Page 28 of Hot Chicken
“Actually,” I stood by my seat with Luke at my side. “For your information, I happen to have a lot to smile about. Like an incredible husband.” I lifted Luke’s hand to kiss his knuckles. “An amazing son. And a supportive, if somewhat gullible, family. And…” I took a deep breath.
“Now, Dad?” Aiden whispered from down the table.
“I want it noted that I’ve been willing to believe from the beginning. He was good luck for us.” Gage tapped his ring.
Drew brought a large platter of chicken to the table. “What are you talking about? What was good luck?”
“Yeah,” Porter demanded. “That’s what I want to know.”
Luke squeezed my hand and cleared his throat. “Ahem! Speaking of good luck,” he began loudly.
“We didn’t get engaged because of the rooster, Goodman!” Knox insisted. “I’ve been planning to ask you to marry me for years, and you know it.”
“Sure, but you might’ve kept right on planning for another four years if the Cock hadn’t helped us, ah…” He darted a glance at Aiden, who was practically vibrating with excitement and hardly paying attention. “Initiate the conversation.”
“Right?” Hawk grinned dreamily. “It initiated likefourconversations for me and Jack. That’s the most we’ve had in a while.”
“Jesus.” Jack ran a hand over his face.
Porter elbowed Knox in the ribs. “Seriously,whatare you guys talking about?”
“To be clear.” Jack addressed himself to the table at large. “There’s no such thing as a Cock of Good Fortune, and even if there were, I wouldn’t need it in order to… to…initiateconversations. Okay? Because Hawk and I converse regularly. All the time. Consistently. It’s just been a busy summer?—”
I made a retching noise. “Oh, God, don’t make me have to bleach my brain.” I held up a hand. “If you guys would freaking listen, we’re trying to tell you?—”
“I’m with Jack,” Knox said, ignoring me. “There’s no such thing as a Cock of Good Fortune. It can’t performmagic, for heaven’s sake?—”
Aiden jumped to his feet, unable to wait any longer. “Dad and Luke are pregnant! Withtwobabies!” he announced. Then he pulled up his T-shirt to reveal the T-shirt beneath, which read “BIG BRUH” in large red letters.
For a moment, there was a silence so profound the room rang with it. No one moved. No one spoke. Ten pairs of eyes goggled at Luke and me.
At length, Knox cleared his throat. “Well,” he said. “I stand corrected.”
Luke laughed out loud. “Aiden means our surrogate is pregnant,” he clarified. “Our twin daughters are due in early December.”
“Ahhhh! Evenmoreluck!” Hawk jumped up and came around the table to hug Luke, then Aiden, and then me. “Have you considered naming them Marianne and Eleanor?” he wondered. He shot Luke a wink. “We’ll talk.”
Knox stood and slapped me on the back, grinning broadly. “I’m starting their college funds immediately.”
“Could someonepleaseexplain—?” Porter began.
“Merciful. Heavens,” Drew whispered. Then he burst into loud, drenching tears. “Did you hear that, Marco? More babies to love!”
“I know, honey.” Marco pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, ready as usual to dry Drew’s tears, and planted a quick kiss on the side of Drew’s head. “It’s wonderful.”
“You owe me five bucks,” I whispered in Luke’s ear.
“Ha. I didn’t take your bet, Sunday,” Luke reminded me,laughing. “I’ve been around for a while now, and I know all of you too well.”
Later, after we’d finally eaten dinner and then dessert, after Luke had broken out the ultrasound pictures and gotten everyone to agree that yes, one daughter definitely had my nose, after we’d cleaned up and put the leftovers away, Aiden began yawning and slumping in his seat, and the rest of the family got to their feet and began the ridiculously long process of saying goodbye.
Luke and I, along with Emma, Aiden, and Bear, followed them out to the front yard. After a few false starts while Drew ran inside to grab a box of Christmas decorations he’d been storing in the basement, and Gage ran inside to use the bathroom before his arduous, five-minute walk home, and Porter remembered that he’d wanted to take his old hiking backpack from the front hall closet, we waved them off.
When we got inside, Aiden didn’t protest going to bed—a sign he and Porter reallyhadstayed up most of the night before—Emma left to spend the evening with friends, and I finally got to be alone with the man who’d been filling my life with ordinary miracles for three and a half years.
“Looks like the weather’s finally cooling off a bit, huh?” Luke said. He stopped in the living room to plump the pillows and turn off the lamp. “Though I checked my app, and it says we have another five days of—oh!”
I grabbed my husband by the waist and crowded him against the wall by the front stairs.
