A few years later…

“Grace! Alexa!” Trinity shouts from the front porch of our cabin. She has a fussy, unhappy Brittany on her hip, so it’s up to me to wrangle the others.

“When are the girls going home?” I ask. I’ve been outnumbered all weekend and am beyond ready to send them home with their parents. “This is supposed to be our vacation cabin, not a summer camp.”

“Oh, stop. You know you had fun taking Alexa and Grace fishing.”

“Yeah, but it stopped being fun after dinner when Grace had a hissy fit and—” I jerk my chin at the squirmy bundle in Trinity’s arms, “she screamed all night long.”

“Poor Bit-Bit,” Trinity coos, looking down at her. “I think she misses her mom. It’s her first time away from Heidi.” She glances up at me and grins. “You’ll get your boys’ day out. We’re watching Chance next weekend.”

Before I can grumble about that, the older girls race over the lawn and slam into my legs one after the other. “You two are way too big to be doing that,” I teasingly scold, while ruffling their hair.

“Pick me up, Uncle Wrath,” Alexa demands. She reminds me so much of Heidi at this age. I swing her up into my arms, and she plants a kiss on my nose.

“You look just like your mom did when she was little.”

She beams, showing off the spot where she lost a tooth last night.

“What about me?” Grace asks. “Do I look like my Mommy?”

“Don’t know what your mom looked like when she was little, squirt. Probably.” She screws her face into her pre-hissy-fit pout. “But you’re cute as a button,” I add, which puts the brakes on the waterworks.

As soon as I set Alexa down, she races up the porch steps to check on her little sister. Grace throws her arms up in the air, so I lift her up next, and we join Trinity and the girls on the porch.

Grace and Alexa end up pulling out their coloring books. Together they sit at our feet chattering and coloring.

Trinity winks at me over Brittany’s head.

“I’m going to fuck you so hard when they go.” I silently mouth the words at her and point two fingers at the girls. Trinity laughs and shakes her head. I make an exaggerated hip thrust, which makes Trinity laugh even harder.

Alexa turns and studies us. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing. Whatcha coloring?”

She picks up the coloring book to show me, but we’re distracted by Murphy’s truck coming down the driveway. The girls jump up, ready to run down the steps, but I grab them by the backs of their shirts. “No. We don’t run up to moving vehicles,” Trinity scolds.

Once Murphy parks, I let the girls go and they scramble down the stairs. I follow behind them.

“So, did you finally knock her up with a boy?” I ask, nodding at Heidi.

She rolls her eyes and rubs her hand over her stomach. “That’s not how biology works, Uncle Wrath. You can’t get pregnant when you’re already pregnant.”

“If anyone could do it, he could,” I answer, which makes Heidi roll her eyes again and Murphy laugh.

Brittany—I refuse to call her “Bit-Bit” like everyone else does—struggles and reaches for Heidi as soon as she sees her and lets out a screech when Heidi stops to give Alexa and Grace hugs. “I’m here, baby,” she coos, finally freeing Trinity up.

Alexa runs to Murphy and wraps her arms around his legs. “Were you good?” he asks, picking her up.

She entertains him with stories of all the fish we caught but leaves out the part about not touching any worms. At my feet, Grace explodes into tears. “Where’s my mommy and daddy?”

“Oh, honey. They’re like half an hour behind us. They’ll be here soon,” Heidi explains.

I pick Grace up, and she wraps her little arms around my neck, crying and snotting all over me.

“I think she’s tired,” Trinity says softly to Heidi who nods. Grace ignores both of them and holds on to me tighter.

“You ready to go home, Gracie?” I ask.

“No!”

Trinity bursts out laughing.

Later, when everyone’s gone home, our cabin is nice and quiet. We’re still lying in front of the fireplace—where I attacked Trinity as soon as the last vehicle left our driveway and did exactly what I promised earlier.

“This is nice,” she murmurs, snuggling against me.

A low noise of agreement rumbles out of my throat.

“You did have fun, right?” she asks.

“With the girls? Yeah. I always do. Why?” I glance down but can’t see her face. “Is this you checking in with me?”

I feel her smile against my skin.

“Maybe.”