“There are children present,” Ty says. “God, man, have you no shame?”

“Is this a sex thing?” Izzie asks. “Because if it is, I never want that to happen to me. It looks terrible.”

“That’s our baby momma,” I blurt out, trying to get the attention off me. “I knocked her up real good with my superhuman sperm.”

Otter sighs next to me, like he’s extraordinarily put out. He can be such a drama queen sometimes.

The Kid’s eyes bulge. “She’s your what?”

“Surprise,” I say, doing jazz hands for reasons I don’t quite understand.

“Is this what it’s normally like here?” Izzie asks him. “Because if it is, I know what I want to do my thesis on when I get to college.” At least she isn’t crying anymore.

“You did what?” Ty demands, like he’s starting to get a little angry.

“I didn’t actually sleep with her,” I say, trying to defuse the situation. “She’s our surrogate.”

His face stutters a little bit. “Your surrogate. Since when?”

“I’m twenty-two weeks along,” Megan says cheerfully, like she’s completely incapable of reading a room. Which, to be fair, she probably is. I told Otter after we’d met with her for the second time that I thought she lived in a bubble where everything was perfect and wonderful all the time and that I assumed she skipped everywhere she went.

“Yeah,” Otter had said. “I think she’ll do too.”

Because he’d known exactly what I was trying to say. She’s just… happy, one of those people with the very rare quality of never letting anything get them down. It should be annoying, but it works for her. Add in the fact that she’s essentially giving us everything we could have asked for, and Otter and I practically worship the ground she walks on. I’ve never seen her upset or angry about anything.

And even now, in the face of an awkwardly tense moment, she’s smiling and earnest, like she doesn’t care (or possibly get) that this might end up being one gigantic clusterfuck of a situation.

“Six months,” the Kid repeats. “You’ve known about this for almost six months. And when were you planning on telling me?”

“Today,” Otter says calmly. “We were planning on telling everyone today. No one knew, Kid, aside from Megan, Bear, and me.”

“And you thought it’d be a good idea to invite her here now?” the Kid asks incredulously. “With everything that’s happening?”

“Tyson,” Dom warns. “You might want to take a step back and cool off.”

“Actually,” I say, grinding my teeth together. “Megan, can you do me a favor and take Izzie into the kitchen? I think JJ didn’t eat all the cookies, and I’m pretty sure Izzie would want one. Dom, can you help them out?”

Dom looks like he’s going to argue, but Otter shakes his head at him, and he sighs, hoisting Ben a little higher. “Mustelidae,” Ben mutters in that flat voice of his. “Ursidae.”