Page 96 of Hey, Daddy

Not that she was a drunk or anything, but she loved to drink socially.

And she loved spending time with her family.

I loved seeing my mom so happy.

I also loved seeing Nastya fitting right into the group.

It made something that I hadn’t realized was tight loosen in my chest.

This was the “final test” so to speak.

My kid loved her.

I loved her.

My parents and siblings loved her.

There was no denying that she was going to be perfect for us.

“I like her,” Ben said. “She’s great with Kendall.”

Kendall was a little odd duckling.

She was great, I loved her like crazy, but she took a while to warm up to new people.

Obviously that wasn’t a problem here.

“So you gonna marry her?” Kingston asked.

I grinned as he came up beside me.

We were standing near the drink fountain.

All three of us were now waiting for the sweet tea to get filled back up.

“I’m gonna marry the hell out of her,” I promised.

Kingston smiled. “Good.”

Yes, it was good.

Very, very good.

I hadn’t felt this good in a very long time, and it was a foreign, but great, feeling.

But something in the back of my mind told me that it wouldn’t last.

My husband just said ‘calm down’ like he wants his own Dateline special.

—Brecken to Nastya

NASTYA

Dima called, and I instantly answered the phone. “How’d it go?”

He was taking over my personal shopping gig because someone might or might not have forced me to stay in bed while he ran Desi to school. And since I’d stayed in bed, I couldn’t get to the auto parts store that I’d been scheduled to go to by the scheduled time. Luckily, Dima came in on the clutch.

“I bought a new car battery today at Auto Zone,” Dima said to me.

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