“Sorry, Mommy,” Amelia pouted. My dad got to her then and gave me a small smile before picking up his granddaughter.
“I’m so happy you are excited to see me. But listen to your mom, okay?” My dad asked as he tickled her belly.
“I promise, Grandpa.” And then she patted his beard before kissing his cheek.
“That’s my girl,” Shep Montgomery said with a big smile on his face.
“She’s a menace,” I said with a laugh as I moved forward and kissed my dad on his other cheek.
“There’s both of my girls.”
My dad had been the best father a girl could ask for. Seriously. When I had shown up on their doorstep fresh out of college, pregnant, and alone, they had immediately taken me in and helped me figure out what I was going to do. I had known that with my dual degrees of journalism and English literature I wanted to go into publishing but starting off as an intern and moving out to New York like they did in the movies just wasn’t going to happen. Not only was it unaffordable, I was a mother now. So thanks to my mother’s tutelage, I’d begun my own business. I was a freelance content editor, and also wrote articles when needed. I was a full business, with a waitlist for clients. I worked with publishers, indie authors, and hybrid ones too. It wasn’t glamorous, and I wasn’t rolling in Gucci bags, but it provided a living for my daughter. And I knew that I was privileged to do so because my parents had supported me.
Brick had come from more money than my mother had. And if he had paid even an ounce of child support, I wouldn’t wake up in a cold sweat every once in a while, wondering what would happen if my career changed. What would be my backup for my backup.
“I’m sorry for taking so long to get here,” my dad said as he set down Amelia so she could play with John some more.
“I thought you were bringing the boys?” Mom asked, and I nearly rolled my eyes like my daughter had earlier. Because the boys could mean any one of fifty. It could be my cousins or my dad’s cousins. Honestly it was a little scary how many of them there were.
“Lex and Crew said they were going to come today. They were bringing extra cold chicken.”
“Did someone say chicken?” John asked as he stood up, Amelia upside down in his arms.
“If you break my child,” I warned, and John just beamed.
“They’re on their way. They had to park on the other side and gave me the elder parking up front.” He rolled his eyes at his comment, and I pressed my lips together trying to hide my grin.
“If you laugh young lady,” my dad warned, but he was still smiling.
“Well let’s get the rest of the picnic set up since they’re coming soon,” my mom said, though it sounded more like a question.
My dad held up both hands. “I swear they are coming. With chicken.”
“I love chicken,” Amelia said as she rubbed her little belly.
“Same, my child. Same,” Dad added with a wink.
We cleaned up the excess paint that was thankfully water-soluble. It wouldn’t hurt the environment, and it would come out of everybody’s clothes and hair. It was just a mess to start with. And then we started to set out the cold salads and chips and other sandwich materials.
By the time we were ready to eat, Crew and Lexington came forward, each with a bucket of chicken in hand.
“Sorry we’re late. Work thing,” Lex offered.
I didn’t ask Lex, but I grinned up at him as he kissed the top of my head.
“Hello, cousin of mine.”
“Hello there, cousin,” I teased.
Technically Lex and I were second cousins or first cousins twice removed. We didn’t do the math like that. Everybody in our generation were cousins and we just went with it.
It was far easier for secret Santas during holiday time.
“There’s my girl,” Lexington said as he held out his arms, and Amelia threw herself into them.
“One day she’s going to get so tall she’s going to knock me right over,” Lexington teased.
“Don’t age her so quickly,” I said, my hand on my stomach.
