Page 115 of The Dating Pact

Dylan grumbled his agreement.

“What are you doing for Christmas?” Liam asked me. “You never answered. Hey! Boys!”

Finn and Tucker turned to him in plastic firefighter helmets, stopped midstride, on their way to running into each other headfirst. Tucker jumped up into the little fake fire truck, while Finn changed direction and ran headfirst into the wall. Liam heaved a sigh. “For Christ’s sake.” He stood up, gesturing at his son to chill. “Remember when you got staples in your head? You want more?”

Finn shook his head, tossed the helmet down then zipped over to the opposite end of the room, now in Dylan’s zone.

Once Liam relaxed again, I said, “Brooke’s going to come over Christmas Eve to exchange a few presents with the kids. We haven’t done any more sleepovers yet, so she’s not going to be there in the morning, even though I invited her. She thought it was too much, too soon for them, so I’m gonna pick her up to have dinner at my parents’.”

Dylan spread his legs out wider, slouching more. “It’s going good?”

“Yeah. It’s going really great. If it were up to me, she’d move in tomorrow, but we know that’s a while off. She’s going to come to a few counseling sessions because we want to build a house on her land, and we figured between moving out of our house and selling the kids on the idea of a new one, it’ll be a lot. I mean, realistically, until everything is all said and done, that wouldn’t be for at least two years.”

Liam helped himself to a little piece of the peppermint bark. “You thinking you’re gonna get married?”

“Yeah, actually, we are. Not for a while, but we want to make sure the kids are good, and when we do, we’ll involve them.”

“You’ve got it all settled. I can’t believe you were sitting here a few months ago, saying you wanted to hook up with somebody.”

“I know.” I couldn’t believe it myself. “I guess I needed something to make me see what was right in front of me.”

“A kick in the ass,” Dylan said around his coffee cup. “We all need it every once in a while.”

Liam aimed a meaningful brow at him. “Or a punch in the face.”

“Bro, don’t start.”

Liam smiled and patted my back. “I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks.”

“Gen really likes her,” Dylan told me and then pointed to the right, past Liam, at where Finn had his head stuck in the mailbox. “Hey.”

Liam covered his face with his hand, his Boston accent thick. “I swear to god, I’m gonna lose it.”

I bit back a laugh and got to my feet. “I’ll get him. We dads gotta stick together, right?”

Dylan and Liam both raised their coffees to me in salute.

I snapped my fingers as I crossed to Finn. “That’s what I’m getting you two for Christmas. Matching T-shirts.”

“But none of us are single anymore,” Liam noted as I pulled Finn free. He scurried away, heading for Amelia and Scarlett in the grocery store.

“Married Dads Association,” Dylan tossed out, and it sounded damn good to me, although that left out one person.

“What do we do with Nate?”

Dylan shook his head. “Can’t be initiated.”

Liam agreed. “No kids and not about to be married.”

“Sucks for him,” I said. A person to love and kids running around didn’t make a life, but they did certainly make it brighter. Wilder.

I sat back down, my gaze coasting around this veritable jungle of children, my two accounted for, with plans for Brooke to come over later with dinner. My life had been a roller coaster, with the lowest of lows and the highest of highs, and if I’d learned anything, it was to appreciate those highs. Ride them until the end.

Life wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty damn good.

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