Page 43 of Yours Suddenly

“Yeah.”

“You're gonna be a mom?”

“Yeah.”

“And I'm gonna be an aunt!” a loud voice says.

My mother and Adrianne enter our bedroom.

Mama hisses, “Your brother just got shot!”

“He’s expected to make a full recovery. He's fine. Aren't you?” Adrianne says, her eyes swollen from crying.

“I am. I don't know about you, though,” I say, gesturing at her face.

“See?” Adrianne says. “Still the same Romey.”

Mama's eyes are even puffier. “So much violence,” she says, peering at my bandages and then placing a hand on my forehead with a sad shake of her head.

“Don't worry, Auntie,” Tristan says, walking through the door at that moment with Blake and Matthew. “We've taken care of yesterday's threat.”

So that means I've been passed out for one day.

“They came to the party uninvited to gain intel, to see how they could hurt our family,” Tristan says. “We’ve taken some of them out and intimidated others. They, and many others, won’t think to fuck with us, at least for a long time.”

I nod. “Good work, boys. When I get better, drinks are on me.”

Tristan nods and smirks. “Congratulations on the baby.”

“About that!” Mama says. “I'm gonna be a grandma, I can’t believe it! Your dad would have been so happy.”

I nod. “And Alexandra's mom and dad and sister.” I kiss my wife.

“They would have,” she says. “They would have been happy knowing I found a family that cares for me so deeply. I love and appreciate you all!”

“We love you too!” everyone choruses.

“All right, everyone, the patient has to get rest,” Logan announces as he and Ryan come in wearing their medical gear.

“Only Alexandra can stay behind,” Ryan says.

I hold Alexandra tight to my chest as everyone else files out. Her hand links with mine. Sunlight streams in through the vast windows.

Epilogue

Two years later

Alexandra

We're in the south of France, in another yacht my husband bought me for my twenty-fourth year.

Hot summer weather. Adrianne and her girlfriend, Viv, kissing by the rail.

Mama and Matthew dancing by the mast.

Tristan, Blake, Logan, Ryan, the rest of the cousins, and the kids swimming in the water below.

Roman carrying our one-and-a-half-year-old son, Cal, who is his dad’s spitting image with his aunt Evie’s grey eye color. He's playing with Rome’s gold watch and I can feel danger in the air. Before my tingling mommy senses force me to act, he pulls back his chubby little arm and launches the watch into the air.

---