18 months later

I watch Mackenzie as she sits in a chair next to Brie at the edge of the surf. Brie is telling her something, but I can’t hear what. Mac is listening and smiling with an occasional nod. I wonder if Brie is asking her? If she is, I’m too late. Fuck, I need to grow some balls already and just do it.

“Hey, burger boy,” Jordan yells as he walks across the patio toward me. “I don’t like mine charred.”

I look down at the patties on the grill and start to flip them with the spatula I forgot I was holding. I look back up and smile at Tate, the little boy strapped to his chest. His big green eyes are barely visible under heavy lids. I coo at him and he gives me a sleepy smile. “You are so lucky this kid looks like Jessie. He’s got a shot in life now.”

Jordan flips me the bird above his son’s head. “I’m just happy he’s a boy. Devin is going to have his hands full with a daughter from the Caplan gene pool.”

I glance past Jordan to where Callie is sitting under an umbrella trying to keep a sun hat on her daughter’s head, while Olivia—who everyone calls Liv—repeatedly removes it and Devin splashes in the water with Conner. “Yeah, I don’t envy him either but it’s going to be a riot to watch.”

Jordan laughs. I flip the burgers on the grill again and glance back to the beach. Mackenzie has gotten up and is walking into the ocean where Jessie, Rose and Luc are already swimming. “I have to say,” Jordan says. “I didn’t expect to ever be having a family-friendly preplayoffs barbeque with you at your long-term girlfriend’s Hampton summer home.”

I grin. “It’s an unexpected plot twist for sure.”

“Things are still good with Brie obviously,” Jordan remarks and I nod.

I nod. “They’re fantastic.”

We sold her grandmother’s place four months ago and bought a place together. It’s not as open as my loft but it’s a big, spacious brownstone that Mac loves because she’s got her own floor since her room is by itself in the attic. I’ve only had one nightmare since we moved in. And last month Brie decided to face her own nightmare and had herself tested again and I went with her for the results. When we found out she doesn’t carry the gene her mom did. The doctor asked her if that meant she would try for children and Brie simply said. “I already have a daughter.”

And it was that night she told me she was going to ask Mac if she wanted to be adopted.

I turn away from the burgers and watch Brie stand up and join everyone in the water. “I was planning on asking Brie to marry me tonight, actually, after all you goofballs leave.”

“Get the fuck out!” Jordan says, his eyes bulging out of his goofy head and his mouth hanging open. He glances down at the fuzzy blond head. “You didn’t hear that, Tater.”

“He’s asleep,” I assure him. “And I’m not kidding. I have been trying to work up the courage to do it for a couple of months. I want it to be memorable and all that crap you know. But she told me last night she’s going to ask Mackenzie if she wants to be adopted today. And so I kind of want to do it now, so I can adopt her too.”

“Holy shit…” he says, which is kind of the reaction I expected but then he starts laughing. Loudly. So loud that it wakes Tate and he starts to cry. “Sorry. I just…you’re the guy who used to brag about leading the league in sleepovers and you acted like love was a terminal disease you were afraid to catch.”

“Yeah. I was an idiot,” I retort and smirk. “Keep rubbing it in, arsehole, and I’ll bring up your past. At least I did the player thing well, you were a train wreck.”

“True that.” He puts down his beer next to the grill and lifts a still crying Tate out of his carrier. “Come on, son. Let’s hug it out.”

He cradles his tiny human to his chest. Watching this kind of thing—family, a clear sign of love—used to feel so foreign to me. Now I’m no longer just a visitor in other people’s families; I’ve got one of my own. I just have to make it official.

I hand the spatula to Jordan. “Man the grill. I’m going to go ask Brie to marry me.”

“What? Now? But…what? For real?”

I walk across the patio and hurry down the stairs to the beach below. It’s low tide so I have a lot of beach to cross, but my confidence grows with every step. Mackenzie is waist deep, jumping waves with Rose. Brie is only knee deep, watching them. I walk right up to her and circle her waist from behind. She tilts her head and smiles up at me.

“Have you asked her yet?”

“No. I almost did…” Brie explains. “I’m nervous. I can’t figure out the perfect way to bring it up.”

“I have the same problem,” I confess and she gives me a quizzical smile.

“With what?”

I don’t answer her. Instead I call Mackenzie. She turns and looks at me and I wave her over. Brie stiffens in my arms. “What are you doing?”

“Relax,” I reply and kiss her cheek softly. “Sometimes you have just take a chance.”

Mac jumps to a stop in front of us but not before splashing us playfully. “What’s up?”

“So Brie has been wanting to ask you something important,” I start and Brie whispers my name under her breath followed by an “oh God.” She tries to step out of my embrace, but I hold her to my chest. “She’s too nervous to ask you, so I figure I’ll ask for you, Brie.”

“I’m confused,” Mackenzie says, her brow furrowing.

“Mac, Brie would like to know if you’d like her to adopt you, because she would really love to adopt you,” I tell Mac and her face instantly looks stunned.

“Oh my God…” Mac whispers her hand covering her mouth as she gasps. My eyes fall quickly to the scar on her forearm and I think God, that was a lifetime ago. “Really? Are you shitting me?”

“No. Not shitting you,” Brie manages to squeak out. “But don’t worry if you don’t want to it’s okay. I get it. You can still stay with me until you’re ready to apply for emanci—”

Mac starts to cry. “No. I want to be adopted. By you. I do.”

Mac throws herself on Brie and the hug would knock them both over if I wasn’t there for support. They’re both crying now and I have a lump in my throat the size of a damn baseball. I try to clear it out. “I love you, Brie.”

“I love you too.”

I turn to Mac. “I love you like a daughter, even with your attitude and potty mouth.”

She smiles. “Then you should get in on this and marry her so I can be adopted by both of you.”

“Mac!” Brie gasps and starts to blush.

I laugh and splash Mac. “Way to steal my thunder, kid!”

“What?” Brie looks at me with complete confusion.

“I have a ring upstairs in my bag. I have been carrying it around for two months trying to find the right time to ask you to marry me and if I can adopt this goofball with you and maybe even a couple more one day,” I tell her. “So Gabrielle Bennett, what do you say? Want a husband to go with your kid?”

“As long as it’s you, yes,” she says and launches herself at me. I catch her in a hug. “One hundred percent yes.”

Mackenzie squeals like only a teenage girl can and jumps on both of us causing me to lose my balance and we tip backward into the water, one big happy family.

My family.