My kids loved Uncle Danny, but you never really could predict what might come out of his mouth.
It also hadn’t taken very many family gatherings for the secret to slip out that Danny and Max knew each other. Bryn’s sister hadn’t seemed any the wiser, so Bryn had chosen not to explain exactly how Max and Danny knew each other. Bryn and Brittany had grown a little closer over the years, and Max and Brittany had a baby now, so she was around more now than she had ever been. It was good for the kids, even if it was a little challenging for us.
Bryn’s family was always welcome at our home, but her parents only stopped by now and again for time with the grandkids before they were off to their next exotic retirement destination.
Bryn shifted in my lap, her skirt riding higher up her thigh.
“You wearin’ panties under here, Mama?” My fingertips ghosted between her legs.
“Wouldn’t you like to find out?” She winked, crossing her legs and barring my entrance. “Now, behave yourself. He just got there.” Bryn pointed at my brother across the yard. “I can’t tell what he’s saying, but he’s got the finger out. He’s wagging his finger at them!”
She started cracking up, the way her eyes sparkled and her cheeks blushed made me fall a little harder for her every time. My hair had grown salt and pepper around the temples over the last ten years, the laugh lines deepening, but my love for Bryn had also grown. Seeing her birth our four babies had been nothing short of witnessing a miracle, watching her raise them, nurture and love them, filled my own soul up with happiness. Not a day went by that I didn’t doubt I was the luckiest motherfucker on the planet.
“Oh, he’s coming back.” Bryn whispered as Danny walked through the crowd. He got about halfway before someone stopped him. A flash of dark hair, a warm smile, a quick touch of the hand.
“Look what’s going on there.” I nudged Bryn.
“No…Sophia? The social worker?”
“She’s nice.” I tipped my head, watching as they interacted. Seeing the way my brother leaned in, hands hovering at her elbow, smile unnaturally wide. And then a laugh. The fucker laughed. “She just made him laugh.”
“What do you think she said?” Bryn cocked her head to the side, eyebrows furrowed.
“It must have been a riot, I haven't seen Danny laugh like that since he shoved worms down my shorts in front of my crush when I was eight.”
“Worms? Oh god, that’s gross.”
“Just wait, when Larson gets a few years older him and Will are going to torture each other. It’s a boy thing.” I tapped her nose.
“A boy thing?” She huffed, eyes sliding back across the crowd eating and laughing in our backyard. “So glad we had girls too.”
I grinned, sliding my hands up her neck to cup her cheeks. “You gave me four beautiful kids, Bryn. And you, and them, are my entire world.”
“I know, tough guy, you tell me every day.”
“Never want you to forget it. The day I stop telling you is the day I fail as your husband.”
“The day you stop making me the happiest woman on the planet is the day hell freezes over, Brodie Merrick.”
“Mmm, think they’ll notice if I kidnap you now?” I caught her lips in a kiss, soft and slow, savoring the taste of the uniquely intoxicating flavor of her. My girl.
“Someone fill me in, I need all the details you’ve got on Ms. Sophie Watkins.” My brother slapped me on the back, interrupting our kiss and plopping on a chair next to us.
“Back so soon?”
“She said I was good with the kids, I think that’s my in. Can I borrow one of the kids, maybe set up a play date at the park for us?”
Bryn’s eyes bulged at my brother. I couldn’t help but laugh when I said, “You don’t have to use my kids to get a date man, I hear there’s a website for that.”
Danny narrowed his eyes, before straightening the collar of his shirt and standing. “I’m gonna go get her a drink, wish me luck.”
“No bodily fluids at my house, Danny!” I called to his back. He spun, that smile I remembered from my childhood plastered across his face, before he flipped me the bird.
Bryn and I both burst into laughs.
Ten years on, four kids, two cars, and a mortgage later and Bryn and I were happier than we’d ever been.
Things had fallen into place when we’d met, as unexpected as it had been.
So what would we tell our kids someday when they asked how we met?
As fate would have it, mommy needed a fake Valentine and daddy was one lucky motherfucker.
THE END.