Page 90 of The Trouble with Flings

Everyone laughs, while I cringe inwardly, because even though Fitz takes it in stride, I worry people outside my family will think I’m trying to rope him in with this pregnancy.

“Fitz is a funny name!” Thane announces as my parents walk in.

“Is he too young to learn about glass houses?” my father teases, already looking like he’s plotting his next joke and as casual and comfortable as usual in one of his many faded T-shirts and jeans, his salt-and-pepper stubble scruffier than he ever let it grow before retirement.

“Jacob,” my mother chides, her silver-streaked brown hair framing her face as she follows him in.

“He’s right. My name is funny,” Fitz says, and crouches beside Thane, looking him in the eye. “What’s your name?”

“Thane Jacob Remington,” he says proudly.

“That’s a great name for a race-car driver,” Fitz says.

Thane beams at him.

“I’m Kyleigh!” my niece chirps, pushing between Fitz and Thane. “I’ve got deadlocks and a pawty dwess!” She twirls around, her tiny braids swinging over the shoulders of her frilly yellow dress dotted with tiny white flowers.

“I see that. You’re more beautiful than a princess,” Fitz gushes.

She beams.

Max tugs on Fitz’s sleeve. “Max!”

“Nice to meet you, sir.”

“Max is afwaid of the dark!” Kyleigh exclaims.

“Kyleigh,” Jayla says.

“He is!” Kyleigh insists.

“It happens to the best of us.” Fitz lowers his voice, as if sharing classified intel, and says, “Want to know a secret?”

All three kids lean in, nodding.

“I was afraid of the dark when I was little, and when I got scared, I’d go into my big brother Grant’s room. He’s basically a superhero.”

“Wow. He’s like my dad,” Thane says.

“Attaboy,” Rush says with a cocky grin.

“Can Gwant fly?” Kyleigh asks.

“No,” Fitz says. “But if dragons were real, I’m pretty sure he could slay them.”

The kids gasp.

“Grant told me a secret about the dark,” Fitz says.

“What secwet?” Kyleigh asks.

Max plops down on the floor in front of Fitz, listening.

“The dark is just what happens when the sun goes to the other side of the world.”

“It’s scawy!” Kyleigh says.

“At first, before you know its secret, it is kind of scary,” Fitz says.