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A half hour later, Mom is gone and it’s just the two of us, sitting on the couch together, holding sleeping babies.
Bug comes through the back door, much earlier than curfew. She looks around. “Where is everyone?”
“Allie fired the nanny. Well, she made her mom do it.”
She plops next to Asher on the sofa. “Thank goodness. She was weird. She never wanted me to hold the twins. It’s like she thought I was doing it wrong.”
Asher puts Christina into her arms. “Well, you’ll be holding them a lot more now. I hope that’s okay. Because not only did Allie fire the nanny, she put her foot down about so many people coming to help. One person at a time, and nobody here after dinner.”
Bug looks excited. And happier than she’s looked since we brought the babies home. “Are you going to let me change diapers?”
He snort-chuckles.“Let you?How else do you think you’re going to become their babysitter?”
Bug smiles proudly. At fourteen, I’m not sure she’s capable of handling two of them at one time. Heck, I’m still not sureIam since I’ve never been allowed to try. But it’s something I’m looking forward to figuring out.
I glance around the room and smile big.
“What is it?” Asher asks.
“I was just thinking how this is the first time in two weeks we’ve been truly alone. Our family. With no doctors or nurses or nannies or grandmas or friends. It’s just us.”
“Our family,” Darla says, as if trying out the phrase. “I think I like being part of a family.”
“Hey.” Asher looks offended. “You and I were a family before all this.”
She shrugs. “This is different. It’s more real. Better somehow.”
I smile. Because just a few months ago, I’d have sworn she’d never want anything to do with being part of any family that included me.
“Bug?” I ask.
“Yeah?”
“Will you be my maid of honor?”
“Me?” She looks confused. “What about Mia? She’s your best friend.”
“She is my best friend, and she’ll be a bridesmaid. But you’re about to become my daughter. That’s much more important. I hope you don’t mind that I think of you that way.”
“You think of me as your daughter?”
“I have three kids, Bug.” I glance up at the mantle where Christopher’s urn now sits. “Actually, I have four.”
Asher elbows her.
“Yeah,” she says. “Being your maid of honor would be cool.”
“I think it’ll be pretty awesome too. Thanks, Bug.”
“So what now?” she asks. “Are you going to put me on cooking duty?”
“Eventually.” Asher’s face breaks out into a grin. “But not quite yet. Sarah may have fired the nanny, but she immediately turned around and hired a housekeeper to come three times a week and a chef to cook our dinners Monday through Friday.”
Bug’s jaw drops and her eyes go wide. “I willneverget used to being part of a rich family.”
“Good. You shouldn’t,” he says. “Because we’re not going to forget who we are or where we came from.”
“Will you still pay for Harvard if I get in?”