Shea also changed Skylar’s and his last names to Beck. He wanted them all to have the same last name and what better to become a Beck? He’s been part of their family almost his whole life, so it made sense to finally make it official. Even though Pennsylvania didn’t acknowledge their marriage, they couldn’t stop him from changing his name.
“Dada!” a sweet little voice said, bringing him out of his thoughts.
Shea looked down to see Skylar toddling toward him with one hand in Christian’s. She was just starting to walk and was doing pretty well with just holding one hand instead of two now. He couldn’t believe that she was one already. He swore they just brought her home from the hospital yesterday.
“Hi, cutie.” Shea smiled and put his hands out for her to grab.
Skylar giggled and grabbed onto his hands. Shea lifted her onto his lap and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He then looked up at Christian, who was smiling lovingly down at him. Shea would never get tired of the way Christian looked at him. Christian leaned down and gave him a kiss.
“This party is insane,” Christian murmured, sitting down on the lounge chair next to him.
They were in Henry’s backyard, it was a - Happy 2nd birthday to Adalyn and Michael/Happy 1st Birthday to Skylar/Wedding reception for both Margot and Quinn, and Christian and Shea - party. Margot’s mother, brother, and sister flew in from France and were staying for two weeks so that they could spend some time with Evonne, who was already two and a half months old.
Shea snorted. “Aren’t Beck parties always insane?”
Christian chuckled. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“It’s going to be even more insane next year now that Claire and Raelynn are pregnant again,” Shea said.
“And Raelynn is having twins. Oh god, I can’t imagine how Sebastian is going to deal with that. Mikey is a little terror already, and now they get to add two more…” Christian groaned, shaking his head.
Shea winced. “Yeah, that’s gonna be rough.”
“I just wanna know how those two got pregnant at the same time again,” Christian said, baffled by the thought.
“I bet him and Henry had it all planned out and called each other that night. ‘Hey man, we’re doing it tonight, right? Yeah dude, make sure you get her pregnant.’” Shea mocked in a very meathead-ish voice, using his hand as a phone.
Christian barked out a laughed and slapped Shea’s chest. Shea smiled over at Christian who smiled back. Shea didn’t think life could get any better than this. He had a family who loved him, and even though his parents and sister weren’t here to see it, he knew they would be happy for him. He wished they could have seen him get married and he wished they could have met Skylar, but sometimes things just don’t work out like we plan. All he could do was live for today and love his husband and daughter with all of his heart.
“One, four, three,” Shea said with a cheesy grin.
Christian chuckled and shook his head before looking over at Shea again. “One, four, three, three, Shea,” Christian replied before leaning over and stealing a kiss.
~Epilogue~
7 years later…
Anne Beck could not get over how much her family has grown over the past seven years. Henry’s house was the only place that they could all fit together. She was up to thirteen grandchildren and she was pretty sure that was going to be the final number. Both Henry and Sebastian got neutered and Margot had her tubes tied after the last one was born.
To think that she could have missed out on all of this if she hadn’t changed made her chest tight. If she had not gone for help and made amends with her sons, then she would not be in their lives, which meant that she would not be involved in all of her grandchildren’s lives. How horrible a life that would have been. She was so glad that Sebastian had the guts to tell her how horrendous a mother she was being. She will never be able to thank him enough for doing what he did that day.
Kids screaming and laughing brought Anne out of her thoughts. When she looked to see what was going on, she found all of the kids attacking Sebastian. The kids were all over him, grabbing his legs and arms, wrapping their arms around his waist. Anne laughed at the crazy sight in front of her.
“My cookie! Get off me, you little moochers!” Sebastian cried, holding one Christmas tree shaped sugar cookie high in the air.
“It’s the last one! You have to share!” Michael laughed as he jumped to try to grab the cookie, which was way out of his reach.
“There are tons of other cookies! Go get your own!” Sebastian said.