Max starts to tell me the story again, but before he can get very far Safi bursts in through the door and runs to his side, throwing her arms around him like she hasn’t seen him in years. In truth, it’s only been about two weeks since he and Teri left for Germany on their second honeymoon, but Safi has been climbing the walls worrying about him the whole time.
“Safi…” he grunts, wrapping his arms around her even as he squirms with discomfort at the sudden attack. “My dearest sister.”
She pushes away, narrowing her eyes at him. “I’m your only sister.”
“I…know that. It was a joke.”
Safi turns her head up to look at Teri. “He’s joking these days?”
“Try and stop him.” She rolls her eyes. “That last operation seems to have restored his cringe factor and then some. You should hear the dad jokes he makes with the kids.”
“Speaking of,” Max says, “where are my nieces and nephews?”
Safi turns her eyes to me, a question in them.
“I called them. I heard a squeal, Nicole I’m guessing.” I shrug.
We have six children. Roman Jr. and Maxwell, twins born a little less than eight months after our wedding. Sabine, named after my mom, is younger by just over a year. Two years younger than Sabine is Bear, who takes the most after me in the size department and earned me a few choice words when Safi was in labor. We decided to take a break after that, but when Safi fell pregnant less than six months later with our fifth child, we were happier than either of us expected. Little Safi was born with a few health problems, and she’s smaller than any of her siblings, but she’s a miracle child and at four years old she’s both a terror and an angel in equal measure. After she was born, we decided we didn’t want to stop at five children, and tried again, and Nicole was born just over a year after her sister.
Seems my sweet treat has little difficulty getting pregnant when we want it, and truth is we’ve been trying again. I’m fully expecting to make another announcement soon.
So, two boys, three girls and one, Maxwell, who has told us since they were five that they weren’t a boy or a girl. We fully support that and wouldn’t have them any other way. Children are the biggest blessing in both our lives, and we have so many of those to count.
And you’d think with all that, Safi wouldn’t have had chance to do anything with her culinary skills. You’d be wrong though. She makes time for our family, as I do, but we both have our work as well and wouldn’t be without it. I have my investments, and I help Mom with the casino whenever she needs it, while Safi found she had more of a knack for show pieces than working kitchens. Her cakes get a lot of interest on Instagram, and make a lot of money for the charities she donates them to. Many do research into neurological injuries, which has a special place in her heart after what happened with her brother.
“I’ll go and—”
I was about to say see where they’ve got to, but as the whole troupe comes flying in through the door shouting “Uncle Max!” and “Auntie Teri!” I fall silent.
“We drawed this for you!” Nicole squeals, laughing as she holds one edge of a huge piece of sugar paper.
“It’s drew, sweetheart,” Safi corrects, and I can’t help but smile as Nicole repeats the word under her breath, always trying to learn.
“Is this me?” Max asks, pointing to a drawing of a man in a wheelchair and turning to look at Bear.
He nods. “Uh huh. And that’s Auntie Teri next to you.”
“And your mom, clearly.”
“Yep.”
“And…Frankenstein’s Monster?”
The kids fall about, laughing at their uncle’s silliness.
“That’s Daddy,” says Sabine, glancing across at me. I flash her a smile and she blushes. “There aren’t any monsters.”
We talked about monsters a while ago, when she overheard me and Safi talking about a letter I’d received from my dad. Some monsters are real and very human, but Sabine thought we were talking about monsters like from the movies. We told her that there is no such thing, and that even if there were monsters in real life they’d be too scared to cross her dad. I think she still needs a little reassurance occasionally, but we’re getting there.
“Sure aren’t,” I tell her, nodding. “Uncle Max is just jealous of my dashing good looks.”
I turn to meet Safi’s gaze, and she mouths the words: love you. I throw her a wink, and can’t keep the grin off my face. I love her more than words can say. I love the life she’s given me. My investments paid off and we have more money than we’ll ever be able to spend, but I’d give it all up in a heartbeat rather than give up what we have.