Madigan loved getting together with her family, and tonight most of her cousins and closest friends had joined them. She sat by their bonfire, between her parents and Chloe and Maverick, soaking it all in. Chloe was sitting between Maverick’s legs, her back against his chest. Marly and Evie shared a blanket and a pizza. Tank’s wife, Leah, sat in a chair with a bag of dill pickle chips balanced on her very pregnant belly. Zander was sitting in the sand playing his guitar, and just down the beach, Blaine and Baz were chatting with two women. Tank and Zeke were digging for buried treasure by the dunes with Junie and Rosie. Little did the girls know that their uncle Zeke had come to the beach earlier and buried elaborate treasure maps and goodies for them to find.

“Whoever came up with these should win some kind of award,” Leah said with a slightly Southern drawl as she popped another chip into her mouth. She was uniquely beautiful. Her mother was white, and her father was black. She was petite, with a wild mass of brownish-red corkscrew curls, thick dark brows over soft hazel eyes, a slightly flat nose, heavily freckled fair skin, and full lips, which Tank was always kissing.

“I don’t know how you can eat those.” Evie, a vivacious brunette, wrinkled her nose.

Leah snagged another chip and made a show of biting into it. “Mm.”

Evie pretended to gag, and Madigan and the others laughed.

“You do have funny cravings,” Madigan pointed out. “Last month it was peanut butter on oranges.”

“It’s not me. It’s this mammoth child I’m carrying.” Leah rubbed her belly. “I swear it has Tank’s appetite.”

“When I was pregnant, I ate everything in sight and then some,” Ginger said as she and her husband, Conroy, joined them by the fire. “I gained a lot of weight, but it was worth it.”

“And every pound looked and felt stunning on you.” Conroy flashed a dimple-revealing grin and lowered himself into a chair. Ginger looked at him adoringly as he took her hand, pulling her into a kiss.

“Enjoy it while you can, honey,” Ginger said to Leah. “Once that baby is born, you’ll be so busy feeding and changing it, you’ll forget to feed yourself.”

“Tank won’t let her starve,” Madigan’s mother chimed in, tucking her shoulder-length mahogany hair behind her ear. “He dotes on Leah the way Preacher doted on me when I was pregnant.”