Page 51 of Mase
“Hi.” Gia nods and follows him inside, with a baby carrier housing little Jax.
“Dad, can I bring the soccer ball inside too?” Bryce chimes.
“Jesus, I hate fucking soccer so much,” he mumbles, stepping past me. I’m not surprised by his comments; Reed gives us all a weekly rundown of how bad the team he coaches for his adopted son is. Last week, an elderly woman hit him in the face with her purse because he made her grandson cry. When I asked him what he did to deserve it, he said he told the kid he’d be better at something like chess. He even went as far as purchasing the kid a chess set in the hopes that it would encourage him to leave the team. According to Reed, this kid goes and collects his lunch from his grandmother midway through the game and sits in the middle of the soccer field to eat it, expecting the game tostop for him, or better yet, for players to play around him. So I can appreciate where my friend’s misguided suggestion came from, he just needs to work on his execution.
I turn to see Bryce placing their family dog in a… “Is that a stroller?”
“It is. Apparently, the dog I purchased is indeed broken,” Reed adds from over my shoulder as he wafts his hand in Bryce’s direction.
A laugh rumbles from deep inside me. “What did you do to it?”
“He took her to the vet clinic, and they said that Bubbles is struggling to keep up with our demanding lifestyle,” Bryce informs me, grinning from ear to ear. “Right, Dad?”
“Right.” Reed nods.
“So, you bought her a stroller?” I quiz.
“She’s almost…” Reed makes a slicing gesture across his throat as if to explain the dog is dying.
“Oh shit. Really?” I know how much Bubbles means to Bryce, and given the kid lost his biological father, I can appreciate why Reed is being cautious.
Another car pulls up behind their family SUV, and I make a mental note of the fact I’m going to need all this shit soon too, but I can’t deny I’m buzzing about it. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted, and Summer’s the added bonus.
Shaw practically leaps out of his car, and his daughter, Eleanor, scrambles from the car seat in record time.
“Is Ree-Reed here? Bubblesss?” she squeals.
Shaw winces. “She means, Reed.”
“I gathered.” I smile down at her bouncing on the balls of her feet. Her cute little tutu is multicolored, and she has matching ribbons in her pigtails. “He’s inside. Why don’t you go find him?” I tell her, and she barges past me and into the house.
“Reee! I wove him.”
I grin, imagining Eleanor tormenting Reed with her obsession with him. It drives him insane, but only adds to our entertainment.
The car door slams, and Shaw’s wife, Emi, heads my way with their baby boy, Casper, in her arms.
Having my friends and their families here to meet Summer fills me with pride. This will be me soon with our little family too, and I can’t fucking wait to get Summer back home to New Jersey to start our lives together.
Half an hour later, I’m sitting outside with my friends, nursing a beer while Summer entertains Gia and Emi inside. Bryce and Eleanor run around the garden with Bubbles following after them, looking like she’s far from end-of-life care.
“So let me get this straight, there’s no emergency?” Reed asks, and I scrub a hand over my head and shift on my feet.
“There was a little panic.”
“Panic?” He rears back.
“You called me in the middle of the night, frantic.” He leans closer to me. “I was fucking my wife at the time.”
I grimace at the thought of him and Gia going at it. “Thanks for the visual,” I quip. “I admit I was a little overwhelmed.”
“Overwhelmed?” Reed repeats slowly, like a goddamn parrot.
“Yes, Reed, overwhelmed. I just found out my goddamn stepsister is pregnant, and she was telling me the baby was mine. Can you appreciate why I was overwhelmed?”
Shaw grins and leans back on the outdoor couch, watching our interaction with amusement in his eyes. It’s probably the most entertainment he’s had recently, especiallywith a brother-in-law like Luca Varros, a Mafia capo who happens to be certifiably insane. According to Shaw.
“Overwhelmed is having thirty kids scream your name all at once while you’re trying to give them the logistics of a professional soccer game. Overwhelmed is having those thirty kids’ parents give their insights into that game despite knowing fuck-all about the rules and regulations. Overwhelmed is—”
