Page 105 of Yolo

“You should take Spanish,” I suggested. “It’s a great language to know in your line of work.”

“I know,” Quaid grumbled. “I just need about eight more hours in the day.”

“Same,” I said. “At least I’m being compensated nicely for all the overtime I’m doing.”

“Dad!” Quinn bellowed. “I want a raise.”

Was this family ever quiet?

I loved it, though.

Not that I didn’t love growing up with only my parents—because they made being a single child special—but…

“You and me both, buddy. But I’m fighting with the board to not defund us right now. Asking for a raise is out of the question,” Germaine shot back.

Hours went by as we talked, laughed, played games, and held babies.

By the end of the night, I was on the couch with multiple passed-out kids, with Addison next to me whispering in my ear as she helped me play the card game that the adults were playing.

“This one,” she suggested.

“What’s it say?” I asked her.

“It says ‘Moana’s moaning,’” she whispered.

I winced.

The kid was young. I knew that. Surely she didn’t understand the innuendo she’d just made.

“Read me the card again?” my mom asked.

“Things that help Mickey relax,” Quaid read.

I groaned. “Hey, do you think you can go grab me a bottle of water?”

“Sure,” she chirped and was gone, barely making a ripple in the pile of kids as she went.

I wasn’t quite sure how I’d ended up with them all, but I seriously had no less than six on the couch with me.

Not to mention I had Mellisandre still in my arms, as well as Cordelia, Quinn, and Shayne’s youngest, on the boppy by my hip.

I was fairly sure that Lola was draped across my legs, but at this point, there were so many random feet and hands that I wasn’t sure who was where.

“Oh, this one is a good one.” My mom giggled.

She passed the card up to the front, and I held my hand up.

It was plucked out of the air a few seconds later, by who, I didn’t know.

Garrett was across the room, I knew, next to my parents.

He’d tried to get next to me but the kids had descended, and he’d had to find another seat.

I was over the moon, though.

I loved that they all accepted me.

“You know,” I heard my soon-to-be mother-in-law say. “I was the favorite, but I think I was demoted.”

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