Page 86 of Recklessly, Wildly Yours

“No. I attended official work things, but not his private parties with his boys. And I didn’t care because that kind of party isn’t my thing.” I gaze out at the Blacks doing their thing. “This is more my style. Family get-togethers.” I look at her again. “My family was tiny, though, so this noise is all new to me.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

That thought feels good. Getting used to it means I’ll have come to many of these get-togethers, and that’s something I’m hoping for.

A few minutes later, karaoke begins and two hours pass in a blur of kids singing, adults laughing, and hearts connecting.

Luna is the sweetest little girl who captures my attention easily. The way she has her father and all her uncles wrapped around her little finger is lovely to watch. These are the guys I’ve watched tease each other, dish out hard truths to each other, bicker and disagree over all kinds of things, get annoyed with each other, and at times had to walk away to blow off steam. Now? They’re like saints, loving on this little girl like she’s the most precious thing in their world. They’re also doting on her best friend, Sarah, because they know how special she is to Luna.

As the party gets closer to ending, Ethan finds his way to me. “I feel like I just did a triathlon. I’m fucking exhausted.”

“It was a lot. Imagine having to do that every year for your kid.” My eyes go wide. “Imagine having to do that for five boys like your mom did. Wow. Did you guys have a party like this for each birthday?”

“Yeah.” He turns quiet, thinking, probably remembering. “It was a lot, wasn’t it? A lot of work for parents to do.”

During the last month while I’ve been living in New York, Ethan has started spending more time with his mom. He’s told me they’re finally having the sort of conversations he’s wanted with her his entire life. There are also the weekly Tuesday night dinners with the entire family; Monday Night Football, which is fast becoming a tradition in Ethan’s home; Thursday nights with Callan watching the game while I go to yoga with Olivia and Blair; and the occasional Sunday spent with the family for football and food. His father comes to as many of the football gatherings as he can swing.

One of my favorite things about these get-togethers is watching Ethan slowly find his way with his family, especially his father. I know they haven’t talked yet about what went down between them before Ethan left for Europe, but all these pockets of time spent together will hopefully lead to that conversation as they add shared-hour upon shared-hour to their relationship.

It’s funny how the stories we believe about our parents and our childhood can change and morph into stories that aren’t quite accurate. Or that are accurate but have their origins in a bigger picture we don’t know about. Like the story Ethan has always believed about his mother not loving him as much as she loved his brothers.

“Do you know,” he says slowly, turning into me so that we’re in our own little bubble amongst the hum of the party, “when I turned twelve, Mom and Dad let me invite about twenty friends camping and fishing for an entire weekend. I’d forgotten about this.”

“Holy fuck, how? How did they manage that many boys on a weekend away all by themselves? It sounds like hell to me.”

He chuckles. “No, Dad asked some of the other fathers to come too. They had help, but shit...that’s a lot compared to this party. Fuck, I can’t believe I’d forgotten about that weekend. It was one of the best weekends of my childhood.”

I give him the space to reminisce, the moment only broken by Luna who races over to us and grabs her uncle’s hand, begging, “Uncle Ethan! Sarah and me want to do karaoke with you.”

He’s immediately crouching to get down to her level. “Yeah? What song will we sing?”

Her eyes light up. “We want “Shake It Off” this time.”

“This time?” he asks and I have to contain my laughter.

“Yes, silly.” She yanks his hand, pulling him up out of his crouch. “Her mom’s running late, so we can sing all the songs until then! And you have to twerk. And you’re in charge of the rap. We’ve got pom poms for you!”

By the time Luna and Sarah get Ethan up onto the makeshift stage Gage built for the karaoke part of the party, I’ve almost got tears running down my cheeks thinking about him twerking that gorgeous ass of his all over the place and performing a rap with pom poms.

Luna, looking super cute in the unicorn tutu her father got her, hands her uncle a mic and bosses him and Sarah to stand in a line with her. As she motions at her grandfather to start the music, Ethan winks at me and grins. He then proceeds to thoroughly entertain me, and everyone else. This man has no fucks to give when it comes to putting himself out there. He sings his heart out, twerks his ass off, and raps like a pro while shaking his pom poms. He doesn’t care that by the time the song’s finished, he’s got a captive audience of parents who’ve arrived to collect their kids. All he cares about is making this birthday and this party the best it can be for his niece.

Luna convinces him to sing two more songs, and during those, Sarah’s mother arrives to collect her. My attention is pulled from Ethan for two reasons. Firstly, Sarah’s mother is drop-dead beautiful. With her long brunette hair, high cheekbones, flawless porcelain skin, and toned figure, this woman must stop traffic. Like, literally.

Interestingly, she’s unlike every other woman I’ve seen come to pick up their child. There are no designer clothes here, no Botox or filler, no cool detachment. There’s a mother dressed in jeans and a simple white T-shirt, her long wavy hair a little messy like she quickly brushed it this morning and called that enough, long bangs that look like she maybe missed her last hair appointment, and lipstick that’s barely still there. And instead of cool distance, she greets Ingrid with a warm smile and waves at her daughter to let her know she’s arrived.

The second reason my attention stays with Sarah’s mom? I catch Gage’s reaction when he sees her and then I see her reaction when he walks over to her. He’s talking with Bradford close to where she enters from and I swear he checks out of the conversation. Bradford’s still talking but Gage’s eyes are firmly on Sarah’s mother. When he goes to her, she’s suddenly all cool detachment. She doesn’t ignore him. I mean, their daughters are best friends, so that would be impossible. But she certainly seems immune to the Black effect. Gage has the kind of charisma and sexy looks that I’ve witnessed in action while Ethan and I have been out with him. He’s the kind of man who only has to walk into a room and his presence alone has women fighting over him. Sarah’s mom? She looks like she wishes he’d go away.

She doesn’t have to stay long. Sarah finishes singing a few minutes after her arrival and they leave soon after that. And Gage? He stares at her until she’s in his elevator and on her way downstairs.

“Have you met Sarah’s mom?” I ask Ethan when he joins me after he’s finished with the karaoke.

He’s got his camera with him again and is fiddling with it while I ask him this. Glancing up at me, he says, “Amelia? Yeah. Why?”

“What’s the story with her and Gage?”

His brows pull together. “Huh? What story?”

“Seriously, do men miss everything?”

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