Page 36 of The Biggest Sacrifice

I love this for Adam. He had a hard road to get here, learned a lot about himself, as did Chelsea. There was a lot of give and take, apologies and missed time, but they found their way back to each other, with a little something extra along the way. Dominic, the first grandson for our parents, was the glue that made the two of them stick.

I witnessed Chelsea's return from start to finish. I remember his breakdown. I remember Chelsea finally standing her ground with Grace. And I remember them finding each other at my baby sister’s wedding. But did I learn from them? No. I don’t think I even thought twice about what they were doing. Even when they just couldn’t wait any longer and ran to a justice of the peace to get married, did I stop and think, ‘this is what love is.’ ‘This is what I’ve got right in front of me.’

Instead, I continued to take. I continued to ignore everything but Farrah’s physical needs. And I continued to wait for a way out.

Jackson claps Adam on the shoulder. “My man!” He laughs and says, “Looks like your sister and I have some catching up to do. I think I’ll leave early and work on that.” He dodges Adam, who jumps up quickly, but when he turns to move around the chairs, I stand in his way.

“You were saying?”

Jackson barks a laugh that brings attention to our already rowdy table and throws his arm around me. “Tom, it’s good to have you back.”

Bobby pipes up. “Maybe I’ll go home and knock upyoursister, Jackson. How does that sound?”

I laugh as his face takes on a sickening expression and goes pale. “Point taken.”

We push each other around a bit, then settle back at the table when Al, shows up with a tray of shots. He passes them out to each of us, then grabs the last for himself.

“I couldn’t help but overhear, boys, and just had to come on over and celebrate. Adam, you’re single handedly populating the town of Christmas with the next generation!”

“There’s nothing single-handed about what’s going on in that house, Al!” Billy guffaws at his own joke and we all groan.

“How’s she feeling?” I ask.

“Scared to death.” Adam replies and I chuckle. “First she was shocked, then embarrassed about what people would think. Now she’s worried about how we’re going to feed them all.”

“Just have her talk to mom and dad. You guys are repeating what they did.”

Adam’s face screws up. “Oh my God, I never thought about mom and dad… and why we’re all so close in age…”

Cash stands up next to Al. “With a name like Casanova, how could you miss it?”

“Cheers to that!” Al yells and we all raise our glasses and take the shot. He gathers the glasses and heads back to the bar, nodding at our thanks to him.

“So, who’s next? You know these girls, they can’t do anything alone. Last time it was Chelsea and Francesca pregnant together.”

Adam cuts Billy a glare. “Yeah, I remember that day. There were some extracurricular activities happening at the hospital.”

“I saw some extracurricular activity happening at the bar the night you came home.” Cash nods at me.

Billy puffs his chest and smoothes down his shirt. “I can’t help that the ladies love me.”

Adam smacks him in the back of the head. “You better make that word singular.”

“It is. Listen, if it was up to me…” he lets the sentence linger and we all wait on him. Billy has been an eternal bachelor, so to hear him actually say it out loud to someone other than me, I know he’s getting serious. He looks at me and I nod with a smile.

“They’re doing that twin thing again! Make it stop or share with the class, you two!” Jackson yells. He’s as bad as Adam about being left out.

“If it was up to my brother, I think he’d wife Adley tomorrow, right?” Speaking the words for him, he grins and fist bumps me.

“No shit!” Jackson says. “Shotgun wedding, Bill?”

“No, she’s not pregnant. Relax. But, you know, I like her.” He says it so nonchalantly and shrugs.

We all give him some ribbing. “Liking her and marrying her are two different extremes.”

“I’m an extreme guy.”

“You sure are.” Cash adds his two cents and we all take our beers and cheers again.

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