“Didn’t dodgeball get outlawed at some point?” Sam asked.
“It should be!” Aubrey said. “It’s the worst game.”
“I love it,” Scotty said, earning a high five from Alden.
“Please don’t outlaw dodgeball, Dad,” Alden said in a pleading tone.
Nick felt the bottom drop out of his stomach when Alden called him Dad for the first time. His throat closed around the biggest lump ever as he tried to manage the emotional wallop. After clearing his throat, Nick said, “I’ll see what I can do to keep it legal.”
“Boo,” Aubrey said.
“That’s the trouble with politics,” Scotty said. “You can never make everyone happy.”
“You said it,” Nick said as he glanced at Sam to find her dabbing at her eyes.
“Can we have ice cream after dinner?” Aubrey asked.
“Only if you’re in the Clean Plate Club,” Nick said. “I see some green beans still on your plate.”
She made a face to express her dislike of that rule, but she started eating the beans.
“I’d like to go back to Scotty being asked to the eighth-grade dance by two girls,” Nick said. “What did you say to them?”
“I said, ‘No, thank you.’ What else could I say?”
“How about, ‘Yes, that would be fun’?” Sam asked, smiling.
Nick could tell she was still trying not to explode with laughter.
“It wouldn’t be. I’d have to hang out with her instead of my friends, and that would stink. Plus, I barely know either of them, and are they asking me because they like me or because I’m your kid?”
Nick was pained by the question and the enormous weight his loved ones carried due to his role as president. “They asked because they like you and probably think you’re cute.”
“Ew, what guy wants to be considered cute?”
“It beats ugly,” Alden said, sparking hilarious laughter.
“You have a point there, brother,” Scotty said, smiling.
Shelby giggled madly. “This family needs its own TV show.”
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Celia said.
“No, thank you,” Sam and Nick said together.
Sam mopped tears of laughter from her face while Nick got up to dole out ice cream to the Clean Plate Club. If there was anything better than this family he and Sam had stumbled into together, he hadn’t yet experienced it. To see Scotty in the role of big brother—and little brother to Elijah—was also thrilling.
After the kids took their ice cream upstairs to watch TV with Celia and Shelby took Noah and Maisie home for baths and bedtime, Nick approached Sam, who was loading the dishwasher and wiping the countertop. He slid an arm around her from behind and kissed her neck. “Two girls asked him to the dance.”
Smiling, she turned and rested her hands on his chest. “I can’t even.”
“I hate that he wondered if it was because of us.”
“I did, too, but he rolls with it. He’s so proud of you and doesn’t care at all about the BS that comes with being your kid. He’d take you as president over any other dad in the world.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.”
