AS SASSY AND FORWARD AS she is with the rest of the world, Saylor didn’t want a lot of fanfare for her birthday. She wanted it treated as any other day, working as usual. Never expecting we’d close the doors an hour early, shut down the lights, and drag out a cake to celebrate her turning another year older. But we shocked the heck out of her when we did just that.
From talking with her, I knew she didn’t want anything crazy, telling me that ever since her parents passed, celebrating her birthday has never been the same. I wanted to honor that but also wanted to make sure she knew she was cared about, that her birthday was remembered, something I so rarely got through the years. So when I went to Gus mentioning my plan, he jumped right on board. Not caring about closing down a little earlier than usual to have a little party for Saylor.
So that’s what we’re doing now.
While the candles burn bright, illuminating her smiling face and cranberry hair, I take in the people in the room. The few regular patrons I know she’s become close with through the years and two other waitresses, Daisy and Liv, who she’s friendly with at work. They all stand near the few tables we pushed together to make one long one, mingling together and laughing with Saylor.
Then I move my gaze to Gus, Nash, Saylor, and Rhett. I see how they interact, how much they care, how they’d do anything for the other. I take them in and realize for the first time that this is what a family looks like. This small, unorthodox group of four that creates a family based not on blood alone, but on loyalty and choice.
I watch as Gus and Nash stand to Saylor’s right, teasing and poking fun at her as she thinks over her wish. But I also see so much more than that. I see how Gus watches on as I think a father would, pride and care shining bright in his pale, blue eyes. He stands tall at her side, watching over her with adoration and a smirk because Saylor is always full of sass.
Then I see Nash, all six-foot-seven of him, standing heads above the rest of us, and barely an inch away from Saylor’s side. But more than that, he can’t take his eyes off of her. Every move, every smile, every word and laugh and flutter of her lashes. And those blue eyes of his? They’re full of possessiveness and want, like she’s his and he dares anyone to question him.
Neither of them have admitted it, but I wonder how long it will take before they come clean with whatever they are…
Finally my eyes track to Rhett on her left, standing no more than three feet away as I stand at the head of the table, taking it all in. I watch him there, arms crossed over his wide chest, as he waits on her, complaining she’s just trying to soak up all the attention—that she’s a diva.
I laugh as she tosses her hair, then says, “It’s my birthday, big brother. I’ll damn well delay if I want to.”
Then she looks up at me. “Girl, what are you doing all the way over there? Get over here and help me out. Calm my big brother down a notch.”
I laugh again and shake my head. I can feel my cheeks heat a little at the attention the room is giving me now. “Make a wish,” I reply.
“Yeah,” Rhett interjects. “Just blow ‘em out already.”
“Okay, okay.” She gives in. Then, smirking, says, “If there’s anything I know, it’s how to blow.”
Rhett groans as his words backfire and the room erupts in laughter before settling into darkness as Saylor finally makes her wish.
Lights flick on, and there he is standing right in front of me now.
“Say was right, what are you doing all the way over here?” Rhett asks before wrapping his arms low around my waist. His large hands spanning my lower back, fingers just barely palming my ass.
“I just wanted to give you all some space.” I shrug.
He sees right through me, just like he always seems to do. “You belong, too, angel. Never doubt that. With us—me—you always will.”
Sometimes I wonder if my heart will ever not be able to take how perfect he is. The often erratic and thunderous beats caused by his words, his smirk, his touch—him—becoming so frequent it must be on its way to combusting at any moment.
A large, tattooed fist gently taps under my chin, making sure he gets my eyes. “We may not be the most orthodox family there is, but that’s what we are. A family. And baby, that includes you. Since the day you walked in this place, you won Say and Gus over. And as soon as I laid eyes on you, I knew I’d found my reason for breathing.”
And there it goes. Boom.
“So don’t ever distance yourself, not from us. Never from me. You belong, angel.”
After he seals his words in a brief kiss that I feel to my toes, I pull back wishing it never had to end. Basking in everything that he is, that he said, that he makes me feel. Letting it settle in my bones, in my soul.
I gather my wits and look up to see him smirking that smirk down at me that tilts one side up higher than the other, knowing the effect he has on me.
Shaking my head with a playful tap to his chest, I turn to the room to see Saylor opening the few gifts brought in for her. Walking over, I see she’s just about to open the gift bag from me, the card already in hand.
“Love Kennedy,” she finishes reading when I step up next to her. Rhett right at my back. “Oooo, can’t wait to see what it is!” She beams.
Anxiety rushes through me, nervous my gift may not have been the right choice after all. I begin worrying my lip between my teeth when she rips the teal tissue paper from the bag, then pulls out the small photo album.
“What’s this?” she asks before flipping through the pages. Then she gasps, lifting a hand to cover her mouth while the other continues to flip through each page.
Because Saylor has done so much for me and has come to mean so much to me, I wanted to do something meaningful for her. So after seeing the pictures the photographer had taken at the Blues and Brews charity event the other week, I had the idea of getting some of them printed and putting them into a small photo album. “Family” embossed on the front.
The pages are full of a dozen or so pictures of Saylor, Rhett, Gus, and Nash, with myself making an appearance in a couple because the shots of the others were too good to pass by. Moments captured between them talking, laughing, smiling.
There’s a picture of a stolen moment between Saylor and Nash. Innocent to the naked eye, it just looks like two people catching the eyes of the other, but I can see the longing and want they both convey as she smiles coyly and he stares on.
Another consists of all of us. My and Saylor’s arms wrapped around each other as we all laugh at the banter between Nash and Rhett.
The rest a mix of them sharing moments throughout the day. Working together and mingling with the crowd.
The second to the last page is a picture of Saylor, Rhett, and Gus. The three of them sharing a moment. Gus is hugging Saylor, while Rhett has one hand to her back and the other on Gus’s shoulder. The moment of the makeshift family celebrating another successful year.
And the last filled page…it’s a copy of a picture that hangs in our apartment. One of her and Rhett when they were kids with their parents, the whole family together. Although she already has it, I knew it needed to hold a place in that photo album because though tragic, the loss of their parents was the catalyst that brought them all together.
When Saylor just sits there after sifting through every page more than once, I get worried that I overstepped. Tears well in my eyes, but before I can apologize, Saylor stands and wraps me up in a fierce hug. “Thank you,” she whispers. I can hear the tears in her voice. When she pulls back, I see them in her eyes as she smiles. “This is the best gift I’ve ever been given, Kennedy. It’s perfect, thank you.”
I smile, now through happy tears, not knowing what to say.
Bulky, tattooed arms wrap around my waist from behind, pulling me back into his hard chest all tight and snug. Warm lips drop onto the crown of my head before pecking my cheek, then neck. Dragging them up, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake, Rhett whispers in my ear, “See? Family, angel.”
And I’m finally realizing I belonged in those pictures all along.