I grinned down at him, and he twitched his nose that clearly was getting tickled by his fake mustache.
“I don’t even know why you think that’s a Disney hero costume, Dilly-Dally,” Mal Pal told him, all sass and matter of fact where she skipped along at my opposite side. “There aren’t even any cops in Disney movies.”
Dillon frowned at her.
Two of them were always trying to outdo the other. Best of friends and competing at the same time.
“Um, hello . . . cops are the best heroes there are,” he argued right back. “And they’re the real kind. I’d rather be a real hero than a fake one, right, Mack Daddy? I look awesome, right? Just like my dad.”
His attention jumped between Mallory and me, and I did my best to keep up.
Little dude was dressed in a cop costume, a blue button-up and blue shorts, fake badge intact. Of course, he’d gone and paired it with a sergeant’s cap and that mustache and fake aviators.
Yeah.
People were staring.
We didn’t care.
“Whose idea was this, anyway?” Ian grumbled under his breath.
Jace laughed where he held an umbrella over Faith and their newborn to block the sun.
Grace swatted at Ian’s chest. “Oh, don’t be an old grump. This is fun.”
“Happiest place ever,” he muttered with a sly grin in my direction.
“Yeah, don’t be a grump, Uncle Ian. Grumping is only for old people . . . like Grand Pop! Isn’t that right, Grand Pop?”
Dillon grinned over my shoulder. I swiveled that way, meeting eyes with Izzy’s father who was strolling along with his hand wrapped up in Mrs. Lane’s.
My heart damn near overflowed with that, too.
He sent me a smile that was almost imperceptible. Just a twitch of his own mustache.
“What . . . you callin’ me grumpy?” he teased.
“You’re the grumpiest of the grumps, Grand Pop. Accept it.”
Mr. Lane grinned, and my chest was stretching tight. Pressing full with this joy that sometimes I didn’t fully know how to process.
“This is it! This is it! This was the one I wanted to go on!” Mallory shouted, racing for the line of the little roller coaster that had about five bumps and dips and probably took about fifteen seconds to go around.
Dillon scrambled out of my arms, right on her tail, Sophie clamoring after them. Bailey Anne and Benton bolted that way, too.
Izzy turned her sweet face to our oldest son, girl’s smile so perfect and right when she looked at him.
“Is this one too little for you?” she asked, teasing him a bit since he and Thomas were all about the big kid rides and were clearly itching to ditch their little siblings and cousins.
“Nah. I ddddon’t mind.”
He sent us one of his crooked grins.
It twisted around me with the force of a thousand suns.
“Thanks for keeping an eye on the little ones, Big Ben.” I ruffled my fingers through his hair, wanting to grab him and hold him tight.
Instead, I lifted a chin at him, treating him like the man he was becoming.
Kind and good.
The kid was my definition of a hero.
“Come on, Ben. Let’s go,” Thomas hollered, walking backward and gesturing for Benjamin to get into line.
He started that way. Slower than the rest of them, his right leg still lagging more than the left.
Bony and thin and angled and the most perfect thing I’d ever seen.
He was wearing a shirt that read ‘Princess Protection Patrol’ on the back.
We’d left his fore-arm crutches back at the hotel. Just in case. But he didn’t need them.
He ran to catch up.
Fucking ran.
Smiling.
Laughter rolled from him when Dillon took his hat and threw it to him like a frisbee. He caught it and put it on his head.
Izzy curled herself to my side.
That energy flashed.
Shivered in this contentment.
“I’m so happy,” she whispered.
I kissed the top of her head. “They have it all wrong, Izzy Baby. Happiest place anywhere is with you.”
Her hands fisted in my shirt, and she pressed her cheek to my thundering heart.
I glanced around at my family who had gathered by the ride to watch the kids.
I met eyes with Jace and Ian who were both wrapped around their wives, holding on tight and refusing to let go.
Something knowing passed between us.
Each of us had been bred into hardship and poverty.
Our lots cast. No hope for our futures.
Set on a course of crime and wickedness because we didn’t know anything else.
But we’d found our strength in these amazing women who’d breathed their belief. Who’d shown us something better. Who’d shown us what it really meant to fight and what we should be fighting for.
Now we stood firm.
Found who we were inside.
Our purpose.
Our reason.
The love for our families the deepest confession of our hearts.
Thank you for reading Pieces of Us!!
I’m so proud of this story and these characters – they are going to live in me forever.