Page 71 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 3

Ann turned sideways, keeping TJ away from Autumn and shook her head. “I’ve waited my whole life for a grandchild. You can just move on.” She stretched her arm out and fluttered her fingers, dozens of bracelets tinkling as she did so. “Me and my grandson have some bonding to do.”

TJ reached out for Ann’s wild blonde hair. “Sum Sum,” he said, making the connection to Summer’s mother’s hair and her own.

Summer left my side and clapped her hands. “That’s right, TJ, Grandma and Sum Sum have the same hair.” She put her head next to her mother’s lifting up a lock to show him.

“Ganske,” TJ whispered with awe in his small voice.

“What does that mean?” Ann asked.

“He said pretty,” Summer answered instantly, filling me with pride. It seemed as though my fiancée had been paying attention when I translated words for her.

“Well, Grandma thinks you’reganske,” Ann repeated.

TJ laughed heartily, then looked around, just now realizing how many people were in the room. His eyes landed on the Johansens, and he reached his little hands out toward Irene. “Momo!”

Irene went over and played with TJ’s fingers. “Hello,søtnas.”Hello sweetieshe fussed.

“Momo!” he squealed and bodily reached for Irene again.

“Momomeans grandmother in Norwegian,” I said to Ann as she passed TJ to Irene.

“Aw, he loves hisMomo.” Ann continued to interact, clearly very excited to meet him.

The adopted grandmothers took care of entertaining TJ as Henrik and Bernie approached me.

“How you holding up, son?” Henrik asked.

My shoulders automatically slumped. “I’m not going to lie. This is all very surreal. I never in a million years envisioned this scenario.” I looked down at my bare feet, not really seeing anything as another wave of grief plowed into me. “Losing Troy was hard enough, but nowEllen,” I croaked.

Henrik reached out a hand and gripped my shoulder. “You’ve been through a lot. All of us have, and you’re going to go through even more raising TJ. Just know that we’re all here for you and Summer. You’re just as much our family as Erik. We’ve always tried to show you, Troy, and Ellen that we love you all like our very own.”

“I know…” My calm façade started to crumble as Henrik pulled me into a fatherly hug. If I could show TJ half as much love as I’d received from Henrik over the years, he’d be fine. I held onto Henrik for a long few moments, then pulled away, wiping at the stray tears that kept falling whenever I got choked up.

Bernie then tugged me into a hug. “And the Belanger clan are all here to show our love and support too. Our families are uniting soon into one big happy family, and I couldn’t be happier to add you, TJ, Erik, Savannah, Henrik, and Irene to the crew,” he said with a couple manly claps to the back.

“Thank you for coming.”

Bernie shrugged. “Where else would we be? Family steps up during the hard times.”

I gave him a weak smile, but deep down, the wave of love and support for TJ, Summer and me was overwhelming.

Summer and Autumn approached where we were standing. “Hey, honey, I’m going to get started on dinner for everyone. Do you want to get drink requests?”

“Wine.” Ann called out.

“Oooh, I second that.” Irene agreed.

“I could do wine, but I wouldn’t be against trying some of that beer you brothers brew if you’ve got any,” Bernie added.

“Oh, Ellen has a full supply.” I smiled and then realized Ellen didn’t have anything anymore, because she was gone.

Nausea swirled in my stomach, and my mouth turned sour.

Suddenly, all I could see was Summer’s gorgeous face. She had her hands cupping my cheeks. “You okay, Jack?”

I swallowed down the grief and nodded.

She lifted up onto her toes and pressed her mouth to mine, obliterating the grief and discomfort with her soft lips and gentle caresses. As she pulled back, she tilted her head and ran the tips of her fingers down my nose to my lips. I pursed my lips to kiss her fingers.

---