Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 82201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Hallie pounced as soon as we were alone. “Can I hold her now, Daddy? Please?”
“In a moment, baby girl,” Ash chuckled. “Let’s get her out to the truck. You’ll be right next to her car seat.”
I leaned in and kissed his cheek, then peered down at Lily, who was superfocused on grabbing at Ash’s thumb.
Fucking adorable.
“Did youse settle on a place for lunch?” Ash asked.
“Dylan requested McDonald’s,” I said.
“All right, sounds good. I could go for seventeen cheeseburgers and a good cry.”
Fuck, him and me both. But we were in the homestretch now. In a few days, we’d be back in our house, full of life, four kids—four freaking kids! It was indescribably daunting, but my heart had never been so full.
You’re the one who taught me you can say a lot with very few words. That night at the hotel, for instance. You and I stepped outside to the parking lot once the kids were asleep. We were both shaken. We hugged the hell out of each other and just processed. Everything was official, and we could start to relax.
We had our big family.
When you sniffled and cleared your throat, I kissed your scruffy cheek and brushed my thumb under your eyes. You did the same thing for me. Then we smiled, and we shook our heads, and we let out a chuckle, because…holy fuck, we were parents again, and could we believe it?
Forehead to forehead.
Exhale.
“I love you so much.”
“I love you too, baby.”
CHAPTER 7
Four years ago
Badlands National Park
Ash Riley
“I’m so tired, Dad,” Hallie complained. “That was the longest hike ever.”
I came to a stop before I opened the door to the visitor center. “Okay, jump up.” I had Lily strapped to my front; I could handle a nine-year-old on my back.
Ten. She’s fucking ten now.
Unbelievable. Time flew.
“We can skip the next one if you’d like,” Nate offered.
“Um, no!” Hallie suddenly looked horrified, not that it stopped her from jumping up to piggyback ride me. “I wanna see the prairie dogs so much.”
As she’d reminded us approximately two hundred times since we’d left Virginia.
Maybe Nate was right. Maybe we shouldn’t buy an RV. We’d rented one this time, and…
I don’t know, man.
To me, it did make sense—because we loved our road trips, we didn’t have to worry about hotels, it was way more comfortable, and I loved having everyone close. But we were…so close. It’d taken us four days to drive to South Dakota, during which we’d survived two family wars and what would now be known as The Forgotten Diaper Incident of 2016.
Yup, I was the dumbass who’d forgotten one of Lily’s used diapers in the RV while we had spent half a day at an indoor waterpark.
Turned out you didn’t need blistering summer heat for a shitty diaper to stink up an RV good and proper. It worked in April too.
“Dylan, can you grab Micah’s hand, please?” Nate requested. “It’s packed in here.”
Uh, yeah, that was one way of putting it. Was everyone out camping with their family this weekend?
First things first. The whole family went to hunt down the spot where we could put a stamp in our National Parks Passport, a tradition we’d started a few years ago when we’d taken Dylan and Hallie to Shenandoah.
“Daddy…” Micah withdrew from Dylan and plastered himself to Nate’s thigh. No wonder. He didn’t do well with crowds unless he could be carried.
Hallie slid down my back, wanting to check out souvenirs, so I told her to stay where we could see her.
“I can go with her,” Dylan said.
“Thanks, buddy.” I ruffled his hair, and it made Lily bounce and babble, while pointing to Dylan’s head.
I chuckled and kissed what little hair she had. “I swear, you’re gonna grow up and become a hairdresser, princess.”
She was obsessed.
Sometimes, it hurt a fuckload. The girl could grab a fistful of hair and yank for all she was worth.
“Hell no!” Dylan widened his eyes and escaped Lily’s clutches.
I grinned and rejoined Nathan and Mikey. They’d found the rubber stamp station.
But then when you got to the camping ground, set up your grill, the sun had set, and everyone was doing their own thing, I couldn’t imagine anything better than owning an RV to travel the country.
While Nate manned the grill to make his specialty—sliced hamburger patty in a hot dog bun—Hallie and I prepared the foldable table and chairs. Dylan was showing Mikey some beetle on the ground, and Lily was cooing to herself in the stroller.
“It builds its home in bison crap,” Dylan said.
Mikey scrunched his nose and looked up at his brother. “In poop?”
I smiled to myself and headed into the RV to grab condiments and paper plates.
This was the fucking life.
Once the table was set, I walked over to Nate and kissed his shoulder.
“You know we’re buying an RV, right?”