Once she had her hair out of the way, Lou grinned at me and it felt like a reward. “Thanks.” She took her beer back. “Are they playing nice?”

Bay looked affronted. “Of course we were.” He splayed a hand on his chest. “I am the embodiment of kindness and…”

Lou grinned around the lip of her beer bottle. “You can’t even finish that sentence.”

“I can’t.” He shrugged. “How you doing over there, Declan—you overwhelmed yet?”

I tore my eyes off of Lou’s mouth. “A little, but it’s…nice.” And it was. Their family was the good kind of overwhelming. Everyone was laughing, hugging, talking. The pure joy they all felt together made me want to bounce on my toes. This was a bonded family, and for a moment I felt a longing so deep that I thought I might break in two.

“Yeah,” Lou said, “they can be a little much at first.” She smiled at me then, and fuck me, she lit up when she smiled like that. I gripped my beer tighter, because for a second I was concerned that I was going to drop it. I buried the flash of attraction deep. Roommates and sex were a tricky combo at the best of times, and this wasn’t the best of times. This was supposed to be a fresh start. I needed to make good choices.

I corralled my brain back on track. What had we been talking about? Right. I took in the crowd. “A little much can be pretty great.”

Lou nodded. “Proof that good things can come out of crap situations.” She tipped her nose up. “Obviously, I’m a gift to Bay in every conceivable way. Someone had to keep him in line until Astrid and Tova showed up.”

He poked her side and she yelped. “You’re such a shit.”

A passing aunt playfully tweaked his ear. “Language.”

I was curious now, but not sure my questions would be welcomed. “Can I ask?” I waved my bottle back and forth at them. “How this happened? Or is that a terrible question? Feel free to tell me to fuck off.”

The same aunt came back, her hands full of plates, but she still managed to tweak my ear, though she was smiling. “Language.”

I dipped my head. “Sorry.”

“Busted.” Bay snickered as Savannah squealed and grabbed a fistful of his shirt; without even looking at her he began to bounce her on his hip, much to her delight.

“You’ve met my mom.” Lou pointed at Jory and then to the woman who had been introduced to me as Mama Ami, a delicate-looking Filipinx woman directing several large people to do her bidding with the swift and absolute authority that a military general would envy. “That’s Bay’s mom. She was married to an asshole named Gerald.”

Bay took over the story. “When she was pregnant with me, she discovered that Gerald had a girlfriend. Mom kicked Gerald out and told him she wanted nothing to do with him. While she was piling his stuff together to burn on the lawn, she found a printout of Jory’s ultrasound.”