Page 120 of Riding the High

Mabel smiles, looking genuinely thrilled. “My dad loves you too,” she says, matter of fact.

Cole shakes his head and smiles before popping a grape into his mouth.

“How did you know that, Half Pint?” he asks.

Mabel shrugs. “Because you look at her like Mr. Stacks looks at Grace.”

Cole’s eyes meet mine and I smile.

“You totally do,” I tell him as I steal a grape of my own. He doesn’t even deny it, he just shrugs with a grin.

We all clean up, and then spend the customary fifteen minutes after lunch listening to Mabel tell us all about decorating the house for fall, and what teacher she hopes she has, and all about her friend Alex’s new cat.

Midway through the conversation, her eyes light up like Christmas morning.

“Now that Ginger is going to live here, can we get a dog?” Mabel asks as I help her put her water wings back on.

“Every team needs a mascot,” I say to Cole with a grin.

“So, is this how it’s gonna be? You two ganging up on me?” he asks, pointing between us. Mabel and I look at each other. We both nod and shrug.

“Better get used to it, Daddy,” Mabel tells him, turning to cannonball back into the pool.

I nuzzle into Cole’s neck as she jumps.

“Yeah, Daddy. Better get used to it,” I murmur.

A low growl rumbles in his chest before his arms are around my waist and he’s launching us both into the pool. Mabel is laughing hysterically as we pop up to the surface and our blissful afternoon continues, the conversation we just had making us no more of a family than we already were. We might not have done things the conventional way. But we did them our way. And I wouldn’t change a thing.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

Cole

“Married?” CeCe’s jaw falls open across from me at the dining room table. Everyone is staring at us, speechless. Even Nash has nothing to say. Mama smiles and leans back in her chair, sipping at her glass of spiked lemonade.

Ginger gives her a small smile back. I place my hand on Ginger’s thigh under the table, and no one speaks for at least a minute. We let them absorb the news.

“You guys have been married for longer than I have?” CeCe, the only one who apparently knows how to talk, asks. “You’re mysister?”

The table erupts with laughter as Wade pats me on the back.

“Most people date first,” he chuckles.

“Of course, if anyone would do things the totally ass-backward way, it would be them,” Liv says, smiling at us then at the rest of the table.

“We weren’t planning on staying married,” Ginger says softly. “We didn’t want to take anything away from your big day, CeCe. But then, something just happened …”

She delves into the entire story from start to finish. I speakwhen appropriate, adding in my take here and there, plus the wedding Polaroids to prove it, which make everyone howl with laughter. Pop says things like “this one’s a framer for sure” as he holds up one of me kissing Ginger on the cheek while she flashes the camera her champagne and a peace sign with her tongue out.

Finally, we finish the tale with how I ended up confronting Brent.

“So, if Brent is gone and you don’t have to worry about him, what’s the next step?” Mama asks.

“I fucking knew that guy was a piece of trash,” Nash mutters, gritting his molars.

“He isn’t gone yet,” I tell them. “But last I heard he was staying at the Motor Court Hotel after Gemma kicked him out.”

“Gemma kicking him out makes sense. She can’t get anything from him anymore,” CeCe scoffs.

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