Everyone was focused on Kamirah, Carina, and Peanut, but movement caught my eye. Minns shifted to the corner of the room and used the wall for support. His movements were slow, like he was in pain.
Conversation surrounded us, but I was happy to be in our little bubble, Jacques on one side of the bed and Rusty and I on the other, with Carina and Peanut between us.
“Her eyes are as blue as yours,” Carina murmured to me.
“She’s got big lungs like her papa too,” I teased.
“And strong hands like her daddy,” Carina added, looking at Rusty.
He blushed, color streaking across his cheeks, and he huffed out an embarrassed laugh. There was no way he could be Peanut’s biological parent. But that didn’t stop any of us ensuring he knew he was Peanut’s dad too.
“She’s as beautiful as you,” Rusty whispered to Carina, leaning in to kiss our little girl.
Kamirah shifted away and gestured for Cara to come closer. She climbed straight onto the bed with her mum and Peanut, then curled into Carina’s side. She had a battered old teddy bear with her, one that looked like a mangy antique. Its pale green-and-grey fur was patchy, rubbed down to bare material in a few places. There were rough stitch marks along a few joins in faded multicolored wool, and it was missing a glass eye too.
When Cara held it up, she said, “I bought Rupert.”
Carina choked out a laugh filled with emotion and brought the teddy to her chest, hugging it with her free hand. “How did you get him?” she asked softly, her voice filled with joy.
“Dad pulled him out of storage for me and shipped him over.” She turned to us and explained, “Rupert was Mum’s teddy when she was a baby. Oh, my goodness gracious.” She gasped. “What happened to your face?”
I looked around the room and realized Minns had moved from his position slouched in the corner to stand next to his wife. His hoodie was pushed back just enough that we could see black bruising under his eye and along his jaw.
“What the fuck?” Hux asked, shoving past Rusty to get to Minns. He pushed his hood back and growled. “Who did this to you?”
“It’s nothing,” Minns mumbled. “Just leave it, Hux.”
“No.”
“Hey,” Roe said gently to Hux, wrapping an arm around his waist. “This is about the new family. Perhaps we should take it outside.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” Hux said, flicking his gaze around the room and letting it linger on Peanut.
“Have you been looked at by a doctor?” Roe asked.
“He has,” Kamirah said with a nod as she eased Minns’s hood back over his head. “He just needs to take it easy for a few weeks to let everything heal.”
“Cara,” Minns interjected. His voice was barely a rasp, as if it hurt for him to speak with any kind of volume. He cleared his throat and continued, “You were saying.” He waited for Cara to continue, but she hesitated, looking between Hux, Roe, and Minns before Kamirah encouraged her to tell the story again.
“Ah, yeah. Um, Rupert was Mum’s favorite teddy when she was a little girl. She gave him to me when I was born, and he became my favorite too. So now it’s…. Wait, what have you named her?”
Jacques looked between us. “Is she a Charlie, a Chloe, or a Cadey?”
Carina answered immediately, “Charlie.”
“Charlie,” I seconded as Rusty nodded with a smile.
“Definitely Charlie,” he added.
“Meet Charlie, everyone.” Jacques grinned, his eyes alight with joy. He was devastatingly handsome in his suit, but that smile made him a knockout.
If the others didn’t know before, that conversation and the way I was no doubt looking at Jacques like I wanted to devour him just clued in all the people in this room to our relationship status. But no one blinked.
I was grateful that they all respected our decision to stay quiet—I expected it from Hux and Roe. As queer men themselves, they knew what it was like. But as far as I knew, Minns wasn’t. Still, I didn’t think for a second that he’d say anything to the press. His own scandal had seen absolutely zero comment from him or his agent. Only the team’s PR rep had released a statement.
Staying private was no longer about Jacques’s contract renewal. That had come through, and with a five year no-trade extension, Jacques knew he’d likely play most of his career at the Seals. We simply didn’t want our lives to change. We didn’t want the craziness that would come with news of a four-way relationship, the “think about the children” crowd butting their noses in, or the scrutiny of Jacques’s game.
We just wanted to be together and be happy. We wanted to raise Charlie. We wanted to watch her grow into an incredible, strong, and capable young woman. We wanted to spend our lives loving one another and our daughter. We wanted to grow old together after having shared a lifetime of memories.
