“She’s still leaking,” Remy shouted, really looking like he was about to freak out.
Strong hands landed on my shoulders, and then I was pulled into a hard, warm chest. One that was safe.
“Remy’s kryptonite is tears, baby. He can’t handle kids or women crying, even if it’s for something happy,” Marcus said, his mouth right next to my ears.
“I thought he was meant to be quiet and withdrawn.”
“Sometimes someone comes along who makes us want to change the norm into something new and very different to how it was.” Those words were profound, but they were also very accurate.
Tipping my head back, I smiled up at him, not caring how I looked after crying. “Thank you for sharing that with me. I’m sure part of it will be a star feature in my nightmares, but other parts will be inspiration for the soft musical side of me.”
Tipping his head to the side, his eyes scanned over my face as his lips twitched. “Really? How does that work?”
“I just witnessed the beauty of life. A new baby coming into the world, people being there to welcome it, and it meeting its mom for the first time. Then there’s Gibraltar, who carried the baby and went through the pain of giving birth to it, but the second she met it, she fell in love. That’s what songs should be based on.”
Marcus doesn’t say anything for a moment, but his eyes never stop moving over me, like he’s trying to figure something out.
Finally, he said, “You’re not what I expected.”
The words would be strange, but he’d said them like it was a good thing.
“Ditto, but sometimes the best things are the ones we never saw coming.”
Surprising me, he leaned down and kissed me softly. “Now that’s what songs should be written about.”
I didn’t tell him, but I knew I’d be using that for the lyrics to the song I was working on for the animated movie.
“I’m lighting the fire,” Remy called, interrupting us. “Addy, you wanna join us for a beer?”
An idea hit me. “Can Santana join us, too? You know, like even out the testosterone and estrogen?”
Before he could say no, Marcus waved Santana over. “We’re heading for a beer around the fire. You up for it?”
Grabbing her hand, I gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll be there.”
At her nod, we made our way over to the area they’d made their fire pit and waited as the men dragged over more chairs for us all to sit in. While they built a fire and went to get the beers, I got a chance to know Santana a little more.
“Okay,” Remy said as he clapped his hands loudly. “It’s time you got to know all about the Townsend-Rossis. Drink some of your beer, babe. You’re gonna need it.”
I snorted and downed half the bottle, thinking it couldn’t be all that bad. I came from an Italian-Malaysian mix and from parents who made every day count. How bad could it get?
Chapter Eight
Marcus
I’d begged Remy to keep his mouth shut about my family. I’d spent hours agonizing over how exactly to tell Addy about them, and now I was wincing with every story out of his mouth.
As he finished the latest one, I growled, “I preferred you when you were mute.”
Lifting a shoulder, he looked over at Santana, who seemed to be taking story time with a lot more trepidation than Addy.
“Your cousin ran through the woods without a shirt on while people were shooting at them?” Santana asked slowly about my cousin Layla and my other cousin Tom’s wife, Sonya.
“People do weird shit with fear and adrenaline,” I mumbled, picking at the label on my bottle.
“I’ve got the best mental image of Sonya and Tom’s wedding,” Addy snickered. “That’s got to be the coolest wedding ever.”
Santana seemed to be stuck on some of the more serious details. “How didn’t Sabine and the baby get injured when the car they were in overturned?”
Remy was the one who answered her because I didn’t have a clue. “Statistically speaking, yeah, there should have been issues caused by it. But sometimes people beat the law of average and statistics, and she was one of them. If you looked it up online, you’d find more people who did the same.”
As I picked up a new bottle, Addy shocked me. “I think your family sounds cool. I mean, that’s a lot of weird shit to happen, but I like how they worked their way through it all. Who are you closer to—the Gonzales County group or the Piersville ones?”
I had to think about it. “They all live very close together and work as a unit, but we’ve always been independent from each other. If I’m honest, I don’t know how they manage it, ‘cause I’d be close to killing one of my brothers if I had to live that close to them every day, but it works for them, so that’s what matters. I guess it also helps in the long run because when shit’s gone down, they’ve all had each other close.”