“Okay, bud.” I motion Milo over with a nod of my head. “Time to get licking.”
Milo scurries across the kitchen. He slides to a stop in front of the cake, his eyes comically massive. I think all four of us are trying not to laugh. God, this really is our crowning achievement. I can’t say we’ve ever been this inventive before.
“Oh, it’s definitely chocolate on the bottom,” Milo announces, then giggles softly. He puts his hands over his mouth to stop himself, and it makes us go red in the face, each of us trying to repress our laughter.
Milo makes it from one end to the other, lengthwise, and then goes for the sides the way we instructed. He’s halfway across when a cake-tastrophe strikes. The stupid cake, being a rectangle, doesn’t have enough support in the middle. Before any of us can call out a warning, the thing crumbles down the middle like a freaking earthquake just happened. The crack spreads out across both sides, and all of a sudden, we’re not holding a solid cake anymore. We’re now just holding handfuls, each of us. And Milo is wearing the rest of it. He’s totally covered, and he didn’t even make so much as a sound as the cake smashed down on his head and around the rest of him.
He looks like a chocolate and vanilla cake monster with cake in his ears and hair and on his shirt and pants. The icing is worse. It’s everywhere, sticky and gooey, and all over his face.
“Hey,” Taylen says because he’s Taylen. “What do you know? He was right about the chocolate and vanilla.”
And that’s it. All of us burst into laughter. We laugh so hard and deep that Milo, who was kind of shocked, wipes icing off his face, brings it to his mouth, and slurps it off his fingers, laughing hard too. Our boisterous laughter, of course, brings the women to the kitchen.
“Holy blazing ballsacks!” Granny shrieks, obviously not so tuned to having little ears around.
“What on earth?” Ellis screeches.
“Why? Just why?” Leandra sighs. She’s had a lifetime to get used to us and our shenanigans.
“Argh!” Luna croaks when she sees our son, covered in cake and icing.
“Well…” I bring a hand up and taste the cake still in my palm. I think the thing crumbled around all eight of our hands, leaving us each with a handful. “Welcome to the family, Milo!”
There’s a heartbeat of silence, then the laughter starts up again, and my words are echoed around the kitchen. I can’t say I’ve ever had a more joyous, prouder moment in my life than this one right here.
CHAPTER 12
Luna
Leandra didn’t give me a time she was going to stop by, and I didn’t tell her when to pop in on Tuesday. However, she shows up at two with Taylen. I’m surprised at that. I’m not even sure what Taylen does, but I’m a little wary of finding him with his sister. He’s a joker, and he wears his humor lightly. He can also be a bit of a jerk as he’s merciless with his wit, and most of the time, less than tactful, but it’s only if he doesn’t like the person. Luckily, I’ve never had to endure the sharp side of his tongue or be on his murder with humor and bury deep in the dirt with more humor list.
“Leandra!” My eyes flick to Taylen at her side. He’s a good foot taller than his sister. He might be Toren’s twin, but it’s pretty easy to tell them apart after a while. Like his light sandy brown hair, for one, but it’s more than that. Taylen always has a mischievous look like he’s constantly up to no good, while Toren is always so so serious, but when Toren smiles, beware the falling stars. Okay, no thinking about Toren and his smile. It’s forbidden.
“Taylen. Hi.”
“I know you weren’t expecting him. Everyone kept giving us looks as we walked down the street. It’s like he’s my bodyguard,” Leandra says, casting her brother an exasperated look.
“You loved it,” Taylen insists. “Anyway, I’m not interested in buying jewelry for myself, though what do you think if I pierced my ear? Would you have something that would be fine?”
“Fine?” I hold back a laugh. “Yeah, there’s a dangle earring section over there. Or a big hoop, maybe?”
Leandra giggles. “He badgered me into letting him come. You try saying no to him. Blowing up a person’s phone is a real thing.”
“That’s fine.”
“I’m leaving shortly,” Taylen says. He glances around before shifting his eyes upstairs like his brother is calling out to him just by the force of weird blood ties or twin telepathy. “I just wanted to tell you something, and I couldn’t think of a better way to do it since coming here on my own would be awkward, and Leandra makes things less awkward, so…”