Page 110 of Chasing Blue

“He. I’ve got another boy. We’ve got a boy. Finn’s got a little brother. I can’t fuck—shit—believe it.”

“Bad words, Daddy. No say bad words,” the girls instantly stop bickering over remotes and say above the sound of Drake blaring from the telly.

“Sorry, Princesses,” Jack tells them as they both nod their heads in time to the music.

Finn and Ava moved in with us six months ago as they attempt to save a deposit to buy their own place, and music seems to constantly be playing in one room or another.

“Beat drop,” Aisha shouts as the music changes, and the girls both bend their knees, their little bums sticking out as they bounce to the beat on my bed.

I give Finn a look, who I know is the one to teach them the term, but he just winks at me. Drake is replaced by Harry Styles, and both girls instantly become still, Jazzy covering her face with her hands.

“What you doing, Jazz?” Ava asks with a smile.

“No,” is the only response we get from Jazz.

“Is that your boyfriend?” Ava asks.

“No,” we get from Jazz again.

“What?” Jack asks.

“Jazzy loves Harry,” Ava sings.

“Noooo,” Jazzy replies.

“No,” Aisha says. “Sha Sha love him.”

“What the actual . . .” Jack starts. “Sorry, girls, Harry likes his women older, he’s Mummy’s,” I interrupt.

“I’ll fight ya,” Ava says. “He’s been mine since I was about eleven.”

“What the actual fu . . . ar out?” Jack stumbles.

“No bad words, Daddy,” we all tell him as the door to my room opens, and my dad and Scott come through it. As often happens when we’re all together, I feel the very gentle brush of what feels like fingertips over the top of my head and the whisper of a breath against my cheek.

Jack instantly turns to me and smiles.

“They’re here,” he says, doing his best Poltergeist impersonation.

“Which one?” I ask.

“All three of them,” he says with a wink before again kissing my temple, then standing to go in for cuddles and back slaps from my dad and his.