followed while Stan tied the balloons to the back of a kitchen stool.
Ned was bending over the coffee table, studying something. She moved closer to get a look.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Oh, uh, I was looking at some scrapbooks,” Arnie muttered uncomfortably.
Stan chuckled and gave her a knowing look. “Made him sleep on the sofa, did you?”
“Shut up, Stanford,” Arnie grumbled. A second later, his cheeks flushed with a shade of embarrassment.
Summer wedged herself between Ned and Arnie. She looked down at the open album. A picture she didn’t recognize made her do a double take.
Her eyes rose to meet Arnie’s fierce stare. He mumbled, “It’s a picture of my mom. Ari looks like her.”
Gobsmacked into silence, she reached for the picture and looked at Ned for confirmation.
“After we found out about Arianne, I gave him the picture because anyone can see how much alike they are.”
Alike? Shit, they were almost twins. She thought the baby looked like her daddy, but it turned out, she was a close copy of her paternal grandmother.
Emotion hit her broadside. Yesterday, it was just she and Ari. With her dad gone, all she had to look forward to were brief cameos by Reed. But when she wrote in the baby’s first year journal, today would stand out forever as the day they gained a family. A big family with people who cared and were eager to be involved.
In one hand, she held a picture of Arnie’s beloved mother, and in the other hand, she held the card Ned included with the flowers. She placed a kiss upon the card and pressed the photograph of Lianne Wanamaker above her heart.
Bending over the album, she placed both inside, gently closed it, and straightened, looking back and forth between both men.
“I’ll make a special page for Ari’s grandmother,” she told them in a hushed, reverent voice.
Ned cleared his throat. “May I meet Lianne’s granddaughter now? It would mean an awful lot to me, Summer, if you’d let me hold her.”
The request jolted her into full awareness. “Of course,” she assured Ned. “But she’s still sleeping, and I have to get dressed, so if you want to make a coffee run, now’s the time.”
Stan held his phone in the air. “Already on it. Postmates is on the way with breakfast and a box of coffee.”
As Ned and Stan discussed the pros and cons of home delivery, she moved closer to Arnie and met his gaze. There was so much emotion swirling between them it was a wonder either of them could function normally.
“Be a good baby daddy and put the kettle on while I go get changed.” She said the words with just a touch of lighthearted sarcasm.
He grinned and let her see how relieved he was. Men were so easy sometimes.
“I am yours to command, madam.”
She arched a brow and got cocky with her reply. “Madam? For real? We’ve been over this before.”
“Oh, right, right.” He chuckled and bent close to her ear. “You prefer a more traditional, uh, submissive role.”
She stomped her foot, made damn sure no one else could hear, and snarled, “I wouldn’t call last night the behavior of a submissive.”
He straightened like a private in the presence of a general. “Last night, I overstepped. It wasn’t you.”
Now wasn’t the time for a disagreement about which of them took home the trophy of responsibility.
“I won’t be long,” she muttered and then ran for cover in the bathroom.
“You look like shit,” Stan teased as their dad dealt with the delivery guy.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, for starters, you took a chair to the face yesterday, wrestled with a she-devil, and if that gigantic hickey on your neck is any indication, you also got in the ring for a couple of rounds with a heavyweight.”
There was no good reason to act dumb, so he didn’t. “It was one round and probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, so feel free to gloat.”
“Too soon, huh?”
He tapped the end of his nose. “Bull’s-eye.”
“Ouch. Have you got a cleanup plan for this mess?”
He shrugged. “I’m currently considering my options, few as they may be.”
“Please tell me you came prepared with jewelry.”
“What?” Arnie still had the sunflower bracelet he brought back from London, but he hadn’t given thought to anything else.
“Dude.” His brother chortled. “That sexy babe gave birth to your kid. I suggest you put a ring on it and fast.”
“A ring? Oh, you mean an engagement ring?”
Carrying a gigantic stack of bakery boxes tied together with twine and a box