Page 111 of Single Mom's Guide to Love

This gets a laugh from everyone in the room but Simon. “Really? You’re going to side with them? I have money. I look good in suits. I know people. And might I remind you, my lovely future wife and mother of my child, that I bought you a whole-ass restaurant.”

“Well...” This comes from Emmett, who I’ve learned is Stella’s boyfriend, and Simon’s business partner. “Did you really buy itforher?”

All eyes turn to Simon, including Charlie’s. “Let’s not play the semantics game, Mr. I Started Dating My Business Partner’s Sister and Hid It From Him.”

Emmett rolls his eyes. “Yep, best book boyfriend-slash-husband ever. Logan and I can’t even compare, so we should stop trying.”

“Damn straight,” Simon says.

Emmett looks over to me and stage whispers, “It’s just easier to agree with him. You’ll learn.”

I return Emmett’s fist bump as the laughter continues in the room.

“Enough already!” Quinn yells. “Stella stumbled into a bar and met her true love. Apparently my brother is super. That’s just great. Let’s get back to the skinny on Logan.”

“Quinn, quit badgering the poor man,” Maeve’s mom, Demetria scolds as she brings me a glass of eggnog. “You keep this up and he’s never going to want to come back here again.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Banks, but I’m fine,” I say. “I’m just glad that I could finally meet everyone.”

“Logan, please. Call me Demetria. Or Mom. Whatever you’d like.”

“Jesus Christ,” Maeve groans. “Mom, you’ve known himfour hours. He can call you Mom?”

She shrugs. “He’s your husband, Maeve. Therefore he’s family.”

“You never let the first husband call you Mom,” Quinn notes with a raised brow. “Just stating facts.”

“Oh? Didn’t I?” Demetria holds up a finger like she just got an idea. “You’ll have to excuse me. I hear the timer going off in the kitchen.”

Everyone in the room snickers as Demetria not so slyly avoids Quinn’s statement.

“Should we do our gift exchange?” Ainsley asks. “I feel like that would be best.”

Everyone agrees—I don’t weigh in because I’m the new guy and I don’t feel like I have enough time in to vote on anything—and the gifts start being passed around. Maeve explained to me that for the past few years, the siblings and significant others decided to start doing Secret Santas instead of everyone buying for everyone. And even though I came into the picture pretty late, they were able to include me, which I appreciated.

Especially because of who I got.

“All right, oldest to youngest,” Quinn announces.

“Damn straight,” Simon says as he starts tearing open his gift.

“We did oldest first so he didn’t get fussy,” Maeve says. “Again, it was easier.”

I sit back and smile, my arm around Maeve as Simon starts tearing into his present.

“Who had me?” he asks.

“You know you’re not allowed to ask that,” Ainsley says. “Will you ever follow the rules?”

“You should know that answer by now, little sister.” Simon continues working the tape and ribbon that Maeve expertly wrapped for me and finally gets to the non-discreet box. He’s still mumbling something, but stops when he opens the actual present.

“Are you kidding me?” Everyone’s eyes are on Simon as he takes out an original Nintendo gaming system, along with add-ons for up to four players.

“It’s the original,” I chime in. “Not the new ones that claim to be. I took a pass through it, and it should run as good as new. And there are extra controllers in there so four people can play. I threw in a few games, too.”

Simon has a look on his face like Jayce did this morning when he unwrapped his SpaceCraft toy. “Oh my God! It’s the fuckingTurtles!”

Everyone laughs as Simon shows Charlie, then Emmett, then each of his sisters the present. He even starts explaining it to his baby daughter, Lainey, who tries to get one end of a controller in her mouth before Simon gasps and snatches it away.

---