God made your soul and gave it mortal birth,
Nor in the disarray of all the stars
Is any place so sweet that such a flower
Might linger there until thro heaven's bars,
It heard God's voice that bade it down to earth.”
Everyone was staringat him again, as we had a tendency to do when he started spouting poetry.
He shrugged. “What? It’s a poem by Sara Teasdale.”
Brock chuckled. “And Sara Teasdale is…?”
“An American poet, born August eighth, 1884 and died January twenty-ninth, 1933. The poem is called ‘Soul’s Birth’.”
“That’s a very beautiful poem, Xavier,” Mara said. “Thank you.”
He didn’t look up. “I didn’t write it, I just quoted it. It seemed apropos for this momentous occasion.”
I laughed. “Holy shit, Xavier. You are one of a kind, brother.”
He blinked at me. “What? Why?”
I shook my head. “Never mind, kiddo.”
The baby went to Brock next, who seemed fairly comfortable holding the baby, and spent a few minutes doing the bounce and rock thing, and making the stupid cooing noises everyone seemed unable to resist.
When it was my turn and Brock turned to me and moved to hand the bundle into my arms, I panicked. “Wait, wait, wait. What if I fuck it up somehow?” I backed away. “You probably shouldn’t trust me with a baby, I might…I dunno, do something wrong.”
Zane took Jax from Brock and moved to stand in front of me. “Bax, brother, you are an idiot. I love you, seriously, but you’re an idiot.”
I gaped at him. “I know, but…why are you reminding me of this?”
“Because you’re not the fuck-up you seem to think you are.” He pressed the child into my arms, and somehow my body seemed to take over on autopilot, immediately cradling the tiny, fragile, warm bundle. “You’re a good person, a good brother, and you’ll be a great uncle.”
I stared down at the baby. He was…well, he looked kind of ugly to me. Squishy and wrinkled, and unhappy. His bright eyes were indeed green, staring back up at me like a freaky little alien. Cute, though. Irresistible.
I couldn’t help the grin that stole over me. “Yo, Jax, buddy, what up?” I intentionally used a normal voice, even a little deeper and gruffer than usual, just to make a point. “I’m your favorite uncle, okay? Let’s just get that squared away now, so there’s no confusion later.”
“Nah, man,” Brock cut in. “I’mhis favorite uncle.”
Mara laughed. “I think he’s bound to have seven favorite uncles.” She let out an exhausted sigh. “Let’s get the others in here so I can sleep.”
Brock, Xavier, Claire, and Dru all filed out, and I finally handed Jax back to his mom.
“He’s an ugly little shit right now,” I quipped, “but I think he’ll grow into his looks eventually.”
Mara shook her head at me, laughing softly. “Asshole.” Her eyes met mine. “Real quick, finish your story. What happened with Lauren?”
I groaned and rubbed my face with both hands. “Eh. We…dated, I guess you could call it, for four months. Then one day she came over after a date and sat me down and said she wanted to see other people. Which was really great timing because I was literally moments from telling her I liked her a lot and wanted to be clear about the fact that we were dating each other exclusively. I wasn’t, like, about to profess love or some shit, but it was a big fuckin’ deal to me to say even that much, and she beat me to the punch by dumping me.”
“That sucks,” Zane said.
I snorted. “Yeah. What was worse was when I asked her why.”
“What was her answer?”
