Page 101 of Embers in the Dark

“I don’t like that nickname.” She scrunches her nose.

“Yeah, I heard it right when it came out and have to agree.” He nods in agreement.

Ella squeals in agreement right then and I go to grab her from the carrier. “Come here, sweet girl.”

When I pick her up, I give her kisses on the cheek, which causes her to giggle and I assume it’s from the beard. She’s in a new phase of pulling on my beard, so she attaches to me, pulling on the hairs as I try to slowly pry her little fingers off my face.

Once I succeed in removing her hands from my beard, I put her on my hip and start looking at all the treats everyone brought. They told us not to do a thing and they’d bring all the food. Kennedy was adamant that we not lift a finger. She said because we weren’t doing an official wedding, we had to let them do something.

“Wow, you guys went all out,” Baylee says. “This is a lot of food.” She starts lifting lids and looking at all the containers.

I’m about to lift a lid to something that looks like a cake.

“Oh, that’s a surprise.” River slaps my hand.

“Geez, Riv!” I yell. “What is it with everyone hitting me all the time? I’m a delicate person.”

“Poor baby,” Clay says, batting his lashes.

“Do you need Baylee to read you a bedtime story and put you to bed now?” River asks, pouting.

I cover one of Ella’s ears and mouth, “Fuck off.”

River flips me off with both middle fingers. Then he steals his niece. “I’ll take her. I don’t want her to, you know, grab your hair or something and hurt your delicate scalp.”

“Asshole.” I roll my eyes.

Baylee comes up to me and pats my chest. “It’s okay, baby. Not all of us are built big and strong. Some of us are just built big.”

I look down at her and she laughs.

“You’re evil. He’s rubbing off on you, you know that?” I tell her.

“I know. I sort of like it.” She has an evil gleam in her eyes.

“Okay, everyone, let’s grab plates and go eat.” Kennedy claps and starts ordering everyone around.

We make our way through, grabbing food, then sitting at our dining room table. We ended up adding some chairs so everyone can sit together.

It’s a loud bunch. Samara and Ashton couldn’t make it as the twins ended up getting a bad cold. But they called earlier to send their well-wishes. Marissa was going to call in, but she has a court appearance she has to prepare for. She ended up having to text and said how crazy we are and that was her way of saying congratulations. That’s her style anyway.

Once we’re stuffed to the brim with food, everyone beginsclearing our plates and we start laughing about little things here and there. I love the dynamic between all of us.

“Alright, now for dessert.” River stands up and the way he’s excited about this, I’m scared about what’s coming.

“Why do I feel like I should duck or something?” I say to the table.

“Because River and Clay were literally in charge of it and no one knows what’s coming,” Kennedy says.

“Actually, just River. I had nothing to do with it,” Clay says.

“What do you mean?” Kennedy asks.

“Yeah, he said he wanted to do the dessert,” Clay explains.

“He said the two of you were in charge of dessert because you knew what Malloy would like. That’s why I let him have that duty,” Kennedy says with panic in her tone.

“Why am I getting more concerned?” Baylee says, her eyes bouncing between Kennedy and Clay.

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