Murphy and Minnow run into the kitchen, calling for their uncle. When the mini-twins see him, he sweeps them into his arms and swings around. I smile at how gentle the hunk manages to be. The kids catch sight of me and want down.
“Our friend!” Murphy yells.
“Tatum lives here now,” Chipper says, returning the mini-twins to the ground.
“We have to go to West Virginia,” Minnow says, hugging me. “Are you coming too?”
“I don’t think so. Maybe next time.”
“You can stay in our house when we leave,” Murphy says, pulling the chair next to me from the table. “I want to eat here.”
“Where’s Bianca Bella?” I ask Cricket while helping Murphy and Minnow into their chairs.
Cricket stands in the kitchen with Poet just behind her. “She was walking from her casita to the house in slippers and slid on a patch of ice near the pool. Landed hard on her ass. We iced her butt cheeks something fierce, but she was still in too much pain to drive over. We’ll bring her food home.”
“I hope she feels better.”
“Oh, she’ll be fine. It’s not the first time her ass and the ground have fought. At first, I blamed her for wearing slippers instead of real shoes, but Poet pointed out it’s actually his fault for not putting out salt. Who knew?”
“I fell down on the job,” Poet says, opening his beer. “We don’t have much use for salt on the walkways back in West Virginia. No one takes strolls when it’s icy.”
“Lazy hillbillies,” Cricket says and pats him on the ass. “How I love those freaks.”
“Save it for this weekend when you can share that love up close and personal with the lazy, hillbilly freaks.”
“When will you be back?” I ask.
“Next weekend. We bounce back and forth between homes and in-laws. Neither of us does well for too long without our families around.”
Cricket and Poet share a sweet smile before Chipper breaks it up by asking what they want on their pizzas. I stand to help him, but he waves off my attempt and smiles.
“You rest up for later,” he says, giving me a wink.
I grin at his expression as he leaves the room, but the mini-twins soon demand my attention. They talk about their other house, and how they play with their cousins who are bigger. They also tell me about their dog at the other house named Jimmy.
“He eats hot dogs,” Murphy says. “His farts smell like hot dogs too.”
Minnow giggles at her brother’s comment and then they push their foreheads together in some kind of weird twin mind meld.
“Did you and Chipper do things like that?” I ask Cricket.
“We did and still do. Sometimes, we hold hands when we’re out together. Poet thinks it’s creepy and incestuous, but Chip and I would never nail each other. It’s all about our love.”
I must wear a shocked expression because Cricket and Candy laugh. I catch Poet snickering too.
“Love is good,” I say when I can’t think of a single other response.
“What did I miss?” Chipper asks, returning to the kitchen.
“I was telling Tatum how you and I don’t have sex.”
“Good,” Chipper says immediately. “I forgot to mention that to her so far.”
Candy sighs. “I’ve raised two healthy young people.”
“Yes, Mother,” they say in unison.
Before Cricket and Chipper mind meld and make the moment more awkward, Murphy yells, “Pizza!”
“I’m on it, little man,” Chipper says before asking the mini-twins what they want on their mini-pizzas. Murphy keeps pushing for extra tomatoes and peppers while Cricket shakes her head. Minnow says she only wants cheese.
“Pizza gives me gas,” she explains, sounding like Hayes.
Refusing to sit on my butt while he cooks, I help Chipper get the pizzas into the brick oven. The mini-twins suddenly realize Dog Balthazar is in the house and run to him. They sit on the floor next to the lounging dog and pet his head.
“He’s tired,” they tell me.
I can’t stop smiling at the cuties until I catch Cricket watching me.
“How soon do you think you’ll make a baby Chipper?” Cricket asks, taking her brother’s hand.
“For fuck’s sake, we just met and moved in together,” Chipper says without any real effort.
After swallowing a spare pepperoni, I smile. “I wouldn’t mind having one right away. I guess we’ll see what God has in mind.”
“Are you sure you want to rush into motherhood?” Chipper asks, dropping his sister’s hand and taking mine. “I’m very okay with waiting.”
“You know I love kids, and I’m psyched to make a big-eyed, bald, possibly part-alien baby.”
Candy smiles at me. “Chipper was a beautiful boy. Sweet too. I still remember the first time he said, ‘mama’ clear as day. I was having a really shit day. The OG twins were sick, and I was puking out my guts. Then Chipper crawled over to me and said, ‘mama.’ Just like that, he made everything okay.”
Cricket hugs her mom. “He really was a sweet boy. Great hugger too.”
“And now he’s in love. Where did the time go?”
Chipper frowns at the display from his mother and sister. I just squeeze his hand, relieved to be happy after so many weeks of only grief and anger. Now I’m able to see past my pain and toward a brighter future.