Page 24 of Ghost of You (Haunted Souls #24)

Several days later…

“Happy Birthday, dear Lizbet! Happy Birthday to you!” Everyone sang to the birthday girl, whose mouth was smeared in orange frosting.

Lizbet started to cry when Jude pulled the cake away from her.

“Welcome to the terrible twos,” Ronan said, grabbing cake plates, while Jude sliced up the Nemo cake. “Here you go, Lizzy B!” He set the first piece of cake in front of the birthday girl, who dug in with both hands. Soon all of the kids were served. Cope ran around the table scooping the ice cream.

Jude took a piece of cake and was taking a bite when Ronan burst out laughing. He hauled Fitzgibbon into his arms and started dancing him around the kitchen.

“Do I even want to know what this is about?” Jude asked, when Ronan let Fitz go.

“You definitely do!” Ronan said, slapping Fitz on the shoulder.

“Are you getting promoted? Don’t tell me Cisco’s stepping down and you’re taking his place with Ronan taking yours?” Jude knew Ronan would be a kiss ass captain.

“This is better than that!” Fitz laughed.

“Oh! Ronan’s leaving.” Jude swiped a hand over his brow. “Phew! Imagine how much more we’ll get done when we don’t have to listen to his whining.”

“I don’t whine.” Ronan rolled his eyes. “I’m just dramatic.”

Jude didn’t have the time or the energy to debate the point with Ronan at the moment, but he would definitely circle back later. “Okay, so what’s the news?”

“Jace and I are going to be fathers again.” Fitzgibbon grinned happily.

“What?” Jude laughed. He hugged Fitzgibbon the same way Ronan had. “I thought you were undecided about having another baby.”

“Jace is retiring from the Tremont Street Mission.” Fitz sounded as shocked as Jude felt.

“You’re kidding!” Jude couldn’t believe his ears. He figured the only way Jace would ever leave the shelter was in a body bag.

“It’s going to take a few months for him to get everything settled. He’ll still serve on the board , but that won’t take up the kind of time he was devoting to it before.” Fitz shook his head in obvious disbelief.

“Congrats, Fitzy, that’s really great news.” Jude felt almost jealous. With Lizbet firmly in the toddler stage, he wouldn’t mind having another baby of his own to cuddle.

“What’s even better is that I can keep working. I’ll take time off when the baby comes, but we’ll still be the Three Musketeers.”

“Are you going to go the surrogate route or are you going to adopt?” Jude asked.

“We’re going to adopt. We’re working on our application now. We’ve kept up our foster parent certification, so that should make things a little easier, but we’ll see what happens.”

“That’s great news.” Jude couldn’t have been more thrilled for his friends.

“I want you both to promise me something.” Fitz looked back and forth between Ronan and Jude.

“Anything! Name it,” Ronan said. Jude nodded his agreement.

“If Cope or Ten get a vision about this, don’t tell us. We want all of this to happen organically by surprise.”

“You got it,” Jude agreed. He had no doubt that any information Cope did get would be shared with Ten, and vice versa. It was going to be hard with four people knowing the secret, but that was a worry for another day.

“If you need help with Aurora and sibling rivalry, I’ve got you. We went through it with Everly when Ezzie was born.”

“I started seeing a therapist a few weeks back to talk out my feelings on adopting another child,” Fitz paused, as if he were expecting Jude or Ronan to offer their two cents.

“We’re going to move on to telling Aurora and everything that comes along with that now that our decision has been made, but the two of you will be my first phone calls when jealousy rears its head. ”

“Prezzies, Dada!” Lizbet shouted from her throne.

“Yes, princess!” Jude bowed and headed for his daughter. The pile of presents in the living room was taller than Lizzy B herself. He wiped his daughter’s mouth before pulling her out of the high chair. The other kids ran ahead, while Jude snuggled his daughter. “I love you, little girl.”

“Ya ooo!” Lizbet said, and pressed a sloppy kiss to Jude’s cheek.

“Did you just say, ‘I love you?’” Jude couldn’t believe his ears.

“Ya ooo, Dada!” Lizbet set her hands on either side of Jude’s face. “Prezzies!”

“Let’s go open your presents!” Jude set Lizbet down and watched her run to the pile of gifts her friends and family brought. There were almost as many kids as presents and with one more on the way, their family was growing again.

After losing both of his parents when he was a child, Jude never imagined being part of a loud, raucous, amazing family like this one. As far as he was concerned, the more, the merrier.

THE END