He’s got a smirk on his face and a glimmer in his eye, and his baby boy is staring me down in a way that screams I know something you don’t.
Flynn shifts next to me as we approach the last fifteen seconds of his count, and even without him saying anything, I know he’s feeling the nerves too.
This fucker is about to tie this shit up. I can hardly believe it.
The buzzer sounds, and the dad climbs down and picks up his baby’s arm to high-five it. The attendant presents him with a big, stuffed bear, and Flynn groans, ending the sound with the words, “Fuck me.”
I nod. Tell me about it.
Steely-eyed and more determined than ever, I scoop up the fish, and we turn from the booth and head down the road to the main stage. We need something we know we can win. Something that’s a shoo-in. We need a tiebreaker and a clincher in one, and as soon as I spot the banner draped across the top of the performance platform, I know exactly what it is.
“Flynn, look.” I point. “Over there.”
He follows the line of my finger and then looks back to me, perplexed. “A hot dog eating contest?”
“It’s the perfect way to put this competition to rest.”
Flynn scoffs. “If you’re the one doing it, maybe. I suffer from far too much indigestion. Dais’ll kill me if I come home all fucked up.”
I frown. “Well, shit. I was planning on meeting Maria for dinner later, too. I can’t eat, like, fifty hot dogs.”
Right then, as if he’s been flying below the radar, Reebok appears directly in front of us, meeting our eyes over his shoulder as he adds his name to the hot dog eating sign-up list.
“Fuck, Flynn,” I mutter under my breath at the sight. “He’s throwing down the gauntlet. What are we going to do?”
“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” he says simply, shifting Roman to his shoulders, pulling out his phone, and typing resolutely. “We’re going to call in some goddamn reinforcements. There’s a reason Wendy Winslow had so many fucking kids, and we’re about to use it.”
“You’re texting Jude?” I ask, instantly understanding where he’s going with this.
“Has he ever turned down a bet? Or lost a challenge, for that matter?”
Exactly. “He’s the home run we need.”
A few seconds later, Flynn smiles, holding up the phone with Jude’s response for me to see.
Jude: Say no more. I’ll be there in ten, ready to swallow some meat sticks.
I laugh. “I’ve never been surer of two things. One, our brother is deeply disturbed. And two, we got this in the bag.”
Flynn nods. “Have to take the good with the bad.”
“The highs with the lows.”
“The outsourcing with the circumstances.”
“The win with the Jude.”
Flynn jerks up his chin. “And we can just chill with our babies.”
His casual comment makes me still, but it’s not long before I start again. Izzy may not be mine biologically, but technically, she’s not Maria’s either.
And I’ve never seen two people love a little girl as much as we do.
Maybe, just maybe, these stupid little details don’t matter. At least, not to me.
Now, I just have to figure out if they matter to Maria.
Maria
I look at the last message I received from Remy to double-check that I’m at the right place.
It’s safe to say, after waking up a little hungover, the adrenaline that came with the realization of what last night entailed and dealing with Claudia’s inability to schedule showings at the correct time, I could’ve easily gotten my wires crossed.
Remy: Meet us at the Capital Grille around 6. We’ll be coming from Wall Street Station.
With one glance at the sign on the restaurant in front of me, I verify that I am correct.
And a quick peek at my watch later, I realize I’m on time too.
I peer in the direction Remy said he’d be coming from, and I’m finding strangely that, while I enjoy the freedom to do what I need to do without Izzy, I miss her immensely in the time away. I want a snuggle and a sniff of her fresh baby scent and the feel of her warm skin as she nuzzles under my chin.
I miss my girl.
It’s an oddly comforting reminder of my sister and everything she was, and the reason it’s odd is because it doesn’t make me feel sad. It makes me feel hope and connection and love and…lucky.
I could have lost Isabella and Oliver and had nothing of them in return. Instead, I was given the extraordinary gift of having a piece of each of them with me all day, every day.