My mouth forms the ‘oh’ sound, but nothing comes out. She’s always been standoffish to me, but I chalked that up to her trying to protect Ajay and her investment in him.
“Quinn is closer to Peyton. Growing up, she was quiet and so was Quinn, so they gravitated toward each other — plus they were both close to Noah, so they were always together.”
“Their whole family seems perfect.” We cross the street and Nola motions for me to go down the stairs first. “You know it’s going to take a year for me to get down, right?”
“Will you stop complaining and just go? You’re having a baby!”
“Don’t be jealous,” I say, taking the first step.
“Honestly, I am.”
I don’t say anything until my feet are touching the sand. I kick off my flip flops and wonder if they’re really worth the effort of bending over to pick them up. Just when I’m about to donate them to whoever wants them, Nola scoops them up and starts walking toward our chairs.
“Do you and Quinn talk about kids?”
“Sometimes, but he knows I don’t want to be pregnant until we’re married.”
“You’re still young,” I point out.
Nola nods. “Growing up, I always thought I’d have one or two babies. When Quinn told me his sisters were twins, I was like, ‘Sweet, two babies at once!’ because twins tend to run on the male side, but nope… different parents and all that crap. And now when I look at Quinn and spend time with his family, I want like five or six kids.”
“You want your own band!” I laugh at my corny joke.
She looks at me and smiles. “I do. I want a big family. My sister is expanding her family. My cousins are starting to have babies. My brother,” she pauses and shakes her head. “Well he’s sowing oats so for all we know, he’s got offspring everywhere.”
“And then there’s Quinn.”
Nola nods. “I think I’m going to ask him to marry me.”
“Yeah?” I ask, surprised.
“Yeah,” she says, almost as if I’ve given her some confidence or that saying it out loud helped her make up her mind. “Why not? Women are changing the way things are done every day.”
“I think you…” I stop mid-sentence and my hand goes to my stomach as my son shows his pseudo aunt that he’s in full agreement with her idea.
“I’ll go get Ajay. Quinn and I will take Evelyn with us.”
“What?”
Nola points down. Beneath me, there’s a puddle of darkened, wet sand. “But I want to go to the beach.” My whiney voice falls on deaf ears. Nola is at the shore, waving her arms rapidly. Ajay must sense something’s up because he’s paddling in faster than I’ve ever seen.
“Well, you definitely know how to cause a commotion,” I say to my stomach. My baby boy must hear me because his foot kicks me so hard that I groan in agony.
4
Ajay
I love my wife more than anything in this world, aside from Evelyn, but the machoman in me wishes like hell that I hadn’t picked her up because carrying a very pregnant woman through scorching hot sand while she’s holding onto my neck for dear life was not the best decision I’ve ever made.
Quinn, Nola and Evelyn are hot on our tails. Evelyn is screaming that she wants to be with her mom. Nola is trying to diffuse the situation by telling her that she’s coming along, but riding with her and Quinn, and Quinn is standing in the middle of the Pacific Coast Highway, blocking traffic so I have a clear path to my car. What a clusterfuck.
“I can walk,” Whiskey says. She’s right, she probably can, but thanks to the machoman syndrome I’m currently experiencing, there’s no way in hell I’m setting her down. Besides, my wife doesn’t have shoes on, and the pavement will burn her feet. I’m thankful Quinn suggested I put the water socks on, or I’d be in the same boat.
My heart breaks as I help Whiskey into the car because Evelyn is having no part in not going with her mother right now. “Go to her,” Whiskey says, nodding toward our daughter. I do, crouching down in front of her and wiping away her tears.
“Why can’t I go?”
“You can, but you’re going to ride with Miss Nola, oka