Voices overlap again, laughter filling the space as I am pulled into something bigger than I expected.
No one questions it.
And somehow… neither do I.
“All right, all right,” Dex calls out, laughing. “Let’s eat before this turns into a full-blown celebration.”
The noise rises again, plates pass, conversations split and reform, and I catch Mason looking at me.
Something in his expression softens.
We’ve always known what the other is thinking.
