****
“Min, Ramon; it’s so good to see you! Thanks for coming.” Blanca gave us each a hug and kissed us both on our cheeks. “And look at little Jorge here; what a cutie! He couldn’t possibly have merged you both more perfectly.”
Blanca bent down and spoke to Jorge.
“Hi, little Jorge. How are you, buddy?” Blanca gave him a bright smile and Trent walked up to me.
“You still want to go through with this?” he whispered in my ear.
“Hell yeah, amigo. Is everything set for it?”
“We’re all set, just grab it from Knox and you’re good to go.”
“Are you guys hungry?” Blanca winked at me.
“Starving!” Min exclaimed. “It seems like I always am these days. Breastfeeding will do that to you.”
“Well, Knox is over there with the food. Please, everyone, help yourselves.”
“I’ll get our food, mi amor. Why don’t you go sit over there?” I pointed to an empty chair in the middle of where everyone had congregated. We had told the group to leave this seat empty for her.
“Okay, hun. Make sure to pile on some extra potato salad.” Min didn’t seem suspicious of anything and headed toward the chair. I waited until she was seated with the baby next to her and then I made my way over to Knox.
“Aye, hombre, is it ready?” I asked.
“It is,” he said, handing me a warm churro. We’d been practicing making them recently and I thought that one looked pretty authentic.
“This looks great!”
“Yeah, I actually had a lot of fun making these. Hannah loves them, so I’ll probably be making them for her now, too. You think it’s skinny enough?”
“Si, amigo. It’s perfect!” Knox laughed. “Hey man, were you able to get Hannah to handle that Cassidy thing?”
“With the government? Yeah. If Cassidy was alive, it wouldn’t have gone well for her. They were not very forgiving of her backing out of their deal. They threatened to find her and kill her and the rest of us.”
“Well, they’ll need a lot of luck finding her,” I laughed. “I guess we can expect someone else from the government to show up soon.”
“Yeah, they canceled Min’s room in Bar Harbor and said they’ll be sending someone for her car, so I’d imagine that person will ask to speak to Cassidy.”
“You don’t think she got fired, do you?” I was slight worried by the government’s response.
“Well, she said it was a sub department of hers, so I doubt they have the power to fire her. I’m sure they also don’t want her to spout off about what they did. She wouldn’t even have to reveal us; she could just say they tried to eradicate a whole group of people and show the proof. I’m sure they would get in quite a bit of trouble.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right.”
“Alright, it’s all you. Good luck, man!”
I pressed a small object into the tip of the churro and slowly walked toward Min.
“Here you go, mi amor. Something sweet for someone sweet.” I smiled as I got down on one knee in front of her.
“They made churros?” She smiled as she broke in half, and as she raised the sugary confection to her lips to take a bite, a glimmer caught her eye. “Wait—what? What’s this? Oh my god!” Min’s eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with both hands.
“Min Dupont, you are the love of my life. Will you marry me?” I asked, grinning wide. Everyone surrounded us and Min looked around with tears in her eyes.
“Yes! A million times, yes!” she shouted, throwing her arms around my neck.
“I hope those are happy tears,” I whispered into her ear, holding her tightly, trying not to get sugar from the churro in her hair.
“Of course they are,” Min laughed, pulling away and wiping her eyes. I pulled the ring off the end of the churro and dusted the sugar off of it. She extended her left hand to me, beaming as I placed the ring on her finger and smiled back at her brightly. Pulling me up to meet her face, she kissed me, and I smiled against her lips.
I almost forgot it wasn’t just the two of us until I heard the enormous round of applause around us. People were cheering and clapping, shouting our names. I decided to kiss her like no one was there; I wanted her to know how overcome with joy I was that she had agreed to become my wife.
I was going to marry the mother of my child.
I heard whistling and figured that she got the idea.
“Wow,” she breathed when I pulled away. “Tell me how you really feel!”
I laughed. She was perfect; always a wise ass, just like me.
I felt two slaps on my back and Trent and Knox were on either side of me.
“Congrats, man! I knew she would say yes.” Trent wore a wide grin on his face.
“There wasn’t a doubt in my mind.” Knox shook my hand. “Congrats!”
I watched as Hannah and Blanca surrounded Min, inspecting her ring. I had gotten her an eighteen-carat white gold band, fully-set with diamonds with a large, square-cut diamond set in the middle. I wanted a ring men could see from a mile away. I want them to know she was mine before they even had the thought to walk up to her.
“You did good, man,” Knox said, nodding.
“The three musketeers and our three ladies. Who knew?” Trent exclaimed, wrapping his arms around me and Knox.
“I sure didn’t. I didn’t even think Knox would find someone. He’s so fucking serious all the time,” I laughed.
“What can I say? Hannah was too hot to pass up,” Knox shrugged.
“So, when are you guys going to pop the question? I was the last one to get a lady, but the first to engaged. How’d you guys let that happen?” I joked.
Trent and Knox pulled two small boxes from their pockets and opened them to show me the rings nestled inside.
“Are those for Hannah and Blanca?” I asked, surprised.
“Yeah, what do you think about a triple wedding? Are you cool with it?” Trent asked.
“That sounds incredible! I mean, we would have to ask the ladies, but look at them over there.” I pointed to the girls standing a few feet from us. They were laughing and smiling together like they’d been best friends for years. “They already get along so well. I doubt they’ll have a problem with that.”
“Well, hopefully we don’t steal your spotlight or anything!” Trent said, starting towards the girls, and Knox followed.
“Good luck!” I shouted after them. I watched as they knelt down in front of Hannah and Blanca at the same time, asking for their hands in marriage. They both squealed and looked at each other, nodding eagerly. There wasn’t a moment of doubt in my mind that they would say yes.
And just like that, we were all engaged. I watched as the girls compared rings and thought of how amazing the next year was going to be. The clan was becoming stronger the bigger it got, and we were ready for anything the world could throw at us.
THE END