“Cuddles, Porge?” I pull her up and she straddles my lap, resting her head on my chest. I kiss the top of it and breathe her in. She looks up at me and laughs, “I hear your heart.” She grins at me, her big brown eyes shining at me, and I suddenly wonder if I ever get to have another baby, what colour eyes will they have? My brothers all have brown eyes and so do all of their kids, except for Jimmie and Lennon’s eldest daughter, Paige, who looks more like me every time I see her. She’s the only one of my nieces and nephews with blue eyes. Cam’s eyes are brown so I assume our children will have brown eyes, if we were to be lucky enough to have them.
Cam pulls me into his side and whispers in my ear, “God, that suits you. Watching you with a child like this is seriously turning me on, Kitten. I badly want to introduce my super sperm to your sexy eggs and see what amazing concoction we come up with.” I shudder as I smile up at him and give a slight nod.
“One thing at a time, Tiger, let’s find a house to turn into a home. Then we’ll get our funky fluids together.” He gives me the sexiest smile.
“I love the fuck out of you, Kitten.”
I wink at him. “You fucking better, Tiger.”
He throws his head back and gives me a big Cam laugh, which makes Harley jump. I rest my palms over the back of her head and her back, and she settles again.
I look up to see my dad watching us. He winks at me and raises his glass. “Can I just say…”
My mum rolls her eyes and says quietly, “Oh, here we go.”
My dad is famous for his speeches when he’s had a drink, and he’s definitely had a drink tonight. “Can I just say, how happy I am to have all of my family around the table together.” He reaches out and takes my mum’s hand and kisses it, looking at her for a long moment. He looks back at all of us. “Last year,” he begins, then stops and swallows, and we all know in an instant that this is going to be deep. My dad rarely cries. The first time I ever saw him cry was at Sean’s funeral and I’m not even absolutely sure of that, but I do remember him crying after one of my failed suicide attempts, the sight of my big, strong, hard-as-nails dad sobbing and broken because of my actions, will stay with me forever. I swallow to try to remove the lump in my throat. I really should be an expert at this action by now. “Last year, our family was ripped apart in the most horrific of ways. We all know what happened and I won’t dwell on that. It goes without saying that Sean and Beau will always be in our hearts and in our thoughts.” Everyone seems to take a swig of their drink in synchronisation. “What I wanna say… the point I’m trying to make is, how very fucking proud I am of you all.” He looks around the table at each of us. “My boys,” he looks down at the table, again, I know that he’s fighting back tears. He licks his lips, looks up at us and continues, “you boys, stepped up and went above and beyond what any brothers I know would do for their sister. The way you took it in turns just to be with her, despite dealing with your own grief, well, I couldn’t be more proud, and you girls, you girls are the strongest women I know. My daughter is lucky. Despite everything that she’s been through, I still consider her to be a lucky girl.” His eyes are on me now. “The way you lot pulled together as a family, held Georgia and each other together, all while keeping things as normal as possible for your own kids, all of that makes me the proudest dad ever.”
My mum is a snotty mess sitting next to my dad. I daren’t look at the rest of my family. “And you, Georgia, you, what can I say about you,” he shakes his head. “Let me tell you about my little girl, Cam. Georgia Rae Layton, my little princess. This girl has dealt with so much shit in her young life. Yes, she’s got to live a life that many young girls dream of. She married her rock star boyfriend and lived a fairy tale life,” he gives a small laugh, “fairy tale my arse. That girl has had the eyes of the world on her since she was about sixteen. She had some spiteful little bitch break her and Sean up, but then luckily they found their way back together again. She’s dealt with all the stories of the other women,” he shrugs, “even the stories of the other men. She lost her first baby and it nearly killed her. Then she lost her second baby and her husband, and again, it nearly killed her.” He squeezes his eyes shut as I hear Jimmie sob from the other side of Cam. So much for my dad not dwelling on what happened last year, but I know better than to interrupt one of his whiskey addled speeches.